Theme Of Love In Twelfth Night

Love is a timeless topic. It will forever be the theme of popular entertainment and source of confusion for men and women alike. No one understands this better than William Shakespeare, and he frequently explores this complex emotion in his plays. In "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" Shakespeare cleverly reveals the fickle and inebriating aspects of love through his mischievous character Puck.

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.

    True love is like a precious black pearl, it is so rare that many believe it to be a myth, but Hermia and Lysander found true love according to the following excerpt said by Lysander from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Love is a term used daily in one’s life. Many categorize love in many forms. These forms differ from one-another such as the difference between love for food and love for one’s spouse. However, in the play; “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, love takes different forms than the ones experienced in reality. One can classify the different types of love used in this play into three different categories; true love, love produced by cupid’s flower, and the state of lust.

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:

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.

True love is extremely different then lust, and was also present through out the play. True love is obviously one of the strongest forms of love and is an extremely powerful emotion that one would perhaps do many things for. Shakespeare showed various forms of true love in twelfth night especially through Viola (Cesario) and Orsino. Even though Orsino did not know it, Olivia was falling in love with him. She saw qualities in him that she appreciated and liked. Unlike lust, true love is usually developed, and grows stronger as you get to know and understand the person better. In this case, Viola only began to like Orsino after she had gotten to know him. It grew more and more and finally in the end when her true identity was revealed she married him. Another example of true love was with Sir. Toby and Maria. When you are in love you would always try to do things for the best interest?s for that person, and would try to protect them from harm. Throughout the play there are numerous times where Maria tries to warn and protect Sir Toby from Malvolio and Olivia, so that he would not get in trouble. If you care for someone that much to keep them out of harms way, then that is a strong sing of true love. True love was also present when you will forgive or

One can observe Orsino's love for Olivia as obsessive. Orsino’s first words “If music be the food of love, play on,” introduce him as a love-sick character whose mind revolves around a woman who does not return his feelings (I.i.1). Olivia constantly populates his mind and he does not cease his pursuit for her love, even after she expresses distaste towards him. Shakespeare mocks love-sick individuals for acting like fools and putting themselves through misery. After learning of Olivia’s marriage, Orsino realizes he has lost her and lashes out at Cesario. He threatens him by stating “I’ll sacrifice the lamb I do love to spite a raven’s heart within a dove”(V.i.33-34). Shakespeare uses Orsino’s love for Olivia to differentiate between good and bad love. Unrequited love can cause an individual to pursue violent actions in blind rage. Orsino shows how love is consuming, crippling, and hinders the ability to live out life.Orsino believes his love for Olivia is true, but he is actually in love with the idea of love, and believes he can only obtain it from Olivia. Shakespeare tries to inform the audiences that they could mistakenly believe they are in

In modern society, love is a buzzing topic. Whether it be true-love or the mushy Valentine’s Day cards, love is all around. Love is something the human mind thrives on, for it creates a sense of calm and peace, thus making it human nature to yearn for love. In literature, there are many “love stories”. William Shakespeare, often called a true expert on love (based on his many plays, sonnets, etc.), has written many of these “love stories”. One of the most well-known stories is Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet, often remarked as one of Shakespeare’s greatest works, is a perfect example of false love. Throughout the course of the play, it is revealed in many ways this is a story of artificial devotion in which Juliet is in love, and Romeo is

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

Shakespeare explores different types of love such as family love, romantic love, love at first sight, friendship love and forced love. The dictionary defines love as having an intense feeling of deep affection for someone. Love has many examples like Romeo’s affection of early love for Rosaline, a “puppy” love or the otherworldly love, the generosity that common between Juliet with the nurse or Romeo with Mercutio as friends. This story predominantly concentrates on the youthful, romantic, passionately love, particularly between two young lovers named Romeo and Juliet.

Antonio is rarely in the play, but he is very significant. He is a sea captain who finds a boy named Sebastian from a shipwreck and saves his life. He is a interesting character because he falls in love in an unusual way with Sebastian. The romance between Antonio and Sebastian sets a confusing, yet very interesting theme throughout the play. Antonio stated, "If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your servant...I do adore thee." (Act I.vi) Antonio is letting Sebastian know the care and affection he is feeling towards him. He wants Sebastian to like him back. Although it is never stated that Sebastian truly liked Antonio as more than a friend, the surprising twist at the end of the play occurs when Sebastian leaves Antonio to fall in love with someone else. Near the end of the play, Sebastian is mistaken for Cesario, his twin sister that is dressed as a boy, and is being forced to fight

Ever have that crazy feeling about someone but you just can not put your finger on what exactly it is? It is love, a strongly used word with no exact definition. There are different kinds of love that is used for different people in different ways. There are three kinds of love which are limerence, love attachment, and bond loving affection. Within these three kinds of love they are all used differently towards different people. In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream written by William Shakespeare these three kinds of love from Andrew Marshall’s article “That Crazy Little Thing Called Love” are both seen and not seen within the characters.

According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, love is defined as “strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties; attraction based on sexual desire; affection and tenderness felt by lovers; affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interest; or an assurance of love.” In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, three different types of love are experienced: friendship love, true love, and self love. Each character experiences a different type of love, and in some cases it is not what they originally expected. The twisted, yet intriguing love story allows the reader to get lost in each characters emotions and development throughout the play. Many instances of love in the play are overwhelmed with a

Orsino, in regards to Olivia, treats love and marriage as if they are only games to entertain himself with. In act one Orsino plays into the notion that women, in his case Olivia, are up for the taking. A common belief that is found in traditional marriage, especially in the upper class, is that women are essentially prizes for men to win. Orsino plays into this by explaining how much Olivia will love him once he wins her because of the strong affection she has for her deceased brother. He learns that Olivia has decided to make a vow to remove herself from society for seven years to mourn her brother’s death, yet Orsino