Viola, a shipwreck survivor who has no where else to go finds herself lost in an unfamiliar city, with no protection. After losing her twin brother to the shipwreck, or so she thought, she and a few others land in the city of Illyria. As dreadful as it may seem, her last resort for safety on her own is to crossdress as a gentleman to get around. She disguises herself, as an alter ego she calls, “Cesario”. Violas actions speaks volumes once she encounters the mix-ups in Illyria. She finds herself falling for the Duke, a Lord, Royalty, whom goes by the name of Orsino. In the play, Viola slowly realises that her idea to change her identity to a man wasn’t the brightest idea to come up with.
In the beginning of the play, Viola is just getting …show more content…
In all of Illyria, no one knows that Viola is a woman, but herself. Olivia is still head over heels for Viola well… “Cesario”. How this happened? It started when Orsino requested “Cesario” to arrive to Olivia home and inform her that the Duke is crushing on her. “Cesario” then explains how she would woo Olivia if she was the Duke, and blown Olivia away with her “boyish” charms. In the text, it reads, “If I did love you in my master's flame, with such a suffering, such a deadly life, in your denial I would find no sense; I would not understand it...Make me a willow cabin at your gate, and call upon my soul within the house; write loyal cantons of contemned love and sing them loud even in the dead of night; halloo your name to the reverberate hills and make the babbling gossip of the air cry out 'Olivia!' O, you should not rest between the elements of air and earth, but you should pity me!” (Shakespeare, 1.5) “Cesario” won her over with that, and now have another thing on her list to worry about. Violas intentions were not to get Olivia to fall in love with her, but to fall in love with the Duke even though THAT wasn’t her intentions either. Just another reason why Viola should have realised that dressing up as “Cesario” was a bad idea from the
In the beginning of the play, Viola is just getting …show more content…
In all of Illyria, no one knows that Viola is a woman, but herself. Olivia is still head over heels for Viola well… “Cesario”. How this happened? It started when Orsino requested “Cesario” to arrive to Olivia home and inform her that the Duke is crushing on her. “Cesario” then explains how she would woo Olivia if she was the Duke, and blown Olivia away with her “boyish” charms. In the text, it reads, “If I did love you in my master's flame, with such a suffering, such a deadly life, in your denial I would find no sense; I would not understand it...Make me a willow cabin at your gate, and call upon my soul within the house; write loyal cantons of contemned love and sing them loud even in the dead of night; halloo your name to the reverberate hills and make the babbling gossip of the air cry out 'Olivia!' O, you should not rest between the elements of air and earth, but you should pity me!” (Shakespeare, 1.5) “Cesario” won her over with that, and now have another thing on her list to worry about. Violas intentions were not to get Olivia to fall in love with her, but to fall in love with the Duke even though THAT wasn’t her intentions either. Just another reason why Viola should have realised that dressing up as “Cesario” was a bad idea from the