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When ‘Cesario’ Goes to Woo Olivia, the Speech

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Submitted By amirarayner
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When ‘Cesario’ goes to woo Olivia, the speech that ‘he’ makes highlights the ridiculousness of this kind of adoration. He begins with “"Most radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty"”, but is forced to a stop because he doesn’t even know if he is addressing the right person, because he “"never saw her"”. The irony emphasises the satire of the way in which men woo women

his sincerity is reflected in a different relationship in Twelfth Night, that of Orsino and Viola. Although Orsino has not known that his ‘man’ Cesario is really a woman, the relationship they have is much more sincere and based on truth and friendship, which means that when he realises the truth of the situation he asks her to marry him. Both the love depicted in Sonnet 130 and the relationship of Orsino and Viola would surely have the approval of the narrator of Christina Walsh’s A Woman to Her Lover, who wants “"co-equal love"” based on truth, rather than any kind of idealisation that makes the woman into an “"angel"” or a “"doll"”.

His real love and real interest is his own poetry, and the name he is making for himself. This (much more modern) poem rather reflects Orsino’s own character in Twelfth Night: he is more interested in listening to music and Feste’s sad songs than going to make Olivia marry him. Viola partly wins Olivia’s heart by saying what she would do if she were Orsino, the first thing being to come and make camp outside Olivia’s house. This speech draws the reaction from Olivia: “"you might do much"”.

Typically in Shakespeare's comedies, the transforming and redemptive power of genuine (selfless) love is contrasted with the stagnant nature of self-seeking love. This contrast is vividly dramatized in "Twelfth Night," as the plot is entirely driven by the search for love.
False love is reduced to absurdity in order to elevate more dramatically the significant power of true

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