There is no woman's sides / Can bide the beating of so strong a passion... (Twelfth Night)

Orsino: "There is no woman’s sides
Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
As love doth give my heart; no woman’s heart
So big, to hold so much. They lack retention.
Alas, their love may be called appetite,
No motion of the liver, but the palate,
That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt.
But mine is all as hungry as the sea,
And can digest as much. Make no compare
Between that love a woman can bear me
And that I owe Olivia."

In this passage from Twelfth Night, Orsino makes the argument that a woman's love cannot be anywhere near as strong as the love of a man; he claims that a woman's sheer physicality simply lacks the capacity for a man's love, and he compares the love of a woman to a fleeting "appetite," or superficial craving, in contrast to his love for Olivia, which he (quite wrongly) sees as substantive and everlasting. Orsino makes this speech to Viola (as "Cesario") -- who indirectly offers her own love/anguish for Orsino himself as a counterexample. He claimes that women "lack retention," but as a matter of fact, Viola's love for Orsino himself is *the* only love in the play that actually remains consistent. The audience would be aware of the ridiculousness of Orsino's speech while he makes it (especially since his love for Olivia is fairly clearly superficial), which refutes this perceived role of men and women in romantic relationships. The fact that Orsino is giving this speech to the person he ends up suddenly switching his affections to by the end creates an extra layer of metatheatrical irony. (Additionally, Orsino's response to Viola, in which he assumes that she, as a man, is actually his/her own non-existent sister, contributes to the discord / chaos of the play.) The passage also ties in to the fact that, through the play, love is demonstrated to be equally profound for men and women, but frequently in taking the form of suffering.

Stephanie Solis
1B