The marriages, just like Olivia, are beautiful in a particular moment in time. By ending the play when he does, Shakespeare leaves us imagining the happy couple’s portraits, not their futures. We are given a perfect sliver of their lives where lack of depth can be forgotten. Shakespeare crafts Olivia’s portrait metaphor to portray the fickle nature of beauty, and to emphasize his appreciation of wit and substance when compared to it. As Feste reminds us as a counter to Olivia’s metaphor at the end of the play, “By swaggering could I never thrive, for the rain it raineth every day” (5.1.392-393). Unlike intelligence and wisdom, beauty is fleeting with time. Which unfortunately just keeps moving
The marriages, just like Olivia, are beautiful in a particular moment in time. By ending the play when he does, Shakespeare leaves us imagining the happy couple’s portraits, not their futures. We are given a perfect sliver of their lives where lack of depth can be forgotten. Shakespeare crafts Olivia’s portrait metaphor to portray the fickle nature of beauty, and to emphasize his appreciation of wit and substance when compared to it. As Feste reminds us as a counter to Olivia’s metaphor at the end of the play, “By swaggering could I never thrive, for the rain it raineth every day” (5.1.392-393). Unlike intelligence and wisdom, beauty is fleeting with time. Which unfortunately just keeps moving