Love Triangle in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Essay

     Unlike the other characters in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", Viola's feelings of love are genuine. She is not mistaken about Orsino's true nature and loves him for who he really is, while the other characters in the play seem to be in love with an illusion. Viola's love for Orsino does not alter during the play, nor is it transferred to another person.

Most of the major characters in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night experience some form of love or marriage. Whether it’s unrequited like with Antonio and Malvolio, or it is something seemingly unattainable like with Duke Orsino. Regardless, it is clear that love is prevalent as one of the central themes Shakespeare seems to emphasize in Twelfth Night. With that, we see him communicate different interpretations and feelings regarding the subject. He does this with the medium of melodramatic characters. In this essay, I will elaborate on the opinions of love that Shakespeare communicates through one of the leading characters:

Different types of love and marriage play a significant role in Shakespeare’s twelfth night, whether unrequited like with Antonio and Malvolio; or something seemingly unattainable like with Duke Orsino. Love is prevalent as one of Shakespeare's central theme emphasized in the Twelfth Night. With that, we see Shakespeare communicate different interpretations and feelings regarding the subject. He does this with the medium of melodramatic characters. However, this essay will solely elaborate on the character Duke Orsino and his exploration of love. Through Orsino’s actions, Shakespeare conveys several messages still applicable today, some of which are about the fine line between superficial love and genuine love, love's incoherency, and love's

In William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, love as the cause of suffering is one of the most prominent theme of the story. Even though this play ends in love and wedded bliss, Shakespeare also shows us that love can also cause pain. The characters often view love as a curse, something that is thrust upon you and you cannot easily or willing escape. Examples include Malvolio’s love for Olivia, the love triangle between Olivia, Duke Orsino, and Viola as Cesario, and Antonio’s crush on Sebastian. There are countless occasions where unrequited love for another results in heartbreak and sorrow.

Malvolio?s conceitedness was broken and then he sees that he did not truly love Olivia, but was only flattered that he had been loved by someone so beautiful and young.

Many describe unrequited love as a bee sting. At first nature blinds you with it’s beauty, but suddenly it strikes out and pain overwhelms you, feelings of betrayal and distrust linger. In William Shakespeare’s 1600s comedic play Twelfth Night, Olivia portrays how the rejection in unrequited love leads to violence and obsession, thereby, causing an individual to act irrational and vindictive.

Another aspect of the play that can easily relate to modern audiences is, William Shakespeare’s use of mistaken identities and true-life experiences especially mourning for the loss of family and love obsessions, are among the main focuses of the play. Many people in the audience of today would most likely be able to relate to Olivia’s intense mourning of her brother, since people’s feelings and actions at the time of loss don’t change just the periods of times that they occur do. Love is commonly used in many forms of works of entertainment because it is an unsolved mystery that everyone usual enjoys watching or reading. The infatuation that the Duke has for Olivia is comical throughout the play and forces the Duke to say

Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy, and romantic love is the play’s main focus. Despite the fact that the play offers a happy ending, in which the various lovers find one another and achieve wedded bliss, Shakespeare shows that love can cause pain. Many of the characters seem to view love as a kind of curse, a feeling that attacks its victims suddenly and disruptively. Various characters claim to suffer painfully from being in love, or, rather, from the pangs of unrequited love. At one point, Orsino depicts love dolefully as an “appetite” that he wants to satisfy and cannot, at another point; he calls his desires “fell and cruel hounds”. Olivia more bluntly describes love as a

Yet he still continues to get a “yes” from Olivia. He grows rambunctious and upset when he says.” O’ she hath the heart of a fine frame, to pay the debt of love but to a dead brother” ( Shakespeare page 11 33-34) He lacks sympathy towards Olivia for her problems, but he has time to listen to his own desires. Nonetheless rather grieving with her, he goes and gives her his words of love. Duke Orsino knows that Olivia is unsure and this is an act of selfishness. Furthermore, he craves something he can’t have, Olivia’s love. Love is to crave to the extreme, it’s hunger that lovers hope they can never fully

Family and friendly love are also present, although more as a subplot emotion. Viola and Sebastian, as well as Olivia and her late brother in Twelfth Night; Miranda and Prospero in The Tempest. Obviously there is much less emphasis on this type of love in this selection of Shakespearean plays.

Shakespeare uses Olivia to portray a strong woman who knows what she wants and never settles. However, Olivia shows little emotion, she knows what she wants and after she gets it, she moves on to something else. For Olivia to act so involved in the process leading up to her marriage making sure everything is right and then so unaffected when she finds out that she did not even marry who she thought, it proves that Olivia did not really care about the person but the name, and ability to control that person.

Shakespeare presents Orsino as furious and irritated at Olivia’s constant refusal of his love and starts noticing how Olivia is not the perfect woman he claims she is while discreetly implying a shift of his romantic feelings for someone else (Cesario/Viola).

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander of love’s complications in an exchange with Hermia (Shakespeare I.i.136). Although the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream certainly deals with the difficulty of romance, it is not considered a true love story like Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare, as he unfolds the story, intentionally distances the audience from the emotions of the characters so he can caricature the anguish and burdens endured by the lovers. Through his masterful use of figurative language, Shakespeare examines the theme of the capricious and irrational nature of love.

The opening speech in the play Twelfth Night is spoken by the unhappy, lovesick Duke of Orsino to his servants and musicians. In the eternally famous opening lines “If music be the food of love, play on…” Orsino asks his musicians to overload him abundantly with melodical love-food that he will totally detest the craving for love. In these lines, Shakespeare presents love as undesirable, something that creeps on people suddenly and it cannot be circumvented. Orsino comment about the connection between romance and imagination further complicates this image. He relates the idea of intense love (“fancy”) in“So full of shapes is fancy / That it alone is high fantastical,” to that of imagination (that which is “fantastical”). Through this link,

I think the reason Olivia quickly falls in love with Cesario because he is not like other men. He understands her in the emotional way that many other man, such as the duke can not. This is something all women crave from men, but rarely are able to achieve. Not only this, but because Viola (Cesario) has no interest in Olivia, he’s able to speak freely and however bluntly he desires. Which would be refreshing for Olivia after having all these men try to seduce her, by showering her in complements from the duke. I believe she would enjoy the chase of making Cesario fall for her, because she’s finally found someone who doesn’t want her the way all the other men do. I think another one of the reason Olivia falls in love with him is because he’s not always down her throat about the duke, due partially because he (Viola) likes the duke himself.