“That instant I was turned into a hart,
And my desires like fell and cruel hounds
E’er since pursue me”.
This is idea is taken from the Greek legend of Actaeon. In the legend, Actaeon was out hunting when he accidentally saw Diana the God of Hunting naked in the river. She turned him into a stag, and his own hounds killed him.
He also compares love to the sea which is another unusual comparison
“O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou,
That, not withstanding thy capacity,
Receiveth as the sea”.
While Orsino is talking about love all the time, it means that he is not acting as the Duke of Illyria.
When Valentine enters, the audience discover that Orsino has sent him to call on Olivia. If he was in love as he says he is, then he would have visited her himself instead of sending someone else. After Valentine was turned away, he goes on to send Cesario (Viola) because he does not want to risk the embarrassment of not being let in himself.
Valentine tells Orsino what Olivia’s handmaid has told him
“The element itself, till seven years’ heat, Shall not behold her face at ample view; But like a cloistress she will veiléd walk, And water once a day her chamber round With eye-offending brine; all this to season A brother’s dead love, which she would keep fresh And lasting, in her sad remembrance”.
Seven years seems like a long time to mourn her brother, so it makes you wonder if Olivia is just giving Orsino the cold shoulder. If this is her plan it has the complete opposite effect. Orsino thinks that if she would
“Pay this debt of love but to a brother”,
it proves how much she will love him,
“How will she love, when the rich golden shaft Hath killed the flock of all affections else That live in her; when liver, brain, heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied and filled Her sweet perfections with one selfsame king!”
This shows how arrogant Orsino is, that it does not even occur to him that Olivia might not love him.
Orsino can be described as fickle, which is shown in this scene, when after saying give me excess of it when talking about the music, he quickly changes his mind and says enough no more. This characteristic is also shown in Act Two, Scene Four, when he is talking to Cesario (Viola) about love when he is questioning Cesario with, who he loves or has been in love with and she says that the person she loves is older than her. Orsino says that a man should always marry a woman younger than himself because,
“Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Than women’s are”
The first scene builds the audience’s expectations for the rest of the play, they would expect that the play is to be about love, which it is, but they might also get the impression that Orsino and Olivia are going to be the main love story of the play, when they actually only get one scene together, and each of them ends up with another character by the end of the play.
