Theme Of Homosexual Love In Twelfth Night

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night examines patterns of love and courtship through a twisting of gender roles. The play centers on the lead female role and protagonist, Viola, who

People tend to invest so much of themselves into a particular person they love, yet their investment in their relationship oftentimes end in utter rejection. Orsino appears to have a strong love for the Countess Olivia, but in the end, he falls in love and marries Viola. In the early 1600s comedy Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare reveals through the development of Orsino the love and desire towards an apparent loved one, thereby, showing the fluidity of love and its presence in interactions between two people.

Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night is a critical Elizabethan-era work that explores attraction and sexuality within the relationship between Viola (as Cesario) and Duke Orsino. Her role is one of steadfast love towards Orsino; she willingly courts Olivia on his behalf as Cesario, burying her feelings for him because she cares that he is happy. There is a rigid dichotomy between Viola and Orsino’s passion; where Viola is steady, Orsino is inconsistent. Feste states directly to Orsino that his “mind is a very opal” (2.4.71) which implies he is constantly changing what he wants and is more in love with the idea of love rather than Olivia. Duke Orsino’s evolution from a typical Petrarchan lover to passionate love, through trials of gender confusion

Charles is of opinion that, “the representation of homoerotic attraction in Twelfth Night functions rather as a means of dramatizing the socially constructed basis of a sexuality that is determined by gender identity” (Charles 1997:122). As mentioned above, homosexuality was not acceptable in the Elizabethan society for the most part. It was even considered as sodomy. Before the twins, Viola and Sebastian, are married to heterosexual partners, both are involved in some form of homosexual relationship. While Oliva seems to be unaware of Cesario/Viola’s true sex, the hint at the possibility of homoeroticism through dramatic irony is already enough to disrupt the stereotypical gender system. After Malvolio presents Viola/Cesario with Olivia’s ring, Cesarios says, “I am the man; if it be so, as ‘tis,/Poor lady, she were better love a dream” (Shakespeare 2004:84). Charles explains the best stating that dramatic irony tells us Oliva’s true hidden passion is for the female character (Charles 1997:133). In addition she

In medieval and Elizabethan England, homosexuality was not only looked down upon, but was a crime punishable by law. Found perpetrators, including the famous King Edward II, were horribly punished. Edward was killed by “the slow and painful insertion of a red, hot poker into his anus”, along with his lover, who “had his genitals cut off and burned” (Sanders). Such is the world in which a bisexual William Shakespeare lived. Though he married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18, he was rumored to have had extramarital affairs with numerous men while in London (“Shakespeare’s Sexuality”). Gay men are present in many of Shakespeare’s plays, most prominently Twelfth Night. A sailor named Antonio falls in love with a man of noble birth named

In spite of the promise of three weddings to be celebrated, the play concludes on a sour note when Feste, the clown, depicts life as grim, "for the rain it raineth every day" (Act V Scene i). They play’s primary central theme is that of the comic relationships between men and women. Furthermore, it illustrates the traditional, societal notions of “interdependence, and the newly emerging attitudes towards individual choice and personal desire, or as the play puts it, ‘will’” (Malcolmson 163). Although Twelfth Night is a story of love and courtship, nevertheless, it is also a “comedy of gender,” because of its ability to override the traditional Elizabethan notions of the female role through the characters of Viola and Olivia.

Gender is one of the most prevalent themes in William Shakespeare’s comedy, Twelfth Night. In Twelfth Night, the play is based on Viola, a twin who gets separated away from her brother in a shipwreck. To find work, Viola undertakes the disguise of Cesario, a young male who wants to work in the household of Duke Orsino. Orsino has been personally dealing with the love he feels for Lady Olivia, who refuses to entertain any man since she is dealing with the loss of her brother and father. In Orsino’s efforts to have Cesario facilitate love between himself and Olivia, Olivia ends up falling in love with Cesario. Viola has also found herself falling in love with Orsino, thus creating a love triangle between these three. In this love triangle, Shakespeare exhibits a challenge and a reinforcement of the gender roles that were present in the setting he personally wrote the play from. Through Olivia’s attraction to Cesario, he challenges these gender roles and through Orsino’s attraction to Cesario, he reinforces these gender roles.

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.

   Shakespeare enjoyed writing passionate plays about young lovers, but, after a while, the formula became exhausted and the Bard was forced to dig deeper, creatively speaking. Twelfth Night is an example of a Shakespearean love tale with a slight twist to keep things interesting. This play was the “Tootsie” of its time. Twelfth Night takes the audience on a gender-bending journey, while maintaining all the elements of true love throughout. At one point, Olivia wears a disguise in order to take on the traditionally male role of wooing her romantic interest, Cesario, who is also disguised. Although Olivia flirts with Cesario and tells him that his “scorn” only reveals his hidden love, she is

In modern age, society finally accepts homosexuality,other sexual orientations, and gender identity became a more acceptable concept.However, even though it became acceptable once again in the twenty first century. Literature throughout the ages depicted different sexual orientation and gender identification. The play Twelfth Night made produced by William Shakespeare discusses the topics of sexuality during the early 17th century. The articles Gender Trouble in ‘Twelfth Night by Casey Charles agrees that the main central theme of this play is associated with gender identification and sexuality. However,the article “Rings and Things” in Twelfth Night:Gift Exchange, Debt and the Early Modern Matrimonial Economy by Stephanie Chamberlain examines the play having more to do with economically obligations that was occurring during that time instead of sexuality orientation. Due the different claims of the two authors, it makes the reader question what is this play by Shakespeare identifying as its central idea of focus. Is it about sexuality and how society might be disgusted by some individuals or the economically and materialistic problems that society faces?

In Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night or What you Will, the characters are involved in a plot complete with trickery, disguise, and love. Each character is defined not by his or her gender or true identity, but by the role they are forced to take because of the complicated situation that arises. Unlike their gender, the speech the characters give an insight to their true personalities. In the Twelfth Night, the character Duke Orsino uses flowery and over-dramatic language, long poetic sentence structure, and melodramatic metaphors to display his overemotional romantic nature despite the different emotions in his various speeches.

This essay talks about how the understanding of sexuality and class in the play Twelfth Night has changed drastically over the past two or three decades. The primary argument is that it was unconventional that comedies altered social and historical perspective. She recognizes also that she contradicts herself in the first paragraph but she says that because she wants to have a better understanding of the entire play. Lindheim talks about how she wants to organize this essay by first stating her argument and what ideas she was to explore within her paper. She tells how she will set up her essay in the beginning but following immediately after, she talks about her evidence and expands upon those. I would not recommend this to anyone because it’s

"Twelfth Night" was one of his best plays that he has composed. The play presents different topics, for example, affection, sexual orientation, and insanity. Each of these topics all related back how love is an effective compel that causes individuals to do certain activities or think a specific way. Cherish causes a man to follow up on their longings. This can bring about torment or as it were, love causes torment. Being in confusion of sexual orientation, for example, Viola, can misdirect each other which prompt the homoerotic thoughts. At the point when Shakespeare composed the play he planned to be seen as a satire, however there is additionally more to it. He passed on his own musings about adoration through the subjects of the story. By investigating the subjects it indicates what Shakespeare may have

Twelfth Night explores the various representations of love that are universal to the human experience.

According to Chris, Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’ touches on sensitive concepts within the society (1). Similar to the majority of his literary works, Twelfth Night captures the concept of love and how individuals use love through marriage to achieve power or a higher social status. Throughout the play, there is an apparent struggle for social status by the key characters. Lindheim asserts that there are some characters in the play, such as Antonio who would do everything within their means in order to achieve their sexual desires (2). For example, in a more traditional society or contemporary setting, Antonio could never hope of