Oliva Getting The Short End Of The Stick

Shakespeare plays are mostly known for having a huge conflict and towards the end it works toward a “tidy” ending where social order is restored and couples are paired off to have a happy ever after. But for the Shakespeare play Twelfth Night it’s quite interesting how at one point we are rooting for Oliva for going after her man ‘Cesario’ because instead of just sitting around and waiting for him to come to her like a typical situation that was expected from a woman during that time by being silent. She is the one taking control by proposing to him and also breaking away from the idea that she should marry a man of the same age and social status. Granted “he” was really Viola it was still awesome to see a woman character taking control of the situation and acting rebellious.

But all of that was lost towards the end of the play because even after Viola reveals the big secret that she isn’t ‘Cesario’ but instead a girl, one would expect to see Oliva be one to hold a grudge and become infuriated for being the most deceived. But instead she disappoints us all with just quickly moving on to loving, Viola’s look-alike brother Sebastian. Who she knows nothing about because it was Viola who was the one who caught Oliva’s eye, not Sebastian. Oliva easily was able to transfer all of her passion for ‘Cesario’ into a relationship with Sebastian when she marries Viola's look-alike brother.

Yet somehow her marriage to Sebastian helps to reestablish the play's sense of social order because it leads back to how Shakespeare’s play almost always ends with marriage and that would pretty much lead to reestablishing the order in the world. Oliva’s character was a huge disappointment and the ending was quite awful because it portrayed her as pretty much willing to settle down for anyone. Which leads to the conclusion that she couldn’t become independent but rather have a male figure in her life in order to feel a sense of belonging.

Shakespeare Plot and Modern Counterparts

We’ve seen a lot of deception in the past few plays: As You Like It, Merchant of Venice, and Twelfth Night. When I looked at the basics of these plots, I realized these plays are similar to many movies today. There’s the double-identity plot in As You Like It, manipulative scheming in Merchant of Venice, and the imposter and cross-dressing of Twelfth Night. These elements are certainly not limited to Shakespearean theater, and if you think about it, they are probably present in some of your favorite movies.

For example, here are some of my favorite plot counterparts:

You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Like Rosalind, Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) acts as both Kathleen Kelly’s (Meg Ryan) best friend and object of her affection. She doesn’t realize that Joe Fox, who she actually hated at first but then befriended—is also the man she met online. By acting as Kathleen Kelly’s best friend, Joe Fox asserts her feelings for himself, the anonymous email buddy—just as Rosalind does. The big reveal of Joe Fox as her online love interest ends in the epic line: “I wanted it to be you” (sobs), as sweet as Orlando’s realization, “If there be truth in sight, you are my Rosalind” (5.4.108).

Mean Girls (2004)

If you really think about it, this classic is not far off from The Merchant of Venice. Just hear me out. Cady (Lohan) pretends to be friends with the most popular girls in school in order to get closer to Aaron and secure her friendship with Janis and Damien. In a similar way, Portia impersonates a judge to secure her finances (Bassanio’s debt) and her husband’s loyalty. In both situations, the impersonators seem to bite off more than they can chew: Portia ruins the life of Shylock by taking away his livelihood; Cady hurts Janis and Damien by becoming a mean girl herself. Portia nearly loses Bassanio’s loyalty when he says “I would lose all [wife and life], ay, sacrifice them all / … to deliver you [Antonio]” (4.1.281-2)—willing to get rid of his own wife for the sake of his best friend. Similarly, Cady loses her true friends when Janis says, “You’re a bitch. You’re a mean girl.” Luckily, both heroines win back the affection of their friends and lovers by revealing themselves as imposters. Cady reconciles with her friends by breaking the tiara and apologizing; while Portia succeeds in her scheme and asserts her success, “You are all amazed” (5.1.265).

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Like Viola and Sebastian, Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) are forced to flee from dire situations. The shipwreck of Twelfth Night is similar to the mob killings Joe and Jerry witness, leading them to run from the mafia with an all-girls singing group. Dressed in drag, like Viola, both men end up falling for their lead singer, Sugar (Marilyn Monroe). While Joe ends up with Sugar, Jerry has to ward off the millionaire Osgood who fell in love with him in drag. Most interesting about this relationship is Osgood’s response to Jerry: when Jerry says, “I’m a man!” Osgood responds, “Well, nobody’s perfect.” Osgood’s quasi-acceptance of the gender-reversal loosely parallels Orsino’s continuing habit of calling Viola “boy” (5.1.260). Overall, the tension between the characters in and out of drag is portrayed as comical and seemingly experimental. 

What does this say about Shakespeare? His works are indeed everlasting, and in part for their timeless drama and plot devices. If we look closely, we can see a lot of similarities between the works of old, like Shakespeare, and the new.

Who is Trustworthy in a Relationship?

If you do not meet a significant other at the bar or church, where are you supposed to meet him or her at?

Some of my friends and I discussed this question previously as we felt it hard to meet decent individuals. Although we laugh and joke at apps like Tinder and online dating websites, it is heavily becoming the norm in our culture to find our counterparts online before actually meeting them in person.

How do we know that people online are actually who they say they are? Scary as it can be, we don’t know for sure. The profile each individual sets up can be presented in a manner that gives us an assumption or perception that may be misleading. For example, Brad Paisley’s song “Online” is about an individual setting up his life to look “cool” and basically “entertaining” in an online platform where his true identity can remain hidden. The problem with this—besides the fact people can outright lie—is people can choose to only include the positive information about themselves while leaving out negative flaws that might disturb their viewers. So while one might risk being caught with their fake or partially fake identity, they seem to find the outcome pleasing enough to continue hiding their true character.

This deception characters and personality has occurred long before the internet allowed people a platform to hide behind. Shakespeare in his cleverness, was able to disguise male actors playing female roles that dressed as men, perhaps not to score a date or look cool online but to get ahead in terms of gender equality. We see Rosalind transform to Ganymede and Celia as Aliena in the play As You Like It. In Twelfth Night, Viola disguises herself as Cesario. Olivia ends up falling in love with Sebastian, but clearly it is not the Sebastian she thinks it is. She ends up taking herself to marriage because of Viola’s deception, in which she thinks she is marrying Viola’s personality when instead she marries the actual Sebastian.

The difference today that the online platform contains is the range and flexibility with which people can display themselves. They are held less credible to their true identities and are harder to track down. Even if someone posts under their own name on social media, that person could refute that it actually happened by claiming someone else hacked his or her account. Then, who is to blame?

 At least before the power of online, people were likely to be caught for their mischievous behavior. In Twelfth Night, Malvolio was tricked of Olivia’s identity by Fabian and Sir Toby with the help of Maria. This prank of acting as Olivia is revealed simply because Olivia explains to Malvolio it is not her handwriting. If this had been typed out instead of written, the scheme may have worked.

While the credibility of some online dating sites and apps is not trustworthy, it may be the new avenue for successfully finding the person one desires. It might take crawling through a few liars or sketchy people, or perhaps a marriage to someone you really don’t know like Olivia, but hopefully it leads to happiness like many of Shakespeare’s marriages do at the end of his plays.