Scene 5

• Scene 4 is set in Olivia's household, introducing Olivia herself, Malvolio and Feste
• Feste tries to jest Olivia out of her melancholy but Malvolio expresses his disapproval of the clown
• Viola arrives on Orsino's behalf and is granted and audience with Olivia
• During Olivia and Viola's private conversation in which Viola tells her of Orsino's love, Olivia begins to fall in love with the messenger (whom she believes to be a young man)
• Olivia sends Malvolio after Viola to give him a ring and with the message for her to return the next day to hear the reasons why Olivia cannot accept Orsino
• Olivia has been mentioned in 3 previous scenes, building an audience expectation of her, now we see her the impression doesn't entirely accord with the accounts we have been given of her as she seems to be a capable head of her household, engages in wordplay and delivers her opinions
• The introduction of Malvolio is stark and dramatic as he has had a silent presence in the exchange between Feste and Olivia
• Malvolio's first words are "Doth he not mend" questioning Feste, this creates his first impression as a kill-joy and brutal
• Olivia analyses Malvolio as "sick of self-love" indicating how the plot will unfold, narcistic personality
• In her first encounter with Olivia, Viola comically alternates between a prepared eulogy and deflating commentary as if she is not addressing it to the right woman, she borderlines of as being quite disrespectful to Olivia which seems to be maverick and causes Olivia to find Viola attractive
• Viola's witty remarks to Olivia are much more charismatic than the flowery and impersonal language of Orsino's passions in scene 1, it is presumably these that prompt Olivia to grant a private meeting with the messenger
• Viola's speech is persuasive and almost seems like a proclamation of love, not by messenger but by a lover in person. Olivia responds asking about parentage and trying to establish the suitability of a potential husband
• Viola's powerful speech uses first person and the yearing could derive from her longing to be with Orsino
• After Viola leaves, Olivia has a soliloquy and she expresses the uncertainty of what is happening to her and perhaps she has fallen in love with the looks of this attractive page rather than making a rational decision about where to place her affections
• By Olivia giving Cesario a symbolic token, telling him of his perfection, gender roles are reversed as knight usually gives maiden a symbol of his love not the other way round