The Physical and Emotional Attraction in Twelfth Night.
Lust, desire, love - these are the stages an individual goes through when having a physical and emotional attraction towards someone. However, lust does not always transform itself into a stronger desire or love for that matter. Representative of this are the characters in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night where physical and emotional relationships result in varying degrees of attraction that never quite reach true love.
The physical attraction is what happens to the body when an individual makes contact with another individual for the first time. This contact can be tactile or visual. When the Duke's "eyes did see Olivia first" (1.1.20) that "instant was [he] turned into a hart, and [his] desires, like fell and cruel hounds; E'er since pursue [him]" (1.1.22-24). The moment the Duke saw Olivia he knew that he wanted her and no one else. The Duke did not need to touch Olivia to feel some type of attraction towards her. The vision of her simply met his physical needs, which is the only reason he liked her so much. Another occasion when Shakespeare illustrated physical attraction is when Olivia meets Cesario for the first time. She describes to the audience "thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit Do give thee fivefold blazon. Not too fast; soft, soft Methinks I feel this youth's perfections" (1.5.293-297). Here, Olivia's attraction is again purely physical because all she describes was his physical characteristics rather than his intellect or how she felt about him emotionally. Olivia's attraction towards him rose simply out of her lust. She did not address his personality because she was completely satisfied with the "youth's perfections" (1.5.297) dealing with his physical being. Even when Olivia figured out about Sebastian, she never opposed to the fact of getting married with him. Also, the relationship between Olivia and Sebastian is an unadulterated physical attraction because they did not really have a conversation of common interest.