“If music be the food of love, play on” (I.i.1). The Twelfth Night opens with Orsino talking about his love for Olivia. Orsino speaks of his love for Olivia, so right in the beginning of the play, we know all about Orsino. However, when Orsino says, “So full of shapes is fancy that it alone is high fantastical” (I.i.14-15), we begin to wonder if Orsino is really in love with Olivia at all. This comment leads us to believe that Orsino may be more in love with the idea of love in his imagination rather than Olivia herself. We also learn right in the begin

When Viola comes to the kingdom and disguises herself as a man, Orsino quickly hires him and Cesario (Viola’s disguised name), becomes Orsino’s new favorite servant. Orsino puts Cesario in charge of delivering the love messages to Olivia. The relationship between Orsino and who he believes to be Cesario is weird. Orsino thinks Cesario is quite attractive as he shows when he explains why Cesario has been chosen to deliver the love messages. Orsino describes Cesario by saying, “Diana’s lip is not more smooth and rubious, thy small pipe is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound, and all is semblative a woman’s part” (I.iv.30-33). Orsino thinks that Cesario is an attractive man that resembles a woman, therefore making Orsino attracted to Cesario himself. One might start to wonder here if Orsino may be capable of falling in love with Cesario as a man. He sure does start to like him a lot after only working with him for three days. This also makes us wonder how in love Orsino is with Olivia if he can gain feelings for another man so quickly.

More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,

In the end of the play, Olivia marries Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother. When Orsino finds this out, he does not seem too upset to lose h

Some topics in this essay:
Orsino Orsino, Orsino Cesario, Sebastian Viola’s, Night Shakespearean, II Orsino, IIiv Orsino, orsino love, Olivia Orsino, Cesario Viola’s, Olivia Viola, Orsino Olivia, love olivia, orsino orsino, orsino cesario, orsino cesario attractive, love messages, love cesario, cesario attractive, twelfth night, believe orsino, believe orsino love, messages olivia,