Free Essays - Viola and Orsino in Twelfth Night Twelfth Night essays

Viola and Orsino in Twelfth Night

In William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" there are several relationships that develop throughout the play. Among the many characters whose interaction and misunderstanding become the core of the plot, Viola and Orsino have the most significant relationship. The way they interact with one another causes the complex conflict of the play, and as the conflict comes to be more complex the two characters turn from strangers to friends and then to lovers.

In the first Act Viola and Orsino's interaction is on the level of two complete strangers. From the beginning Viola is not honest with Orsino because she disguises herself as a male page named Cesario in order to get close to him. Orsino trusts Viola very quickly and sends Cesario to declare his love for Olivia, the object of his affection. This quick bond and trust for Cesario is the first example of their soon to develop relationship. The mere fact that Orsino trusts Cesario with his message of love is a transition from a stranger to a friend.

In act two the complexity of the relationship is taken to an all new level. Olivia falls in love with the page Cesario, meaning Viola has landed herself in a tight spot between Orsino and Olivia. The newly developed love triangle is now apart of the relationship between Orsino and Viola despite the fact that Orsino knows nothing but the façade Viola has conveniently blinded him with. In scene four of act two there is a very important interaction between Viola and Orsino. She tells him a love story about Cesario's sister the stories purpose however is to pull his attention from Olivia. Viola takes a step in her own interest of love by asking him if he could love another woman if they loved him as much as he loves Olivia. In lines 98-102 of act two scene four there is an example of her trying to persuade him that there are other women about. "Sooth, but you must. Say that some lady as perhaps there is, hath for you as great a pang of heart as you have for Olivia. You can not love her; you tell her so. Must she not then be answered?" Orsino brushes the comment off and says that there is no stronger love than he has for Olivia, but the conversation in itself is a big step in their development into friends from complete strangers. The statement also leaves the audience a back door to a possible aspiring love relationship.

In the fifth and final act the love between Orsino and Viola is now possible because viola reveals that she is in fact a woman and not the male page Cesario.