Analyze Viola's Disguise as a Boy

Analyze Viola’s Disguise as A Boy
  Viola is the main character in Twelfth Night, who disguises herself as a boy in order to protect herself when she failed to find her twin brother when they were shipwrecked, then becomes Orsino’s servant to try to win his love. The aim of disguise is to avoid being recognized by others and become something or someone contrary to who they actually were. So disguising allows people to be someone different from what they really are. And disguise is also regarded as a way to protect the person. Therefore, after Viola believed that her twin brother Sebastian to be dead in the shipwreck, she finds a way to protect herself, that is to disguise herself. Because she has no other family or relatives to care for her except her twin brother who she believed to be dead.
  At that time, women were not educated unless they were rich. So disguising herself as a boy could be a way of avoiding others’ attention. It was a convenience for Viola to become a servant in order to get close to Orsino, the Duke of Illyria to somehow win his love. For example, in one situation when Viola is going to talk to Olivia for the Duke, her disguise is awkward because she is trying to fill a role that she has no idea how to play. She is just a young adult around the age of seventeen. Because of her disguise, she has to be both herself and Cesario. She is still confusing with the man and woman roles. On the one hand, she has to learn how to be a man from Orsino through his behaviors and his talks with other people. On the other hand, because of the disguise she is confused of being a woman. She is confused of being a young woman who is falling in love with Orsino. But through her disguise, we can see her strength and intellect. It helps her in her pursuit of love. First, she chooses her words skillfully when she wants to tell Orsino that she loves him. Her passion drives her to tell him how she feels. At the same time, she must not let him guess that she is a...