In Twelfth Night no Hero but Heroines, Do you agree?

By JH Sayyar

Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy and it entirely deals with the love affair between Orsino and Olivia. However, Viola plays an important role in this love affair disguising her in the dress of a man. Disguising herself she acts as a messenger of Orsino in the court of Olivia who has rejected the love of Orsino. Viola is the central figure of the play. It is a perfect amalgam of two plots: a love plot and an under plot of a comic nature concerned with the trick played upon Malvolio to constitute romance in the former and comedy in the later. In this respect the plot and the characters are interdependent on each other.

The plot revolves around the character: what is character: the determination incidents; what is incident, the illustration of a character. The chief character of a comedy or a tragedy on which our interest lies becomes its hero. So foe as Twelfth Night is concerned whether its hero is male or female or it is without a hero.

The overall study of Twelfth Night reveals that no male character fulfils the requirements of a perfect hero. Orsino may not be called its hero because he does not fulfill it requirements. So Shakespeare sought the perfect balance of character and heroic qualities in a woman. We may call the central heroine of the play is Viola who leads the whole play. She deceives both of the persons: Olivia and the Duke, Orsino, disguising her in male dress with her cunning art of beauty. She alone is able to shape the world of happiness that is virtually the aim of the play.

Here Lark Jackson says, “The hero of the play is Viola because the whole incidents of the play move around her from the beginning till end. On the other hand she fulfils all the requirements of a hero: good face, good character, good talking, and lifelike role, and her change of fortune is with discovery.” So Viola shows her resolution, courage and resourcefulness and heroism.

When she is left all alone on the sea coast after shipwreck, the interest of the other characters arises mainly from her connection with them. Her character provides unfailing link that draws all pats into true dramatic consistency in a beautiful way. It was Viola who taught Orsino and Olivia how to love, how to enjoy love and how to get love.

After shipwrecking she is brought into the court of Orsino as a helpless messenger. Therefore, she gets service in the court of the duke as a page. She wins his confidence and faith. She is appointed the messenger to Olivia to win her love for the Duke. She successfully wins Olivia’s heart for the Duke concealing her sex under a male disguise. So at the end the revelation of sex resolves the mystery of the play.

As we know that the Duke Orsino is weak, erring, mortal… a sentimental and egoistic

man. When she reaches in the court of Viola she starts loving her considering her a young man. On the other hand, Olivia is a woman and her womanliness triumphs over the masculine folly and impudence of the Duke and Sebastian. According to Hazlitt, “Viola leaves a great impression of her beauty on the other characters of the play. Her tenderness and hard trial of her love makes her the hero of the play.” She was beautiful and has lovely lips, smooth neck and a cute face and courage of a man and the power of character. Therefore, Olivia exclaims in these words about the beauty of Viola:

“Thy tongue, thy face and thy limbs

Action and spirit

Do give the five fold blazon.”

Even Olivia exclaims in praise of Viola in these words:

“o what a dear of scorn looks beautiful

In the contempt and anger of lip.”

The hero of the play is active. She acts upon the thoughts of the audience. Main characteristics of the hero are these: her womanliness, her modesty, her confidence, and her strong determination make her the true hero of the play. She is neutral and sincere to Olivia and Orsino. She tell her secret of disguise to Olivia in these words but forbids her in these words:

“As I am woman… now alas the day.”

Here Coleridge says. ”The secret charm of Viola’s character is her feminine loveliness of all Shakespeare’s females who assume masculine attire makes her true hero of the play.” Her memory is sharper because she does not forget that she is acting as a male messenger is and deceiving Olivia and Orsino.

To sum up, the women of the play are superior to men intelligence- wise, Without Viola the play loses its charm sure. Viola, Rosalind, and Portia are the heroines of Shakespeare that act like man in the play. She is happy in misfortune, has confidence in acting, skill to hide her sex till end, and quick intelligence to deceive others. Viola’s struggle against her sex is remarkable through the play. It is the main quality that declares her the heroine of the play without any exaggeration.