Musings on Viola
Jul. 6th, 2007 02:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeI've been thinking about Viola and Olivia lately, and how they mirror each other in many ways. Both have dead (or presumed) dead brothers and are therefore in mourning (Olivia openly, Viola secretly). Both are of the nobility; both suffer from unrequited love. Even their names are anagrams. They spend far more time with each other than with the men with whom they end up--and their romantic resolution is uneasy (the Duke switches so quickly to Viola, it's hard to believe his sincerity, and Olivia is forced to transfer her affections to Sebastian).
Something else occurred to me last night. Viola says
You should not rest between the elements of air and earth
But you should pity me!
And then later on, after Olivia's babbling, desperate declaration of love, Viola can only say
I pity you.
Viola is now the subject, not the object--she's moved from the victim to a person of action. You can see this transformation in miniature in the first scene when she emerges from the water mourning her brother, and then stirs herself to assess the situation and think of a solution--"Knowst thou this country?" (Rosalind followed this same arc as well--from grief to "were it not better*, because that I am more than common small, that I did not suit me on all points as a youth?" all in 10-15 lines. Rosalind is less active than Viola though, partly because she doesn't have to be. She knows Orlando loves her, and she has a support system.)
I'd originally thought of Viola as a waif--and she is, circumstantially, but not in personality. Her situation is an obstacle, her grief is an obstacle--it's not what she is. Olivia and Orsino have the luxury of indulging in their emotions, whereas Viola is forced both to act, and is constrained from action. She's treading the dangerous line of when and how to act--this is actually helpful with that passage
She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief.
It's easy to relax into that monologue--it's so beautiful. But there's something she's trying to accomplish with it; it's a stratagem, a tactic, on some level. It's active, not passive. Now I just have to figure out her meta-motivation--why the heck does she then help Orsino accomplish what goes against her goal?
*Something else just occurred to me--Rosalind's suggestion is couched in somewhat passive, coy language--"were it not better...that I did not..." Whereas Viola sturdily declares "I'll serve this Duke." This makes sense--Rosalind is nothing if not coy. "I would cure you, if you would but call me Rosalind and come every day to my cote and woo me." She's such a tease.
Something else occurred to me last night. Viola says
You should not rest between the elements of air and earth
But you should pity me!
And then later on, after Olivia's babbling, desperate declaration of love, Viola can only say
I pity you.
Viola is now the subject, not the object--she's moved from the victim to a person of action. You can see this transformation in miniature in the first scene when she emerges from the water mourning her brother, and then stirs herself to assess the situation and think of a solution--"Knowst thou this country?" (Rosalind followed this same arc as well--from grief to "were it not better*, because that I am more than common small, that I did not suit me on all points as a youth?" all in 10-15 lines. Rosalind is less active than Viola though, partly because she doesn't have to be. She knows Orlando loves her, and she has a support system.)
I'd originally thought of Viola as a waif--and she is, circumstantially, but not in personality. Her situation is an obstacle, her grief is an obstacle--it's not what she is. Olivia and Orsino have the luxury of indulging in their emotions, whereas Viola is forced both to act, and is constrained from action. She's treading the dangerous line of when and how to act--this is actually helpful with that passage
She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief.
It's easy to relax into that monologue--it's so beautiful. But there's something she's trying to accomplish with it; it's a stratagem, a tactic, on some level. It's active, not passive. Now I just have to figure out her meta-motivation--why the heck does she then help Orsino accomplish what goes against her goal?
*Something else just occurred to me--Rosalind's suggestion is couched in somewhat passive, coy language--"were it not better...that I did not..." Whereas Viola sturdily declares "I'll serve this Duke." This makes sense--Rosalind is nothing if not coy. "I would cure you, if you would but call me Rosalind and come every day to my cote and woo me." She's such a tease.
