Viola is a young woman from a noble background, and the twin sister of Sebastian, who finds herself shipwrecked on the island of Illyria. She is cunning and independent, disguising herself as the male Cesario to gain employment in Count Orsino’s court. There, she uses her shrewdness and eloquence to gain Orsino’s trust. This eloquence also causes Olivia to fall in love with her.

While Viola is an independent and intelligent character, making her way through the world as a man, she is also largely marked by her love for the men of the play. This includes her brother Sebastian, but primarily her love for Orsino, whom she declares she loves “more than my life / More by all mores than e’er I shall love wife” (V.1.139-140). Though she ultimately ends up with Orsino at the play’s end, for much of the play she is tortured by her unrequited love since Orsino loves Olivia. Pretending as though he is speaking about a sister, Cesario tells Orsino that she “pine[s] in thought, / and with a green and yellow melancholy/ […] [sits] like Patience on a monument, smiling at grief” (II.5.124-127).