Transcript

Shakespeare's characters are known to transcend time due to their relatable and
complex natures. The play, Twelfth Night, explores themes of love, gender, identity,
and class, which are still relevant today. Many characters struggle with their own
identities and desires, making them relatable to modern audiences, which is why
they continue to be performed and studied even 400 years later.

One of the main themes explored in Act 2, Scene 4, of Twelfth Night is love. The
scene features several characters expressing their feelings towards each other,
including Viola's unrequited love for Orsino and Orsino's love for Olivia. The theme of
love is explored through the use of witty dialogue and mistaken identities, adding to
the comedic elements of the play.

Orsino's view on love highlights the gender stereotypes of his time and reflects the
social standards placed on men and women in matters of love. He emphasises his
intense desire for Olivia's love with the extended metaphor and simile, ‘mine is all as
hungry as the sea, and can digest as much.’ The techniques used metaphorically
speak of his ability to love to be as limitless as the ocean's abundance of water.
Orsino describes his own feelings and emotions on a grand scale.

In contrast, Orsino describes a woman’s feelings with less grandeur and importance.
He uses metaphors to describe love, and states, ‘alas, their love may be called
appetite. No motion of the liver, but the palate, that suffers surfeit, cloyment, and
revolt’, the line speaks of a man’s love like the liver, describing love as deep, stable
and secure. Whereas a woman’s love is compared to the tongue, a shallow love that
is only a matter of taste. He also states that if women come to love someone too
much, they will become sick.

In contrast to Orsino’s opinion, Viola thinks a woman can love just as much as a
man. Her thoughts are conveyed through her speech when she says, ‘Too well what
love women to men may owe. In faith, they are as true of heart as we’. Viola is telling
Orsino that she is aware of how strong a woman's capacity for love is, and that their
emotions are just as powerful as a man's.

Another theme explored in this scene is deception. There is use of deception

throughout Orsino and Viola’s dialogue towards the end of the scene. Viola tells a
story of a woman she knew who died for the love of a man. Viola says, ‘my father
had a daughter loved a man’. The girl in the story was referred to as Viola’s sister.
The girl had never told the man of her feelings, and had wasted away by hanging
onto her unrequited love. Deception is used in the scene, because Viola speaks in
third person. She speaks of herself rather than a sister who loved another man.
Orsino becomes curious about Cesario-Viola’s sister, and asks, ‘but died thy sister of
her love, my boy?’ Viola replies, ‘I am all the daughters of my father’s house’ Viola
quickly realises she has almost given herself away, and adds, ‘and all the brothers
too.’ Dramatic irony is used again to add a comedic element to the scene.

As well as this, when the play was originally performed, the actor of Viola would be
male, who would be pretending to play a girl who, in the play, was pretending to be a
boy.
The constant theme of unrequited love and deception has allowed Twelfth Night to
transcend time, as many people continue to encounter similar experiences today.