Initially Viola ponders the inkling that Olivia may have mistakenly fallen in love with her:
Viola: I left no ring with her. What means this lady?
Fortune forbid my outside have not charmed her.
Viola: She made good view of me, indeed so much
That straight methought her eyes had lost her tongue,
Quickly, Viola, resigns herself to the knowledge that Olivia has fallen in love with her:
Viola: She loves me sure, the cunning of her passion
Invites me in this churlish messenger.
Viola: I am the man. If it be so-as “˜tis-
Viola:
Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness
Wherein the pregnant enemy does much.
Viola:
How easy it is for the proper false
In women’s waxen hearts to set their forms!
Another example of the ways in which standards are relaxed or social codes reversed during Twelfth Night is the permeation of class boundaries.
Just as Viola permeates gender boundaries, love interests lead the characters across class lines:
Viola: How will this fadge? My master loves her dearly,
And I, poor monster, fond as much on him,
And she, mistaken, seems to dote as much on me.
Finally Time is left as the only remedy to untie complicated social knots.
Viola:
O time, thou must untangle this, not I.
It is too hard a knot for me t’untie.
Viola’s experiences and thoughts prove representative of the nature of Twelfth Night festivities and questionable to the strength and appropriateness of social roles and masks. Also they are illustrative of the unpredictable and undirectable powers of love. This socially erratic Illyria transforms her from woman to man to Queen, and blissfully enables her to live out her life in an earthly Elysium.
The Essay on Imaginary World Theatre Viola Love
The characters in Shakespeare in Love exploit the imaginary world of theatre to serve their own purposes of gaining independence, finding love, making money and escaping the confines of the real world, in a way which is still prevalent in even today's entertainment industry. Will Shakespeare is presented as an empty, shallow character whose talent as a writer, poet and playwright allows him to use ...
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