Olivia

[nisrine zinati]

I read Shakespeare's plays and I enjoy them. I read Twelfth Night, and I find that Olivia marries Sebastian at the end of the play, though in fact, she loves Cesario, or Viola. <br>Indeed, though Sebastian and Viola are twins, it does not mean that Olivia can love them both in tha same way. <br> Her concept of love is not clear. Besides, at the begining Olivia refuses Orsino and justifies this refusal by saying that she is very sad because of her brother's death. But once Olivia sees Cesario, or Viola, she forgets her grief. <br> So for me Olivia's acts are unusual. It is not clear whether she loves a real love, or she only wants to fall in love in order to overcome her grief.<br>

[jaoak2186]

In response to the comment concerning Olivia and her wavering love. First of all I would like to say "Bravo"! I am so glad to at last hear some common sense in regards to how quickly she falls in love and out of love and in again. I find it all rather rediculous. Olivia fell in love with Cesario...not Sebastian. The fact that they are twins really has nothing to do with it. Two of my closest friends are twins and although they look and sound alike their personalities are vastly different. Proving that Olivia's love for Cesario, Violia, and Sebastian is a physical love and only that. I agree with the fact that Olivia doesn't understand love. She is infatuated with Cesario it cannot be true love. I have read a great deal of Shakespeare and I always come away with a sense of wonder. The man describes a violent, passionate love, one can only conclude that he never actually experienced that love himself. He was unhappily married and had a horrible opinion of "older" women. I'm sure he had some passionate flings but nothing constant. The man was never truly in love...he never felt the feelings he so passionately wrote about. :(

[BookWorm_x]

I completely agree! Olivia falls in and out of love far too quickly. I think, like Orsino, she is love with the idea of love. It is weird how it does not bother her that she marries a man who turns out to be someone else, and not the Cesario she was originally in love with.
Grief might have something to do with it, but don't forget, at the start of the play she had sworn to grieve for her brother's death for seven years. And she stated that she would not see anyone, and presumably would not want to marry for that time period, so a good question to ask would be, why she gets over her brother's death so quickly, you're right. Her wanting to fall in love might not be grief, and could be more of a strong infatuation with Cesario, and how feminine 'he' is and how 'he' understands her ecetera.

[Albion]

Playwrights write dramas for entertainment (possibly instruction) for which purpose they ask us to suspend belief for a while. Olivia falls in love at first sight: Even so quickly may one catch the plague (1 V) and there is no conflict in mistaking Sebastian for Cesario. They are identical twins dressed in similar clothes. In real life the marriage would be invalid but we are pleased to ignore reality for the sake of love triumphant. Identity mistakes are common in plays, particularly Shakespeare. Try Merchant of Venice where two merchants cannot recognize their own wives immediately in front of them or Mid. Nights Dream where Titania cannot distinguish a man from an a s s. But that error is easily done (especially when one has been drugged).