In what ways and with which effects is love presented at this point in the play? (Act 2, Scene 4, Lines 78-113)
In this extract of ‘Twelfth Night’, Shakespeare uses rich imagery, smooth, flowing iambic pentameter and dark personification to portray love as an invading factor that leaves the victim in madness and suffering as well as an often complex, insincere thing that people use as excuses to indulge in dramatic emotions and behaviour. He also portrays love as a boundless thing that can liberate people, especially women, in a world of rigid rules.
Firstly, Shakespeare presents love as a painful, difficult thing that leaves its victims in deep suffering, especially if faced by unrequited love. Both Orsino and Viola seem in pain – both deeply in love with different people and trapped in a love triangle. Orsino’s claim to be ‘giddy’ with the feeling has notions of madness – emphasised by the title of the play and the Epiphany festival it was written for, when everyone engaged in a topsy-turvy madness for the day to celebrate the Christmas spirit. Love is so overpowering it can make you lose your sanity! However, there is irony in the fact that Orsino is so desperate to keep trying to win over Olivia when he claims she is a ‘sovereign cruelty’, using royal language to imply the pain she causes him is so powerful it is like she is the queen of this cruelty. It is almost as if this suffering is both unpleasant and pleasant at the same time for him. Indeed the two verses (2-3) describing this cruelty are in smooth, rhythmic iambic pentameter that seem to suggest he is speaking in a flowing, almost sing-song manner, as if enjoying the pain. Viola, on the other hand, seems to be unhappy in her pain. The dashes in ‘-in perhaps there is-’ mark her agitated, faltering pauses and show her hesitation as she struggles to hide her true identity and feelings from Orsino and she uses the simile ‘as great a pang of heart’ to describe her love for Orsino, disguising it as another woman’s. The noun ‘pang’ has connotations of pain and gives the audience a sensual idea of how her heart, filled with affection for Orsino, is aching. She also compares her love to death and sickness – making her an unhealthy ‘green and yellow [with] melancholy’ and employing a graveyard/death semantic field (‘monument’ ‘melancholy’) to illustrate how her unrequited love for Orsino is almost as painful and final as death. The audience is shocked by how painful Viola’s love seems to be and they sympathise with her – aware of how much her love for Orsino is costing her.
Furthermore, in addition to portraying love as a complex cruel thing that causes suffering, Shakespeare also explores how love can be forced and insincere. He uses Orsino’s embellished language to prove this. As he speaks of love, Orsino uses many somewhat superfluous metaphors ‘more than the world’ ‘queen of gems’. He employs a royalty and riches semantic field to express the depth of his love and beauty of his lover (‘fortune’ ‘queen of gems’) and also one of food and appetite (‘their love may be call’d appetite’ ‘liver’ ‘palate’ ‘surfeit’ ‘hungry’). He seems to be heavily relying on these arguably far-fetched metaphors and similes and it can be argued that this suggests his love isn’t as sincere as he pretends it is. Indeed, his descriptions are all predominantly materialistic and revolve around earthly, physical things instead of raw, visceral feelings. He uses the nouns ‘world’ and ‘sea’ (‘more noble than the world’ ‘as hungry as the sea’) to proclaim the depth of his love but yet again, referring to nature makes his descriptions sound like pure poetry rather than an expression of real feelings. The audience is giving the impression he is in love with the idea of being in love and also doesn’t seem to want to change, with the modal verb in ‘I cannot be so answer’d’ showing and emphasising his stubbornness as well as the desire to not change. In contrast to him, Viola’s language is much less embellished (emphasised by the shorter forms of her verses in comparison to Orsino’s long, sinuous sentences) and she seems to hold a realistic aspect on love – discarding the romantic imagery and focusing on the pains it brings.
Finally, as well as suggesting love is not always reliable and can be insincere, Shakespeare describes how love has no limits and should not be controlled – instead, it controls people. Orsino’s belief that women cannot ‘bide the beating of so strong a passion’ is contradicted by Cesario who describes her sister’s (alias herself) love and how it was just as strong. She hints at the female’s strength and ability to deal with heavy emotions by personifying love and comparing it to ‘a worm’ that ‘feeds’ on her ‘damask cheek’ (an unpleasant and painful image). The adjective damask has connotations of red and white – two contrasting colours – and suggests woman’s ability, just like men, to deal with both the two extremes of love - pain (symbolized by the red) and the pure pleasure (symbolized by the white) of love. Her ‘smiling’ at grief shows how she can even take pleasure in this bitter-sweet suffering. Her rhetorical question ‘Was not this love indeed?’ – perhaps directed at the audience to challenge their own aspect on love - proves Orsino’s sexist assumption wrong – she has just described everything he claims love makes him feel but from a woman’s perspective. Through this, Viola is exploring the freedom of love. Unlike the Elizabethan times in which this play is originally set when women were oppressed and limited, women have freedom in love and can love just as strongly as men. Viola’s ability to love Orsino as strongly as he claims to love Orsino is clear in the intimacy between the two: indeed, she shares a few lines with Orsino (‘I cannot be answer’d. Sooth, but you must.’) to reflect the intimacy and intensity of the conversation – she is speaking rapidly after him in a desperate attempt to coax him away from his love for Olivia and convince him he is loved by someone else – fuelled by her infallible, powerful love. The closeness between the two is also echoed through the fact that Orsino’s line and Viola’s following shared line have ten syllables when joined together and thus form iambic pentameter when joined – an audible proof of their harmony and closeness – even their speech goes well together. However, Viola does insist (the modal verb ‘cannot’ reinforcing her adamant declaration) that Olivia ‘cannot love’ Orsino, thus, perhaps somewhat ironically, hinting that love does actually have limitations but healthy ones. You cannot force love – it decides when it is requited and real. Again, Shakespeare’s message is clear – you cannot control love.
In conclusion, Shakespeare presents love as a romantic, powerful thing that has no limitations yet also warns the audience of its opposite – artificial and selfish love – as well as its overpowering side effects especially if it is unrequited love – suffering and madness. Another way he presents it in this extract is as a linking bridge between Orsino and Viola’s differing personalities.