The Character of Viola

Jacob Horine

English II

Ms. Sweezey

2/13/13

The Character of Viola(Cesario)

Viola is Twelfth Night’s gender-bending heroine. Viola is a survivor of a shipwreck in which, Viola believes, that her brother tragically lost his life. We first meet Viola as she washes upon the shore of Illyria. The grieving sister then decides to cross dress as a man to get work for the Duke, Orsino. Viola (or Cesario, as everyone knows her so far), finally becomes Orsino’s messenger with the main objective of trying to sweep Olivia, Orsino’s love interest, off of her feet. Viola, disguised as a man, soon realizes that she has done too good of a job, and has now created a love triangle between Olivia, Cesario, and Orsino. Viola then turns from grieving sister, to hopeless lover. As the play comes to a close and Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother, returns, Viola is able to return as a woman and is able to express her feelings that she has gained since arriving in Illyria.

            Viola can be described as a grieving sister, “O my poor brother! And so perchance may he be,”(Shakespeare I.ii). After she arrives on the coast of Illyria, she finally has the realization that her brother, Sebastian, was more than likely killed when the ship wrecked. This is the point where Viola decides that she is going to dress like a man and gain work in the Duke’s court. She states that she is going to cross dress to figure out some things and to gain time, but the real reason could be that she can’t live life without her brother, and cross dressing is a way to still have him in her life even though he presumably died.

Viola then transforms into a helpless lover after becoming trapped within a love triangle, “O time! Thou must untangle this, not I; It is too hard a know for me to untie,”(Shakespeare II.ii). Viola then realizes that she has created something that she just cannot control and leaves it up to time to figure out. At this point in time, she has become a hopeless romantic. When she finally becomes fully infatuated with Orsino,” he pined in thought, And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like patience on a monument, Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed,”(Shakespeare II.iv). She finally realizes that she is deep in love and there is nothing she can do about it.

Viola is the Twelfth Night’s gender-bending heroine. Viola plays the major part as the protagonist and evolves rapidly over the course of the story. Her transformation from grieving sister to hopeless romantic can be observed within Twelfth Night. She is the creator of the love triangle, and ultimately is able to reveal her true feelings to everyone who believed she was a man. Since this is a Shakespearean romantic story, everything finally works out in the end for everyone involved.