Shakespeare describes that love is often the cause of suffering. All of the main characters—Orsino, Viola, Olivia—are shown to be in pain because of their unrequited love. In the beginning, Orsino depicts love as an “appetite” he cannot satisfy, so he hopes to drown himself in it in order to move on. He calls his desires “fell and cruel hounds.” Olivia directly describes love as a “plague” from which she suffers terribly. Viola expresses her melancholy: “my state is desperate for my master’s love.” Love had placed each of these three characters in misery throughout most of the play. Shakespeare also explains that love is exclusive: whereas some people achieve romantic happiness, others (like Malvolio or Antonio) are ultimately denied their object of desire. Another aspect of love that Shakespeare explores is the uncertainty of gender and how it affects love. Olivia claims to be in love with Caesario, and even though she thinks that Viola is a boy, she is attracted to the sensitive and feminine aspects that make up Caesario’s personality. Also, Orsino had subtly remarked several times upon Caesario’s beauty even before he knew that Caesario was a woman. Perhaps sometimes one gender may prefer certain characteristics or qualities of that same gender even though he/she is attracted to the opposite gender. Shakespeare appears to make fun of the traditions of romance, like the concept of writing secret love letters (mocked by Maria’s forged letter that caused Malvolio to foolishly chase after Olivia). Shakespeare deliberately presents Sir Andrew, who is supposed to be an honorable and romantic knight, as a pure idiot, as Olivia falls in love with a woman instead.
In my opinion, love should not cause one suffering if one does not let it. Each person has the power to accept the reality of things, however painful, and move on. Throughout the entire play, Orsino was miserable because he was fawning over Olivia, who was simply not interested in him. The second he decided to stop chasing after her and settle for Viola, he became perfectly content. There is one point that Shakespeare makes that I tend to disagree with. Both Olivia and Orsino seem to change their minds almost instantly and “fall in love” with someone else in a heartbeat. In reality, love takes time to develop—time to get to know a person, etc—and although Orsino’s change of mind is somewhat believable (since he has gotten to know Viola and was attracted to the kind of person she was before he even knew she was not a man), Olivia’s is completely unfathomable. Sebastian merely shows up, and Olivia’s love for Viola has channeled itself to him. Maybe both of these characters needed a “rebound,” someone to fill the void, so they each took the first possible option. If that is the case, both of those relationships would probably not end well, but Shakespeare ended the play so we will never know. J
