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The effect of viola's disguise on twelfth night
What are the main problems viola faces in twelfth night
Character of viola in twelfth night
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In Twelfth night a play by William Shakespeare, Viola disguises herself as a man because she wants to be able to continue and play college soccer. Many characters put on a false front image for personal gain in this book. In today’s society, people decide whether or not they want to bring up false portrayal’s or act like themselves when theirs a current decision needing to be made. This is qualifying because a few people today do lie and put up false fronts for personal gain. But on the other hand, some people do not. “There is a fair behavior in thee, captain, And though that nature with a beauteous wall Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee I will believe though hast a mind that suits With this thy fair and outward character (Shakespeare 1.2.50-54.).” Viola determines to disguise her identity by cross-dressing as a boy (Cesario), she than considers the sea captain’s trustworthiness. Viola starts to state to Oliva that she isn’t exactly what she thinks she is. “I prihee, and I’ll pay thee bounteously, Conceal me what I am; and be my aid For such disguise as haply shall become(1.2). Dressing as a man would ensure her safety …show more content…
He suffers from a severe case of love-sickness, stating that he is in love with the Olivia. “If music be the food of love, play on/ Give me excess it (1.1)” says Orsino. He’s more caught up in the idea of being love as opposed to loving someone. Orsino starts to notice that he does have romantic feelings for Viola as they have a close relationship. Viola falls in love with Orsino at sight, but her disguise keeps her from acting on this feeling. Orsino states: "...I have unclapst / To thee the book even of my secret Crowder 5 soul..."(1.4) According to thus, Orsino’s soul is open to Viola. He then tells her to “unfold the passion of my love...(1.4).” Shakespeare offers a commentary relationship between love and disguise with Viola and
The use of disguises in the play deceives many characters. Viola's use of a disguise not only deceives strangers but also relatives.When Viola says, "Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness," she is indicating that for the time that she has been disguised, she has deceived many people and Olivia has fallen in love with her thinking that she is a man named Cesario (2.2.26). Viola then says, "O time, thou must untangle this, not I: / It is too hard a knot for me t'untie." meaning only time could possibly get her out of the mess that the disguise has gotten her in to (2.2.39-40). Later on it the play when Sabastian, Viola's twin brother enters the play other
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.
In the play, Viola’s main struggle is her identity. To make it in this land she has the captain to dress her like a man so that she can walk the streets without raising suspicion. “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid / For such disguise as haply shall become / The form of my intent.” (1.3.51-53) says Viola. Although we were a little different in the way that my appearance didn’t need to be changed, but what I truly was had to be hid. As I grew up, I began to notice that I wasn’t like my fellow peers. I was different. The type of different that would get me bullied and thrown out of the social circle. So I decided to lock this part of me away, and pretend to be someone that I wasn’t. The next few years of my childhood, I struggled. Trying to keep who I am and who I was pretending to be separate. Just like Viola’s feeling for Orsino emerged and had to be hid for the time, I to started having feelings that I could not act upon being in the situation I was in.
Viola quickly falls in love with Duke Orsino after meeting him, but she is not able to express her true feelings of love for two different reasons. First, Orsino is lusting after Olivia, so he is not open to the feelings of others. Orsino is so in love with Olivia’s beauty that he had built a wall of emotion around himself, and Viola was not able to penetrate this wall. More importantly, Viola is not Viola to Orsino; she is Cesario, who, disguised as a man, served Orsino as a eunuch. Although she greatly loves Orsino, Viola cannot openly express this love because she was invisible to him. If Viola does let the truth come out, Orsino will still not be able to love her because he is solely focused on gaining Olivia’s affection. Orsino does not love Viola because he does not see her as a woman in love with him but as a faithful servant, so Viola and her love for Orsino go unnoticed as Orsino delegates Viola to woo Olivia for himself. Viola, wishing she was the one whom Orsino loved, was deeply saddened by this: “I’ll do my best/To woo your lady: yet, a barful strife!/Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife” (Act I, Scene IV). Orsino made Viola his messenger to court Olivia, but Viola wishes she was the one whom Orsino was courting. Similarly to how Orsino is blinded by his infatuation with Olivia, the boy whom Swift is in love with is blinded by his love
Unlike the other characters in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", Viola's feelings of love are genuine. She is not mistaken about Orsino's true nature and loves him for who he really is, while the other characters in the play seem to be in love with an illusion. Viola's love for Orsino does not alter during the play, nor is it transferred to another person.
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 Duke Orsino asks Cesario (disguised Viola) to make Olivia love him, although she had stated that she would not marry for seven years due to her sadness from her brother’s death, Cesario tells him “I’ll do my best to woo your lady.” Then Viola tells the audience “(Aside) yet, a barful strife—Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife,” meaning that she has to convince another woman to love the man she loves. The exchange of words in this scene exemplifies dramatic irony since the reader now knows that a love road that connects Duke Orsino, Viola, and Olivia has formed while Orsino is clueless about the situation. Situational irony can also be withdrawn from this conversation because it is shocking that Viola is in love with Orsino. Viola’s sudden love for Orsino illustrates a universal truth about life that sometimes people fall in love too quickly without thinking far ahead.
Viola, as Cesario, manages to win the favour of Orsino He truly believes that she is a he. Orsino, still convinced of my majesty, believes that he can win the love of a woman, via a proxy. By having Viola merely read the words he has prepared, he thinks that Olivia will fall immediately in love with him. But while Orsino had his head in the clouds about his love, Viola is attempting to conceal from him, her love for him.
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”.
We see this exaggerated one-sided love play out in many forms throughout the play. Viola, for example, says in this line, “I’ll do my best To woo your lady: Aside. Yet a barful strife! Whoe 'er I woo, myself would be his wife.” (1.4.44-46) This tells us that Viola, having just met Orsino a few days ago, has a desire to be wed to Orsino. This kind of desire that Viola has for Orsino can only be conjured up from a fairytale due to the sheer passion and irrationality of falling in love with an acquaintance. Shakespeare also uses diction in deceptive forms. This is evident when Orsino uses the word “violets” (1.1.6) in his speech and to display the deception that is played out in the play. The word “violets” comes from the comes from the latin word viola. Some readers would be deceived, as many might not even notice the hint that Orsino gives in his own speech. We know this deception to be true in the form of Viola when she disguises herself as a eunuch to Orsino in his own courts as evidence in this line, “For such disguise as haply shall become The form of my intent. I 'll serve this duke: Thou shall present me as an eunuch to him”
Viola/Ceasario's disguise hides most of her past: the shipwreck, her lost brother, and the fact that she is a woman. Her identity now as a man, is to move on in life and get a job. Her love for Orsino is hidden with her original identity, as though she works for him as his servant. She is a very strong character in the play. "I prithee (and I’ll pay thee bounteously)/ Conceal me what I am, and be my aid/ For such disguise as haply shall become/ The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke." (1.2.52-55). After the shipwreck and the loss of her brother, Viola decides to move on using a disguise as her shield. Viola’s secret love for Orsino is different than the way Olivia loves Ceasario. Olivia is in lo...
In the first Act, Viola and Orsino are virtual strangers. Viola is a young woman who is left shipwrecked without her brother, Sebastian, in Illyria. She is taken into Duke Orsino’s service as a young
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...
A supposedly noble Duke Orsino is suffering due to his unrequited love for the Lady Olivia. The Lady Olivia, however, is also suffering due to the recent deaths of her brother and father. Her way of mourning them involves her hiding behind a veil or disguising herself from the truth and refusing male company: 'But like a cloistress she will veiled walk, And water once a day her chamber round With eye-offending brine'. Disguise creates confusion when a character named Viola becomes shipwrecked in Illyria, a place previously unknown to her. She has been warned of the dangers of being alone in Illyria and decides that it is best if she disguises herself.