When the
beginning of a play starts off with the line “If music be the food of love,
play on” one can safely make the assumption that love will be a prominent
theme, and that holds true in Twelfth
Night (1.1.1). While love is a main theme in this play, a lot of it isn’t
genuine, it’s just infatuation and makes the reader wonder, what is love and do
we really know if a person truly loves someone or just the idea of them? These
different types of love appear throughout the play and they bring up the issue
of true love and simple infatuation that fades.
The first instance of love is seen
between Orsino and Olivia, of course this isn’t genuine love at all because
Orsino’s love for Olivia quickly changes to love for Viola. Orsino’s feelings
for Olivia at the beginning of the play is not only just infatuation, it is
unrequited love. Olivia doesn’t return
the love because she is mourning her brother and Osino doesn’t appreciate
Olivia’s request, he keeps pursuing her. This alone says that Orsino isn’t
truly in love with Olivia, he has an obsessive infatuation with her and has no
regard for her feelings during her time of mourning. This is also a very
unstable love, as seen in the dialogue from him in the first scene. He almost
seems to enjoy chasing after her heart and just the idea of her, not her as a
person because from what the audience can tell, he doesn’t know her very well.
Olivia shows this same type of infatuation
when she meets Cesario, she hardly knows anything about him but quickly falls
in love with him. She could only be infatuated with the idea of Cesario, also because
Cesario is really Viola. Another example of this infatuation is between
Sebastian and Olivia. Sebastian agrees to marry Olivia when she thinks he is
his sister, Viola as Cesario. This is a quick pairing and irrational for both
parties involved.
The only time any inkling of true
love is found is between Orsino and Cesario/Viola. These characters get to know
each other and become close, Orsino still loves Olivia when he meets Cesario.
While Viola does love Orsino quickly, it isn’t dramatic or irrational like the
other characters are when they have feelings for someone else. An interesting
facet of this relationship is that Orsino still refers to Viola as a man even
after she has revealed her true identity in Act V. While Orsino is in love with
Viola, he may also be in love with Cesario. This situation brings a complicated
element to their love because of the mistaken identity in the play.
Image
The
image is a painting by Fredrick Pickersgill from 1859 and it is called Viola and the Countess. It depicts Olivia and Viola
(Cesario) in a scene together where Olivia seems to be in love with Cesario.
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