Twelfth Night--The Three Personalities

Thursday January 21, 2010

The Three Personalities

            In Shakespeare's play, Twelfth Night, there are three main female characters: Olivia, Viola, and Maria. Each of these females performs a different role in the play. Each has her own good and bad  personality. How are they alike? What makes each unique? Is one morally better than the other? Read on and the answers to these questions will become apparent.

           

            How are these women alike and similar? In the beginning of  the play, Olivia's father and brother both die. When Viola comes ashore, she thinks that her brother has also died: “O my poor brother” (1.2.7), Viola says to the Captain who had saved her. During the course of the play Olivia, Viola, and Maria struggle with many different conflicts. Maria struggles with Malvolio at various times. Viola comes into a conflict with several people, including Malvolio. Olivia struggles with Viola/Cesario. Malvolio irritates Maria as well as others, including Sir Toby. Maria devises a plan to write a letter to Malvolio, to embarrass him in front of Olivia. Viola gets into a conflict with Malvolio when Olivia sends him to return the ring that she did not forgot. Olivia gets into trouble with Cesasrio/Viola when she tells him that he is her husband and that they had just gotten married a couple of hours ago: “Hast thou forgot thyself? Is it so long?”(5.1.136).

            Despite their struggles, the play concludes with a happy endingto each of these women. Fabian comes to tell us that Sir Toby and Maria have been married: “Maria writ/The letter, at Sir Toby's great importance/ [regarding the letter found by Malvolio] In recompense whereof he hath married her”(5.1.350-352). When Viola and Sebastian reunite, all the pieces of the play fall into place, so Viola really hasn't married Olivia but Sebastian had, and Orsino married Viola [when he said] “Give me thy hand”(5.1.262). 

            Each of these women have a strong personality. With Viola we find that she is quick to answer, very resourceful, smart, intelligent, and a very likable person. These characteristics are shown all over the play, including with her talks with Olivia that will later attract Olivia to her. “[Olivia says] Yet come again: for thou perhaps mayst move/That heart which now abhors, to like his love”(3.2.159-160). She is quick-witted and fast thinker which makes her answer Olivia back very quickly. Orsino likes Cesario/Viola because she was successful in visiting and talking to Olivia.  

            Olivia has a big part in the play. She has strong emotions, we know this because she says she will mourn seven years for her brother. “[As Orsino said] O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame/To pay this debt of love but to a brother”(1.1.33-34). She is also beautiful and that makes her attractive to Orsino.

            Maria is smart, determined, stubborn, listens to directions. She is not married until the end of the play. She is clever and able to teach people. She teaches a lesson to Malvolio. She likes Sir Toby even with his drunkenness. She gives him drinks when Malvolio tells her not to. Maria even reprimands him for it, “That quaffing and drinking will undo you”(1.3.13).

            Humans are not perfect. In this play we see that some characters are more morally superior to others. We know that we only see part of their personalities and not all of it. Some characters have faults. There are character in disguise. There is confusion between two characters. There are characters that are dreaming.        

            Viola is a young woman that has survived a shipwrecked and thinks that her brother, Sebastian, has drowned. She tells the captain who saved her about her idea of disguising herself as a man, and to go and work for Orsino, the Duke of Illyria. Viola falls in love with Orsino but goes on the mission she was told origianly to woo Olivia for Orsino but that didn't worked because Olivia actually fell in love with Viola/Cesario. Viola tries to mention a couple of times, that she was a woman to Olivia and Orsino but they with their faults were dreaming. [As she said]“I'm all the daughters of my father's house/And all the brothers too”(2.4.128-129).

            Olivia has told Viola/Cesario to tell Orsino that she doesn't love him.. Viola doesn't seem to like the fact that Olivia likes her so she tries to tell her that she is a woman but she still doesn't get the hint. When Olivia asked Viola that if she would marry her and Viola said she wouldn't. When Olivia meets Sebastian, who Olivia thinks is Viola, and she asks him again and he (Sebastian) agrees to get married. Later Olivia gets into a conflict with Viola about the fact that she had married her but Viola said she had not. The plot comes together when Sebastian appears.

            Maria is mysterious person. We don't know much about her.  She introduces the gulling of Malvolio. During the play Maria does not show us any reason to thinks that she has faults.

            We see the differences of the thee personalities of Olivia,Viola and, Maria. We see the way they are alike, the way each is unique with their own qualities. We can see that the way each of them are more morally better. These three main female characters make up the play to be a comedian type of play .

Work Cited

Shakespeare,William. Twelfth Night. New York: Oxford, 2001.

Word Count: Total, 920 Words including Quotations.