ENGL 2300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Malvolio, Bear-Baiting, Blood Sport
Document Summary
The play has a dualistic structure: theme of separation. Both characters are the aristocratic head of a household. Olivia commits herself to a nun-like existence after her father and brother die: olivia"s emotional state becomes the whole world for her (similar to orsino), symbolized in the veil. The swiftness of olivia"s transition to falling in love with cesario suggests that her resolve was pretty weak: she never even mentions her grief; again it is as though her interest in love encompasses her whole world. Olivia and cesario meet - another way of romantic courtship: more dramatic way of romance, a more active pursuit of love. Viola depicts herself as a man courting a woman: Viola as a woman (given the social/gender codes which call for passivity) can only wait, but when she imagines herself as a man she would be an active pursuer.
