Starcrossed Lovers In William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Starcrossed (and Crossdressed) Lovers William Shakespeare’s comedic plays often times seem to come across as a heightened language version of the romantic comedies we see in present day. One of the prime examples of this is his play Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Shakespeare uses one of his ever-present techniques of crossdressing to create commotion, that eventually resolves itself and allows the characters to receive a happy ending (at least those who deserve it). A perfect example of this takes place in the third scene of act four of Twelfth Night. Prior to this scene, Olivia has given Sebastian a pearl as a token of her love. However, this is mainly because she believes that Sebastian is Cesario, when in actuality, Cesario is Sebastian’s twin sister Viola dressed as a man. This display of affection leaves Sebastian rather confused, but not in a negative way. He begins to question his sanity along with Olivia’s, as there must be some mistake that lead to this random patch of good luck. …show more content…
Sebastian and Olivia had hardly met, let alone had time for their love to grow. We empathize with Sebastian’s extreme puzzlement, but this does not last very long. He logically concludes she can’t be mad, as she effortlessly takes care of her house and her servants. However, he still is uneasy about the whole situation, as something does not add up.
“Or else the lady’s mad. Yet if ’twere so,
She could not sway her house, command her followers,
Take and give back affairs and their dispatch
With such a smooth, discreet, and stable bearing
As I perceive she does. There’s something in