Orsino - Characterisation from Twelfth Night - Act 2
...s scene we see Orsino as the courtly lover with the following words:- “For such as I am, all true lovers are: Unstaid and skittish in all motions else Save in the constant image of the creature That is belov’d.” Orsino and Cesario (Viola) talk about Cesario’s love life, with Viola describing Orsino himself, though he didn’t realize this. “Of your complexion” “ “About your years, my lord” As they are conversing, we see that Orsino has the typical notions that they had then. Men should not fall in love with women who were older than them, as beauty does not stay forever. “For women are as roses, whose fair flower Being once display’d, doth fall that very hour” Feste and Curio enter the court and Orsino asks Feste to sing the song, which he heard him sing the previous night. He finds it silly for the song to be talking about the innocence of love. “it is silly sooth, And dallies with the innocence of love” Once Feste stops singing, Orsino tells Cesario to go to Olivia one again, and tells him to tell her that he doesn’t care about her land and riches, but only her love. “Tell her my love, more noble than the world, Prizes not quantity of dirty lands ... That nature pranks her in, attracts my soul” We then see Orsino compare his love with the sea, giving us a simile about it: “But mine is all hungry as the sea” He says that his love is never-ending and that it’s always hungry, never being satisfied with the only exception of his love for Olivia to be returned. In a way, however, we see Orsino putting down women’s love with this simile, as he clearly states that: “no woman’s heart so big, to hold so much. They lack retention.” He thinks that it is only he who has the ability to stay constant in his love and has such a big heart that he will never be satisfied with love, whereas women aren’t constant and are just playing around. The...