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In six of Shakespeare's best known comedies, the chief characters, according to Joseph Westlund, usually start with a conception of themselves and of the world around them that is idealized rather than realistic. By the end of the
plays, however, most of them adopt a more realistic view of themselves and others; and Westlund argues that this process can be illuminated by making use of the concepts of reparation and healthy narcissism, as developed by Melanie Klein, Heinz Kohut, and other psychoanalysts. In Measure for Measure, for example, Angelo must give up his belief in absolute justice, Isabella her belief in absolute chastity, and even the Duke must seriously modify his idea of a wise and omnipotent ruler. Sometimes, however, as in Twelfth Night, the main characters hold on to their idealized conceptions of themselves and others but (except for Malvolio) are not punished for these illusions but rewarded by happy marriage.
This happy outcome is at variance with most of the other comedies, where the lovers must learn to see through the disguises that hide the truth about themselves and others, before they can rein their proper mates, for example, Benedict, Beatrice, Claudio, Hero, Orlando, Phoebe. So there is a genuine and long-standing problem in Twelfth Night, and Westlund's use of psychoanalytic concepts does go a long way toward its solution. He argues that the “penchant for idealizing [on the part of Orsino, Olivia, and, to some extent, Viola] for attributing excellence to themselves and others which is not really there” is a positive quality, examples of a “healthy narcissism” and of a universal need (as defined respectively by Kohut and Klein).
Thus, by disguising herself as a young man and acting as Orsino's surrogate wooing Olivia, Viola (as Cesario) confirms Orsino's sense of perfection at the same time as “she frustrates and tempers ASCII Value=151 but never destroys ASCII Value=151 his illusory sense of omnipotence with regard to Olivia, to love, and