True love and self love

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  • True love & self-love
    • Orsino
      • His initial passion for Olivia is based on idea of himself as a lover
        • 'my desires like fell and cruel hounds e'er since pursue me'
          • Hyperbolic and cliched language
          • Blank verse makes his speech seem artificial and fake
            • self love draws parallels to the myth of Narcissus, who becomes transfixed with his reflection
        • It would have been rare for a man of Orsino's status to chose a lover himself
          • Presents him as foolish and naive to an Elizabethan audience; marriages were often arranged
        • Peter Cash- wildly inconsistent behaviour, character with most self love
      • Orsino's emotional concern for Cesario eclipses his passion for Olivia
        • 'I should you lordship. And what's her history'
          • Shared line of iambic pentameter; deeper meaning to relationship
          • Destined to be together
        • Viola educates Orsino out of his narcissistic views on love
          • Orsino believes that he feels more passionately than women
            • 'no motion of the liver'
            • dramatic irony: Viola tells Orsino indirectly about her love for him, demonstrating women can feel passionately
              • 'like a worm i'th'bud'
                • Metaphor shows bottling up her love is killing her
      • Relationship based on could be based on mistaken identity
        • 1996 film, Trevor Nunn, sexual intimacy between Orsino and Viola; the pair kiss, shows Orsino is in love with a male
          • Emma Smith- Orsino questions his sexuality, he feel for the boy Cesario
        • Viola would have been played by a man in Elizabethan times (women not allowed on stage)
    • Olivia
      • Uses her mourning as a smokescreen
        • Women would have belonged to their fathers, then a husband, Olivia has independence
      • Her declaration of love to Cesario is heart-felt and shows her despair
        • 'I had rather hear you to solicit that'
          • Extra syllable- hypermetric- heightens her emotional state, showing her passion for Cesario
      • Relationship based on mistaken identity
        • Samuel Johnson criticised lack of credibility in Olivia's marriage to Seb
    • Antonio
      • Arguably the only character in the play who acts selflessly for the one they love
      • Love is a cause of suffering for him
      • 'I do adore thee so'
        • Speaks in verse once Seb has left
          • Could show his love for Seb is of a high standing, places importance on his love

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