Olivia
Play
Summary
Olivia is a wealthy countess of Illyria who has vowed to mourn her recently dead brother for seven years, refusing all suitors including the persistent Duke Orsino. When the disguised Viola arrives as Orsino's messenger, Olivia is immediately and helplessly captivated, creating the play's central comic complication. Her dignity and genuine feeling prevent her from being merely ridiculous; and when Sebastian appears — the mirror image of Cesario — she marries him, resolving the knot.
Notable Quotations
"I do I know not what, and fear to find / Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind." *(I.v)*
"Fate, show thy force: ourselves we do not owe; / What is decreed must be, and be this so." *(I.v)*
"How does he love me? / With adorations, fertile tears, / With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire." *(I.v)*
Cross-references
- Twelfth Night — the play
- Comedies — genre
- character_viola — Cesario, the object of her misdirected love
- character_orsino — the Duke who pursues her in vain
- character_malvolio — her pompous steward
- character_sebastian_twelfth — whom she marries, mistaking him for Cesario
- character_sir_toby — her carousing uncle who lives in her household
- character_feste — her licensed fool