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3. THE CHARACTERISTIC DESCRIPTION
3.1 Orsino
Orsino is basically characterized by the first line that he utters If music be the food of love, play on. He is the most melancholy characters that Shakespeare
ever created. His entire opening speech is filled with words such as “excess,” “surfeiting,” “appetite,” “sickening,” and “dying fall,” words which show Orsino
to be sentimentally in love with love. He has seen Olivia, and the very sight of her has fascinated him to such an extent that his romantic imagination convinces him
that he will perish if she does not consent to be his wife. Thus, this romantic, melancholy indulgence is the crux of the play because the duke uses Cesario
Viola as his emissary to court Olivia. If music be the food of love, play on
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again it had a dying fall: O, it came oer my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour Enough; no more:
Tis not so sweet now as it was before. Act 1, scene 1
Orsino, however, is as changeable as the sea and as inconsistent as an opal in the sunlight. His languid craving for music is equated by his languid
reclining upon an opulent couch and his requesting attention, and then suddenly becoming bored by what he has just requested. It is, however, Orsinos changeable
nature which allows us to believe that he can immediately switch his love for Olivia to Viola at the end of the play.
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According to Olivia and others, Orsino is a perfect gentleman. He is handsome, brave, courtly, virtuous, noble, wealthy, gracious, loyal and devoted.
In short, he is everything a young lady could wish for in a husband. This is ultimately what makes it believable that Viola does fall in love with him
immediately.
3.2 Olivia
Olivia is a beautiful woman with strong emotional reactions and no male guidance. She is not married and no longer has a father or brother. Several of the
men in the play feel Olivia needs a man to help her manage her life and fortune, but she is too overcome with emotions to give them a chance at pursuing her.
At times, Olivia can be emotional and dramatic. Olivia mourns the recent loss of her brother. Instead of expressing interest in others she drowns herself in
her sorrows. She mourns in a dramatic way by dressing in black. When she cries, her tears are compared to a brine that seasons her brothers dead love.
So please my lord, I might not be admitted, But from her handmaid do return this answer:
The element itself, till seven years hence, Shall not behold her face at ample view;
But like a cloistress she will veiled walk, And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this to season A brother’s dead love, which she would keep fresh
And lasting, in her sad remembrance Act 1, scene 1
At times it seems that Olivia uses her grief as a way to ignore the advances of men such as Orsino who desire her affection. It is not until Olivia
meets a man she is interested in, Cesario, that she starts to move on with her life instead of grieving. She appears to fall in love with Cesario because she finds
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him attractive. She states, they tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit. Do give thee five-fold blazon.
‘What is your parentage?’ ‘above my fortunes, yet my state is well:
I am a gentleman’. I’ll be sworn thou art: Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit,
Do give thee five-fold blazon. Not too fast: soft, soft Unless the master were the man. – How now?
Even so quickly may one catch the plague? Methinks I feel this youth’s perfections
With an invisible and subtle stealth To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.
What, ho, Malvolio Act 1, Scene 5
Olivia is also determined to get what she wants. Instead of waiting for Cesario to pursue her, Olivia pursues him. She proposes to the man she believes
is Cesario despite traditional Elizabethan custom, which states that women are to be silent and to be pursued by a man.
Olivia obsesses over her love for Cesario until she learns Cesario is
really a woman and then she falls in love with a man named Sebastian, who is
Violas twin brother. Once Olivia gets over her grief and stops being obsessive about her emotions, she is able to fall in love.
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