Olivia In Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night, a play by William Shakespeare, is about a love triangle between Duke Orsino, Viola, and the Countess Olivia where Orsino is trying to woo Olivia, who refuses his advances because she is mourning the death of her brother; Viola is in love with Orsino, but can’t show her affection since she is disguised as a man; and Olivia is in love with Viola disguised as Cesario. After all sorts of different complications getting in between their love for each other, Olivia marries Viola’s brother, Sebastian who was believed to be dead, and Viola and Orsino marry each other. I usually don’t enjoy reading plays, but Twelfth Night is an exception. It is witty, funny, and has a wonderful romantic plot despite its hard-to-follow Shakespearean …show more content…
What I didn’t enjoy about Twelfth Night was the Shakespearean text; which made it somewhat difficult for me to follow the play and made it so I had to go online and research the meanings of different lines and parts throughout the play. Olivia was my favorite character in Twelfth Night due to the fact that she seemed the most well rounded characters out of the play. Viola was the only one in the love triangle whose love seemed genuine. Orsino was quickly able to switch from loving Olivia to Viola in a matter of seconds and Olivia was easily able to love Sebastian instead of Cesario/Viola without even flinching. Viola is also arguably the most practical in all Shakespearean plays. She is in need of protecting herself in Illyria and thus disguises herself as a man. Viola also went with her better judgement and stayed a man until it was the right time to reveal her true identity. Viola dressing up as a man and fooling everybody into thinking so really brings out the point that what you see is not always the