Olivia: Love At First Sight?

Viola and Olivia during thier first meeting.

What is Olivia attracted to?

Because Viola is a woman a necessary consequence is that she have the emotions of a woman, and in turn knows what a woman wants to hear. In the first meeting between Viola and Olivia as Viola attempts to pursue Olivia on behalf of Orsino, Olivia continues to refuse Orsino’s advances. But as Viola uses her woman’s intuition to tell Olivia how she would woo her if she were Orsino, Olivia begins to fall for Viola. This scene is problematic because the course of the conference takes no more than ten minutes yet already Olivia feels strong sentiments for Viola. Undoubtedly she is attracted to Viola’s androgynous looks, and her youth, but might she also be attracted to her womanly attributes. Shakespeare challenges the conventional conception of love between a man and a woman in this scene because really, Olivia is attracted to Viola’s explanation of how she would woo her. Viola accidentally wins the affections of Olivia.

The Emotions of Viola

This accidental wooing of Olivia is completely against the conventional style of wooing that Orsino is trying to employ. “Instead of poetic flourishes we have something more psychologically telling as Olivia … starts to angle for Viola’s erotic attention” (Draper 91). Essentially as Olivia is being wooed she begins to become the pursuer. She is attracted to the flow of emotions that come from Viola as she unwittingly ensnares both herself and Olivia into a prison of unrequited love.

The androgyny of Viola

Shakespeare uses the androgyny of Viola to challenge conventional conceptions of the importance of sex in everyday relationships. He uses Olivia’s attraction to Viola to call the audiences attention to recognize society’s, “unconscious appreciation of that androgynous ideal which is normally conceived in youth” (Bryant 173). Olivia is attracted to Viola’s looks evidenced by her short speech after Viola leaves as she praises Viola saying, “Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs … Do give thee five-fold blazon” (I.v.269-270). Although she does not know, Olivia is attracted to a woman, which calls into question the importance of sexuality in the first place.

Olivia is wooed both by Viola’s expression of unrequited love which she does not realize is directed towards Orsino, and by Viola’s genderless qualities. Shakespeare uses this relationship to set the stage for a recurring theme in Twelfth Night, the importance of sexuality.

The Viola-Sebastian Switch
The conclusion of Twelfth Night is mass confusion amongst all the characters as Viola is revealed to be a woman, Olivia realizes that she has married a stranger, and Orsino accepts his feelings for Viola as sexual. At a glance the ending seems to be merry and unproblematic. But there are several problems with this ending. Mainly, how can Olivia be so calm about the fact that she now has a man for a husband she has barely even spoken to?

Love at First Sight
Because Olivia so quickly fell in love with Viola one might argue that this “love” was mere attraction and therefore her switch to Sebastian was so simple because they have the same appearance. If this is the case, most know that people who are attracted to each other but have nothing in common generally have unstable relationships because there is no foundation. In this instance, the present may seem merry, but the future for Olivia and Sebastian appears dark.

Love of Convenience
One scholar makes a very practical argument for the ease with which Olivia accepts Sebastian as her husband. This scholar calls the readers attention to the fact that throughout most of Act V Olivia is almost cruelly embarrassed because she assumes that the man she’s married is abandoning her. In fact until Sebastian enters, she is allowed to, “live with that uncertainty through much of the final act’ (Hassel 158). So as she is more and more thoroughly embarrassed this scholar would assert that this sets the stage for her acceptance of Sebastian. When Sebastian finally appears and Viola is revealed, “Olivia’s humiliating love for the unattainable Viola-Cesario lets her embrace Sebastian with relief and happiness” (Hassel 167). Basically Hassel asserts that the love Olivia has for Sebastian is one of convenience.

The simple forms of love that Olivia displays reveals her immature notions of love. The ease with which she changes her affections show her slightly flighty nature. Shakespeare uses Olivia to make a commentary both on the idea of sexuality in love and the upper class’ frivolity in love.