Introduction to Shakespeare's plays, a comedy does not require the "degree of concentration and conviction" that tragedy requires. As a result, the audience of a show "is entertained by the knowledge that it is all a show, a game that they are sharing with the actors." FN1 In Twelfth Night it is the characters, almost without exception, who are involved, to varying degrees, in the deception. Swinden says: "Whether we look at the plot that Shakespeare took (indirectly) from the Italian, or at the plot he invented to accompany it, we will discover deception piled upon deception." FN2 Cesario/Viola deceives Olivia, Orsino, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby, while Maria, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Feste deceive Malvolio. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In an intricate pattern of “concealment” and “revelation,” the game spirals towards its happy resolution with all the deceptions they had, and had been hidden and revealed. Is the end of the show really a happy ending? What dynamic in the process of deception could make Sir Andrew disappear or force Malvolio to declare, "I will take revenge on you all!" ? Are the characters improved or changed by their experiences when they get to the end of the fifth act compared to when they started at the beginning of the first act? Whether a practical joke or a clever disguise, the games played in Illyria both derive from and protect each character's deception not only of others but also, more importantly, of themselves. The clearest examples are Duke Orsino and Olivia. The plays begin with Orsino's opening lines to the play: If music be the food of love, play on; Give me in excess, that excess, The appetite can get sick and die. As Orsino continues to be rhetorical and hysterical about being in love, it quickly becomes apparent that he is playing with himself, a game that will continue throughout the play. He is not in love, but rather in love with love. Olivia is unreachable and she has told him so multiple times. Yet Orsino persists in making himself suffer, listening to sad love songs, writing them, staying awake at night and crying into his pillow because he believes this is how a lover behaves. It's part of the game that, even though it may seem like Orsino is raving about Olivia, he's actually focusing on himself. The words "I," "me," and "mine" occur ten times in the opening passage, culminating with: How shall he love... When life, brain, and heart, those sovereign thrones, shall all be provided, and fill his sweet perfections with one and the same king! Shakespeare's use of 'selfsame' intensifies not only Orsino's description of Olivia, but also his focus on himself. Throughout these lines there is a sense that Orsino's sexual identity, encased in a male body, has not yet been clearly defined, hence his need to adopt what he thinks are the affectations of a successful lover. Orsino begins the second act, scene 4 in the same way he begins the first act: "Give me some music". Here, however, Orsino requests a specific song, heard just the night before, while Feste, Olivia's idiot, was singing it. How Orsino managed to hear Feste's performance is one of the mysteries of the opera, but its effect on Orsino is indisputable: "it greatly relieved my passion". The lyrics of the song are very depressing: Come away, come away, Death, And let me lie in a sad cypress. Go away, go away, I breathe, I have been killed by a beautiful and cruel maiden; My white shroud, all clogged with badger, Oh prepare it. No one has shared my share of death so sincerely. Not a flower, not a sweet flower On my coffinblack be sprinkled; Not a friend, not a friend regards My poor corpse, where my bones will be thrown. A thousand thousand sighs to save me Leave me, or where the sad lover will never find my grave To cry there. Although Orsino says he has only heard a "piece of the song", he also notes that it is an "old and ancient 'song'", indicating that he knows it in its entirety. Its melody and feeling are so powerful that it stays with him the next morning. It is possible that the song reminds Orsino that he is no longer young enough to pursue a love campaign and that there will be no lover or son to mourn him as Olivia mourns her brother. In modern pop psychology terminology, Orsino appears to be having a midlife crisis. Orsino's game reaches a breaking point when Cesario interrupts his rhetoric with "Yes, but I know." Orsino is shocked that this young man could have romantic experiences that he has not been aware of. He questions what Cesario knows about love and women and is eager to hear the boy's "empty" story. Yet Orsino remains unaware of Cesario's confession: "I am all the daughters of my father's house, And all the brothers too." Orsino seems to be uncomfortable with this very personal and very intense revelation from another man as his "Yes, that's the theme" seems to bring his focus back to the safety and comfort of pursuing Olivia. Orsino decides to discard his affectations and goes to speak directly with Olivia. Whatever happened between him and Cesario in their "three months of silence" of the third and fourth acts gave him the strength to declare that "he will be so much of a sinner as to be a double agent." Many productions have offered Orsino a royal fall. in love with Cesario, like the 1994 RSC version which had the events of 2.4 set in Orsino's bed. Orsino and Cesario share a passionate kiss that surprises them both, but the kiss also seems to arise from the action and location. Trevor Nunn's 1996 film moves the moment of passion to the scene during which Feste sings a love madrigal in a stable. Feste coughing at the critical moment when their lips almost touch breaks the momentum. The interpretation is valid and is based on Orsino's usual rhetorical proclamations of love for Cesario: Why shouldn't I... Kill what I love. (5.1.106, 108)...This thy servant... whom, I swear to heaven, I love dearly (5.1.114-115)...The lamb I love (5.1.119).Orsino has fallen in love with the Are you in love with Cesario? His proclamations arise from his anger at Olivia's public dismissal of them as "fat and disgusting to my ear / Like howling music" (5.1.98-99), the same music he found so soothing. This anger is not generated by a newfound awareness. Swinden comments: 'He's talking about Cesario, not Olivia... The presence of both partners on stage during the tirade very delicately brings out the ambiguity of Orsino's change of feelings. He cannot distinguish the object of his anger from the object of his love." FN3 Even when Cesario is revealed to be Viola, his acceptance of a "participation in this very happy disaster" seems to depend on seeing her in "woman's weeds." Yet it is to Viola still dressed as Cesario that Orsino offers his hand, not once but twice. The fact that Orsino does not accept Viola unless she resembles a respectable woman and yet offers her hand to the male vision suggests that Orsino has not completely surrendered to his comfortable sexual cocoon into which he has admitted only Cesario and only in moderation. This reticence is confirmed at the end of the opera when Orsino admits:... Cesario come - For thus you will be as long as you are a man, But when in other clothes you will be seen Orsino's lover, and the queen of hisfantasy. In "The Two Antonios and Homosexual Love in Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice", critic Joseph Pequigney explains that "Orsino's attraction to Olivia, where he is heterosexual, like other would-be suitors Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Malvolio , it's a disaster. Cesario's love could not be changed instantly with the revelation of her femininity; if it is erotic, it would have been erotic before; what changes is that marriage suddenly becomes possible, hence the immediate proposal." FN4 This proposal is followed by a sad song by Feste about scenes of a love life, which brings the show back to the beginning. Evidently Orsino has not changed from the man he was: he will still have his 'fantasy'. It's like at the beginning of the play: he can't completely abandon his sexual game. In all likelihood, Viola will now become a replacement for Olivia, "the queen of her fantasy". As Orsino hides behind the game of love, Olivia hides behind the game of grief separate from love, adopting an Orsino version of mourning behavior. Her entire family is in mourning and she goes to her brother's grave every day. As long as she grieves over her brother's death, her sexual desires can be put on hold. Mourning gives her the perfect excuse to reject Orsino's cause and relieves her from making a sexual investment in any man until she chooses "the sight / and company of men." Unlike Orsino, Olivia has placed a seven-year limit on her mourning for her father and brother, of which "twelve months" have already passed when Viola lands in Illyria. Furthermore, Olivia differs from Orsino significantly in that she can influence her house, command her followers. , Take and return affairs and deal with them With such smooth, unobtrusive and stable behavior. She is generous and tolerant, welcoming of Sir Toby and his guest, Sir Andrew, and positive in her view of the repressed Malvolio. With Feste's logical and systematic removal of her facade, with Olivia's consent, Olivia is free in a way that eludes Orsino. He demonstrates keen judgment regarding the affectations of love: "It's not the moon's time for me to make one in such skipped dialogue." He has an agile mind and is able to counter Cesario's metaphors as quickly as he issues them. She is curious and asks Cesario only the necessary questions. He appears to be a realist, offering "different programs of my beauty" in response to Cesario's lyricism. These qualities refuse to be submerged even when she finds herself falling in love with Cesario:... Not too fast! Slowly, slowly!... Even so early you can catch the plague. I seem to feel the perfections of this youth With a stealthy invisible and subtle Creeping into my eyes. Well, forget it. Olivia thus chooses to abandon the safety of her game and pursue Cesario with total abandon and trust in her femininity. In her search, free from her facade, Olivia is naively honest with herself and Cesario. He confesses in 3.1 that he sent "a ring to pursue him." She asks him honestly, “Please tell me what you think of me.” Cesario tries to repay this honesty: 'That you think you are not who you are'. Due to her naivety, Olivia takes the sentence literally and assures Cesario that she is not crazy. However, the verse also emphasizes that Olivia, the noblewoman, has fallen in love with a servant, albeit a "gentleman", and that that gentleman is actually a gentlewoman. Even so, Olivia is rational enough to realize that "neither wit nor reason can hide my passion." Unlike Orsino, Olivia embraces the opportunity for sexual fulfillment with such enthusiasm that she will attempt to overcome any obstacle with deeds, not with complaints and words. She is quite clear about love: "The love sought.