Most often when watching how someone acts in certain situations or towards other people, an observation can be made about how they may have changed their behaviour depending on the circumstances. If a person is out with their friends, being interviewed for a job, or having dinner with their family, it is unlikely that they had presented themselves the same way in all the situations. The comedy, Twelfth Night or What You Will, by William Shakespeare, tells a story of deception as it follows the protagonist, Viola, who disguises as a man who goes by the name Cesario. The theme of disguise and deception is seen throughout the story in many forms by characters such as Maria, Feste, Sir Toby, as well as others. In William Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth …show more content…
The first use of disguise in the play is Viola’s disguise as a man named Cesario. Viola acquires this disguise by paying off her ship’s captain after becoming shipwrecked in Illyria; she says, “. . . For such disguise as haply shall become / The form of my intent. I’ll serve this Duke; / thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him” (Shakespeare 1.2.54–56). Viola decides to become Cesario for protection; since she is a woman who is all alone in an unfamiliar place with no money. This disguise is necessary to creating the appearance of being male in order to trick Duke Orsino into hiring her and providing her a job that offers her security until she can establish herself as Viola. Maria, Olivia’s assistant, also uses a disguise in the play but not in the same way that Viola had. Maria writes a letter and disguises as Olivia in order to trick Malvolio, another one of Olivia’s servants, into thinking that Olivia is in love with him as a joke. She is able to manipulate Malvolio by using Olivia’s seal on the letter, speaking as Olivia would, and by using her writing which is nearly identical to Olivia’s. By using this disguise in the letter, Maria fools Malvolio into doing embarrassing things by telling him for example, “Remember who commended thy yellow stockings, and wished to see thee ever cross-gartered” (2.5.143–144). Additionally, …show more content…
Since I was in the French-immersion program, my classmates were always the same people every year; so everyone in the class had pressure to get along and fit in the best they could or else the others would ostracize them. The class was split into two main groups; the boys, and the girls. To fit into these groups, people would often say that they all liked the same activities, all found the same things funny, and all got along and were great friends; which was simply not true. I was never part of these groups because I did not have their common interests and did not want to pretend to be interested in the same things that they were. However, I had friends who were in these groups, and outside of school, they would often say that they did not actually like the activities that the rest of the group liked or they did not like someone in the group even though they appeared to be friends with them. It was also common to overhear people talking badly about their friends when they were not in the room while in class. The main reason people used disguises in my school was to fit in with the others; if they did not fit in, their grades were often impacted because the school did all the work in groups. This meant that for projects if someone could not find a group, they would often be put with people that either did not like
In Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, gender identity and alternative sexualities are highlighted through the depiction of different characters and personalities. In the play, Viola disguises herself as a man thereby raising a merry-go-around of relationships that are actually based on a lie rather than actual fact. Viola attracts the attention of Olivia since she thinks that Viola is a man but even more fascinating is the fact that Orsino is attracted to Viola although he thinks that she is a man. In another twist Viola is attracted to Orsino and has fell in love with him although their love cannot exist since Orsino thinks that Viola is a man.
when he gets bored of it then he tells him to stop, just like that.
In Act 3, Scene 1 Olivia tries to court Cesario, disguised Viola, by trying to woo him into falling in love with Olivia. The goal was never reached and inevitably her attempts failed due to conditions that only Olivia knew about it. Once the reading comes across this text, it’s clear that Shakespeare is trying to prove he is breaking the traditional and accepted norms by society by having Cesario, also known as Viola, being what Oliva desires most. Shakespeare appears to use the words and actions a suitor or someone of interest would use or perform for his beloved or desired, but he ensures that the receiving character was in fact, Cesario. Based on cliché theories, Viola should have fallen in love with Olivia so does her character not do so? The intention was not in fact to bend gender roles but to show Shakespeare’s real opinion on how foolish it is for women to try to woo a man into loving her, thus contradicting the idea of him wanting to change the interpretation of his take on gender conformity. This understanding can go on to say that Shakespeare wanted to have a comedic moment that involved a man dressed as a woman, Olivia, tries to get the attention of a woman dressed as a man, also known as Cesario(Lindheim). This unquestionably mocked and made fun of gender roles and stereotypes, making this scene a great example to address.
The play opens with Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, expressing his deep love for the Countess Olivia. Meanwhile, the shipwrecked Viola disguises herself as a man and endeavors to enter the Duke’s service. Although she has rejected his suit, the Duke then employs Viola, who takes the name of Cesario, to woo Olivia for him. As the play continues, Cesario falls in love with the Duke, and Olivia falls in love with Cesario, who is really Viola disguised. Maria, Olivia’s servant woman, desires to seek revenge on Malvolio, Olivia’s steward. “To the delight of Sir Toby, Olivia’s uncle, and his friend Sir Andrew, Maria comes up with a plot to drop love letters supposedly written by Olivia in Malvolio’s path. When she does, they observe him, along with Fabian, another servant, as Malvolio falls for the bait. Believing that Olivia loves him, he makes a fool of himself” (Napierkowski 3).
In Twelfth Night, the character Viola, who cross-dresses as a man named Cesario, is used to show how true love is capable of breaking gender barriers. Viola is an amiable character who has no severe faults. The audience can clearly detect that Viola's love is the purest because unlike Orsino and Olivia, her character's love is not narcissistic and does not jump from one person to the next. In other words, her actions are motivated by deep and abiding passion rather than whimsical choices. Viola's main problem, however, throughout the play is one of identity. Because of her costume, she must be both herself and Cesario. Thi...
After Olivia has her very first conversation with Cesario (Viola), where he tries to woo her for Duke Orsino, she immediately falls in love with him. After Cesario leaves her palace, Olivia says to herself ‘Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit do give thee fivefold blazon. Not too fast; soft, soft. Unless the master were the man. How now? Even so quickly may one catch the plague?’ Here Olivia states that Cesario’s external features are what attract her to him. Her metaphor contains a s...
For example, after Malvolio, Olivia’s servant, was set to believe that she is in love with him, he dresses in colors, keeps smiling, and argues with everyone around him (Act III Scene IV). Such acts offends Olivia and ruins her image as a grieving lady. In addition, another image reveals when Antonio tries to protect Cesario (Viola) thinking that she is his dear Sebastian. After getting arrested, Antonio’s heart breaks when Cesario (Viola) does not recognizes him (IV). In the following scenes, such confusion occurs due to the fact that Viola and Sebastian are twins, and Viola is dressed as a man.
In addition to making the play less interesting, the disguise is also necessary to develop the storyline involving Sebastian, and the confusion that his return creates. It also is vital to the conflict between Olivia and Orsino, which depends on Viola's disguise to keep things exciting. Viola's disguise becomes increasingly more important as the events take place. place. The sand is a sand.
It is also one of the themes in Twelfth Night that the play revolves around as Shakespeare makes it out to be by presenting the character of ‘Caesario’. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare presents the obvious deception of the play that is Viola. Viola’s role in the play is purely based on the ideas of disguise and deception. She initially deceives everyone by disguising herself as a man, ‘Cesario’, in order to serve Orsino. We can see this from the quote, “For such disguise as haply shall become: The form of my intent”.
In Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night or What you Will, the characters are involved in a plot complete with trickery, disguise, and love. Each character is defined not by his or her gender or true identity, but by the role they are forced to take because of the complicated situation that arises. Unlike their gender, the speech the characters give an insight to their true personalities. In the Twelfth Night, the character Duke Orsino uses flowery and over-dramatic language, long poetic sentence structure, and melodramatic metaphors to display his overemotional romantic nature despite the different emotions in his various speeches.
...oth perspectives. They both still being servants are using disguise differently. Malvolio, servant of Olivia and Viola, servant of Orsino, they both have felt love for their masters/boss. They both express it differently, Malvolio loving Olivia uses cheery appearance and Viola loving Orsino hides her love secretly in her disguise. This essay was to prove that disguises and appearance is a symbolic feature for Viola and Malvolio's characters. According to given facts and examples, it was very clear that Viola and Malvolio use disguises as their shield, but they each use it differently.
Twelfth Night takes a creative stab at judging a book by its cover. The topic of gender is one of the most discussed/enacted in the play, in which a female character who goes by the name of Viola disguises herself as a man. She doesn't really gauge how long she will have to take on this persona (of Cesario), and this results in a few major misunderstandings. Viola actually falls in love herself with Orsino (who fancies Olivia). The only thing is that she can't tell him that she loves him only because Orsino thinks she's a man. Meanwhile, Olivia falls in love with Viola (while under the guise as Cesario). Orsino talks about how beautiful Viola... I man Cesario looks, which actually makes it seem as though he is more attracted to Viola's male
Love however, is the source of much confusion and complication in another of Shakespeare’s comedies, Twelfth Night. Men and women were seen as very different from each other at the time the play was written, they were therefore also treated in very different ways. Because of this Viola conceals her identity and adopts the role of a man, in order to better her safety whilst being alone on the island, and to get a job at Count Orsino’s court. In the play Shakespeare uses the gender confusion he has created from obscuring characters identities to explore the limits of female power and control within courtship, and their dominance within society. Violas frustration surrounding her inability to express her feelings to the Count because she is a woman is an example of the limiting rules of courtship which were upheld at the time. (Aside) ‘yet, a barful strife! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.’ Here she is already expressing her anxiety and emotion at being a woman, and having to keep her emotions hidden from those around her. She longs to be able to express her love as a man could, and in her disguise as Cesario she finds an opportunity to vent her feelings for the Count, but concealed as his words and towards Olivia. Viola is unaware of how her words may sound to Olivia because she is aware of their gender boundaries however Olivia isn’t and soon falls for Cesario. Because Olivia is a Lady and head of the household, and especially how she lacks a father figure, she has a lot more freedom in courtship. Duisinberre comments on this saying, ‘...Viola and Beatrice are women set free from their fathers, and their voice is that of the adult world.’ This is seen when Olivia immediately takes the dominant role in her and Cesarios relat...
Viola's male masquerade also calls attention to the more general theme of masking. As Cesario, Viola suggests that things are not always as they seem, that identities are protean, that self-deception rivals self-knowledge and that only Time can untie complicated "knots." Coppelia Kahn points out that the cross-dressing in Twelfth...
Throughout Twelfth Night, disguise and mistaken identity works as a catalyst for confusion and disorder which consistently contributes towards the dramatic comic genre of the play. Many characters in Twelfth Night assume disguises, beginning with Viola, who disguises herself as a man in order to serve Orsino, the Duke. By dressing his protagonist in male garments, Shakespeare creates ongoing sexual confusion with characters, which include Olivia, Viola and Orsino, who create a ‘love triangle’ between them. Implicitly, there is homoerotic subtext here: Olivia is in love with a woman, despite believing her to be a man, and Orsino often comments on Cesario’s beauty, which implies that he is attracted to Viola even before her male disguise is removed. However, even subsequent to the revealing of Viola’s true identity, Orsino’s declares his love to Viola implying that he enjoys lengthening the pretence of Vio...