According to Webster’s Dictionary, love is defined as “affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests” (“Love”) This feeling can be exhibited in a variety of states and outlets; meaning it can also come in a variety of forms. The Twelfth Night is a morality play that displays multiple facets of love (Bruckner). Shakespeare exhibits love within The Twelfth Night in four forms; that of friendship, obsessive, selfish love and true love.
In Twelfth Night, Feste asks the “most simple and at the same time most complex of questions,” “What is Love?” (The English Review). Some people believe that love is easy, effortless, and leads to fairytale endings. However, in Twelfth Night, Shakespeare shows the other side of love. Love is not a simple feeling, and it is a confusing emotion which leads to heartbreak, or pure happiness. These two polar opposites are derived from either true or false love. Shakespeare portrays the idea that love is not always easy, and differentiates between false and true love in Twelfth Night.
Examine how Shakespeare presents love in Act 1 Scene 1 of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
Shakespeare uses many different themes to present love; relationships, conflict, magic, dreams and fate. Overall, he presents it as something with the ability to make us act irrationally and foolishly. Within A Midsummer Night's Dream we see many examples of how being 'in love' can cause someone to change their perspective entirely. 'The path of true love never did run smooth' is a comment made from one of the main characters, Lysander, which sums up the play's idea that lovers always face difficult hurdles on the path to happiness and will usually turn them into madmen.
Different Types of Love in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night In this play, Twelfth Night, there are various kinds of love presented but they can be categorized as true love and infatuation. There is also another kind of love portrayed in this play which is friendship. Self-love is surely one other factor in this play. Well, what is the definition of love? True love to be exact. True love is basically based on inner qualities and actions. It is genuine and sincere. It is sacrificial meaning that it serves others. True love is driven by reason, principles of trust and commitment. It is centered on pleasing the other party. One character that shows true love is Viola. Well, then what is They are being deceived by themselves and/or the others around them. There are certain instances in the play where the emotion of love is true, and the two people involved feel very strongly toward one another. Viola's love for Orsino is a great example of true love. Almost every type of love is expressed, Sibling relationships, Genuine love, Self-love leading to complete blind love. Love is also closely associated with madness and the characters seem to go to ultimate extremes to obtain the love they desire. At the core of the play, is the love triangle between Olivia, Viola and Orsino adding suspense, comedy and drama. Friendship is a kind of love expressed in "Twelfth Night." The biggest and closest friendship would have to be between Orsino and Cesario. They barely knew each other at first, and before long Orsino was telling Cesario his inner love for Olivia. He even had Cesario running his love messages to Olivia. The second friendship between Viola and the Sea Captain was not mentioned a lot, but they had a very deep bond
Different Kinds of Love in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Twelfth Night, in itself, portrays many hidden meanings and themes that speak out to different people, in different ways. Shakespeare makes use of the many characters, and choreographs different steps and creates relationships
Views on Love in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Twelfth Night was written in the …… century, by the renowned author, William Shakespeare as one of his comedic plays. It is now one of his most famous works and has been made into several films. The story explores the ups and downs of love and relationships, covering everything from intimate ones, to sexual ones, to friendly ones. In Act 1, Scene 1, the Duke Orsino, who is infatuated with Lady Olivia, and will later become involved in a love triangle with her and Viola (Cesario) is in a his palace mourning his love for Olivia. Shakespeare makes sure to use plenty of metaphors and similes and word-play with complicated sentences and words, to "Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,". Orsino compares his love to the sea, and says that it's much bigger than a anything else could possibly be and like the sea, when u drop something into it, it just disappears, just as he sees his love for Olivia is, nothing will make a difference to it. The hyperbole he uses in his speech could be Shakespeare's way of showing us how sure and full of himself Orsino is, exuding arrogance in something like love, which is supposed to be very modest. Orsino uses clever word play with Curio around the word "hart", once again showing his status, but also showing us that he turns every hypothetical solution to his situation into something about him and his misery. Orsino idealizes Olivia. "O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence". He describes her as if she is perfect, so perfect in fact that she can purify the air just by being there, and that makes us wonder if he is really interested in her or just this idea he has of
However the idea of love is faked by the use of the magical love juice which confuses their love and makes the victim fall uncontrollably in love with the first person or animal they see which represents the idea of love in real life, humans can fall stupidly in love with someone and have no choice or a way of stopping it because it’s natural. The use of love strongly mimics the idea of love in real life and Shakespeare is trying to portray the reality of humans; how ‘true love’ is an illusion and every human being has a different perspective of it. The idea of reality and fantasy is important because during the times that the play was written was in the Elizabethan era and they strongly believed in the fantasy world; fairies and the devil. The play uses dramatic irony and this was an important part of a comedy because it shows that the audience know more than the characters producing humour, almost like a pantomime (when the audience shout things out at the actors to tell them what’s happening).
Twelfth Night, Or What You Will, written by Shakespeare during the Elizabethan era, centers around the convoluted and shifting nature of love. The play makes a point that the ways in which love and affection are expressed and interpreted differ amongst the different social classes. Count Orsino and Lady Olivia, representing the upper class of the nobility, demonstrate their love in grand, impersonal gestures, whereas Viola, whose status is slightly lower, does so in a selfless, more authentic manner. This stark difference in how these two classes perceive love is also seen in how quickly the feelings of Orsino and Olivia change for their love interests once someone new comes along. The nobility has little to no sense of what genuine love is, which is seen in both their frivolous displays of affection and how quickly they are able to fall for someone new.
Love is shown in numerous ways; it can also be classified as true or fake. There is love at first sight and developing love, nonetheless, love is complicated and it is something that can transform through time. William Shakespeare, the writer of the playA Midsummer Night’s Dream, suggests that “love
William Shakespeare regularly called the English national writer, is generally viewed as the best playwright ever .William Shakespeare was immersed on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. From around 1594 forward he was a critical individual from the Lord Chamberlain's Men organization of showy players. Love in Shakespeare is an intermittent topic. The treatment of affection in Shakespeare's plays and poems is exceptional for the time: the Bard blends cultured adoration, solitary adoration, compassionate love and sexual affection with expertise and heart. Shakespeare does not return to the two-dimensional representations of affection run of the mill of the time, but instead investigates love as a non-consummate a portion of the
At the beginning of the play Shakespeare allows Duke Orsino to create an ideal image that he is in love with the thought of just being in love as he makes a comparison to love and music;
Shakespeare's Presentation of Love in a Midsummer Nights Dream A midsummer nights dream was originally supposed to have been performed at a wedding. Therefore the theme of love would have been a suitable theme for the play. In this play, as in many of
This quote occurs at the beginning of the play as lovestruck Orsino tells his servants, “If music be the food of love, play on” Shortly after this quote, Orsino asks for his musicians to play a lot of music so that he will overdose and no longer desire love from Olivia anymore. Through these words, Shakespeare introduces the image of love as a plague that/ nobody wants. He also makes the image that love is like something that sneaks up to people, and through that it becomes easily unavoidable. Through this, the audience gathers a question of whether romantic love has more to do with the reality of the person who is loved of with the lovers own imagination. For Orsino and Olivia , imagination seems to be more powerful
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night’s beginning scene can be portrayed in many different ways. Act I, Scene I opens with Orsino discussing that if music makes people more in love than he wants to be overwhelmed with it so he becomes sick of music (love). During the scene he asks the musician to stop playing since there is no way it compares to music. In productions of this scene, the director’s choices for the setting, Orsino’s attitude, and the use of music set the tone for the rest of the play while also displaying different interpretations of Shakespeare’s commentary about music and love.