Orsino's Love

Improved Essays
From line 80 - 126 in Act II Scene IV, it continues to show Duke Orsino suffering the torments of Olivia’s unrequited feelings. It begins as he speaks to Viola/Cesario of his love for the countess of Illyria, and all of its imperfections. However, Viola does not completely approve of Orsino's cynical view of women, as he argues that there can be no comparison between the kind of love that a man has for a woman and vice-versa.
In the start, Cesario reminds Orsino that Olivia has denied his confessions many times already, but refuses to accept that she is not romantically interested in him. Which suggests that perhaps Orsino's love is selfish because of his total disregard for Olivia's feelings making it seem like he is more lovesick with the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In consideration of Viola portraying herself as a man named Cesario, her role-playing is very complex and requires more from her than what might be perceived. In Viola’s case, she has to maneuver being able to talk to Olivia knowing that she is the competition for Orsino’s love, as well as being able to present herself to the person she loves as a man who does not have any attraction other than that of a servant. For Viola’s manipulation of the other character’s in the play to be successful, she must be able to follow some of the same patterns as Feste, including noting the mood of Orsino or Viola, his or her type of character, and the setting that takes place when Viola performs her role as Cesario. Ultimately, Viola’s plan to end up happily with Orsino relies heavily on…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He depicts homosexual love in Twelfth Night as the strongest and truest love, by comparing it to the fleeting love based on beauty that Orsino feels for Olivia and Olivia feels for Olivia’s brother Sebastian. In doing so, Shakespeare attacks popular beliefs against homosexuality at that time. A paradigm of such love occurs between Antonio, a sailor, and Viola’s brother, Sebastian. Antonio rescued Sebastian from the shipwreck and, while he was nursing him back to good health, fell deeply in love with him. Antonio confesses his love after bravely following Sebastian to Orsino’s court, despite having many enemies there.…

    • 1503 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Back to the statement starting with, “O”; Orsino’s way of bringing up love at first sight, this idea of it only took him to see her once to be sold on her. Orsino then says, “Methought she purged the air of pestilence” (I.I.21); smell is brought into play which is the smell of the world and how simply in first seeing Olivia, Orsino believed that the smell of the world became better. In order for a person to cause the smell in the world to become better he/she must have some power. Thus, in Orsino’s mind Olivia holds power leading into him saying, “That instant was I turned into a hart/ And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds”…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the play Olivia has just lost both her father and brother, which leaves her extremely depressed and not wanting to be with anyone. Meeting Viola, or in this case Cesario, she falls deeply in love with the character. This causes issues for Viola because the comedic love triangle is formed with her right in the middle, because Orisno wants Viola to help Olivia marry him. Olivia finds Viola very compelling and attractive, she literally loves everything about him and declares it, “Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit, do give thee fivefold blazon (1.5.297-298).” Viola uses this to her advantage to convince the Duke to love her over Olivia.…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As time went on, Viola and Prince Orsino became very good friends. Lo and behold, Viola realized that she was falling in love with the prince! There were two problems with this idea. First, Prince Orsino thought that Viola was a man and second, Prince Orsino was going to get married to Princess Olivia of Verona. 8.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this play, Orsino originally plans to marry Olivia. Unfortunately, Olivia loves Cesario and Cesario loves Orsino. While Cesario spends a majority of her time working in Orsino’s court, she gains a noble amount of respect in a quick three months. When Sebastian unexpectedly makes his appearance in the final scene of the play, the truth behind Cesario’s identity is revealed. Orsino understands that Cesario is actually a woman, Viola, and is now able to have a relationship with her.…

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Malvolio Deception Essay

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Malvolio is mistaken by Olivia as a mad man because of his strange behavior and she is also seems confused to why he is acting that way whereas the audience who is aware of the reason behind Malvolio’s behavior will find this funny as Malvolio has no clue about the foolish impression he is placing upon Olivia as he actually intends to impress her. Orsino is another character who displays self- deception through the way he expresses his love, which is both exaggerated and hyperbolic which gives the sense that his love is self indulgent and that he is drawn to an emotion which he believes is…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In particular, Shakespeare demonstrates this concept through the characters Orsino, Malvolio and Viola. To begin, Orsino is shown to be madly in love with Olivia, who unfortunately has no romantic feelings towards him. Despite this reality, Orsino constantly sends messages through his attendants to Olivia in hope to receive a positive reply. Likewise, Orsino strictly orders his newest attendant, Cesario to “leap all civil bounds, /Rather…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Trickery In Twelfth Night

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As the play goes on Orsino keeps getting Cesario to go back to Olivia to confess his love even more. Olivia is still in love with Cesario and Viola still loves Orsino. Sir Andrew Aguecheek notices that Olivia really likes Cesario, and Sir Andrew gets upset about this, he ends up writing a letter to Cesario about how he challenges her to have a duel to the death. When they first start Sir Andrew thinks Cesario is a good fighter, and Cesario thinks Sir Andrew is too. But in reality neither of them are.…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Twelfth Night, Duke explains “love,” to be an “appetite,” that he can 't satisfy (Act 1,1-3) another point in the story he calls his desires “fell and cruel hounds,”(Act1, 21). No matter how hard Duke Orsino tries he’s not able to let go of his feelings for Olivia and it hurts him by serving as a constant reminder of something he can’t have. In She’s the Man Viola is in love with the Duke, exactly like in Twelfth Night, and she is not able to have him because he is in love with Olivia,, but Viola does everything in her power to sabotage his attempts at hooking up with Olivia. Olivia is actually in love with the male version of Viola , same as in Twelfth Night.…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Olivia In Twelfth Night

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages

    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…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When she uncovers her true character and reveals it to Orsino, he still declares hislove for her: “Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times/Thou never shouldst love woman like to me” (IV.i.279-280). He addresses her as a boy, but later asks to see her in “women’s weeds” (IV.i.286). The uncertainty of her gender goes to prove that gender doesn’t matter when it comes to true love. Orsino loves Viola when she is disguised as a boy and continues to love her when she identifies herself as a woman. The same feelings apply to Olivia, when Sebastian comes to Illyria.…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This soon shifts to surprise and, to a certain degree, horror, as she realizes that Olivia is in fact in love with Cesario; the horror arises from the fact that Viola, as Cesario, is supposed to be wooing Olivia on Orsino’s behalf, not getting her love for herself. To this, Viola…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a result, this scenario suggests that the true nature of love is unreliable as Olivia, a veiled, teary eyed woman in love with grief, quickly has a change of heart and decides instead to pursue Cesario. Furthermore, this situation depicts fickle love as a result of pain, as Olivia quickly switches from loving her brother to loving Cesario in order to rid herself of the heartache caused by her love for her dead brother, and restore the initial euphoria of being in love. In addition, the wavering nature of love is notably amplified towards the conclusion of the play, when Viola and Sebastian’s mistaken identities are clarified and Duke Orsino realizes that Cesario is in fact a woman named Viola, who has fallen in love with him. Orsino then states, “Give me thy hand, / And let me see thee in thy woman’s weeds” (5.1.263-264). In this quotation, Shakespeare proves the inconstant nature of love as a result of pain because Orsino, who was a short time ago desperately longing for Olivia’s love, has suddenly pronounced to marry Viola, whom he has never previously regarded as a potential partner, in order to free himself from the longing and pain that his love for Olivia enforced upon him.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Disguise In Twelfth Night Analysis

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    She can see through other people's disguises or flaws, that not even they are able to spot. Some characters are deceived about their true nature. An example of this is that Orsino sees himself becoming "one self same king" of Olivia's "sweet perfections", fulfilling her sexual desire, thought and feeling ("liver, brain and heart"). He naively believes that he is in love with Olivia when he has never really spoken with…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Superior Essays