When you pull the bottom
tab of the waterfall card each flap opens up to finally reveal a single bigger
piece of paper. This is like the final act of Twelfth Night.
Each flap corresponds to each conflict that became
solved. Generally, there are four flaps in a waterfall card which can
correspond to four conflicts that were resolved in the play. One conflict is
Viola and Sebastian not knowing that they are both alive; once they saw each
other and started talking to each other they figured out who they were. Once
this was resolved, the others followed quickly after; just like once the tab is
pulled and the first flap is raised the others follow after. The second
conflict that was resolved was that Viola and Orsino could get married because
it was revealed that Viola is actually a woman. The third was Olivia and
Sebastian getting married because Sebastian looks like Cesario and the fourth
conflict that was resolved was Malvolio realizing that it was Maria that wrote
the letter and not Olivia. Finally, the large paper is all the marriages and
how all the knots smoothed out in the end.
The marriages that are
occurring at the end of Act V are Viola and Orsino, Olivia and Sebastian, and
Sir Toby and Maria. However, are any of these marriages based on love? Viola loved
Orsino, but Orsino never loved Viola. He didn’t know that she was a woman until
Act V. He still calls her Cesario and she never changes back into her own
clothing at the end of the act. Olivia loved Cesario, but married Sebastian
thinking that he was Cesario. Sebastian didn’t know who Olivia was until Act
III and he said how great is his luck and then agreed to marry her. Finally,
Sir Toby marries Maria because of her clever trick on Malvolio. All of these
marriages occurred very casually. Sebastian just accepted that Olivia wanted to
marry him without questioning anything, and because they were married and Viola
is actually a woman, it feels like Orsino had no other option than to marry
Viola, not because he actually loves her. Therefore, I don’t think that any of
these characters can be described as actually in love.
