Twelfth Night Theme Essay - Love as the Cause of Suffering

Orsino's reaction to Cesario's true identity and the fact that Olivia has married another man is surprising. When he discovers the truth, it is evident that Orsino's love is for love itself and not for Olivia, as he is willing to replace her with Viola. He does not react with shock or even disappointment. He says instead, "... And since you have called me master for so long, here is my hand. You shall from this time be your master's mistress." This sudden

Over these last three months something more complicated than expected has emerged. An intricate triangle of love has been all figured out and it is just more than surprising. After interviewing many of the people involved in this whole event we have figured all of the story. Within a short amount of time while working for the Duke Viola had fallen in love with him, but she couldn’t show it as when she was with him she was dressed as a man. Duke Orsino loved Olivia but that love was forever unrequited (unreturned). Olivia was not in love at the start but then she started to fall for Cesario, which would never work because he is actually a girl. Sebastian and

The prank is extremely convincing, to the point that Maria describes his outlandish behaviour as “a very renegade, for there is no Christian that means to be saved by believing rightly can ever believe such impossible passages of grossness,” (3.2.66-69). Despite being the one who tricked Malvolio, Maria cannot believe what she is seeing and compares his behaviour as someone who has lost his Christian faith. Otherwise, she cannot simply believe that anyone in their right mind would believe the statements made in the fake love letters. Here, we see how a simple act of deception has disrupted normalcy as this character is supposedly going ‘mad’. In another scene, deception breeds chaos once again when Sir Toby encourages Sir Andrew to battle Cesario to win Olivia’s heart.

Family love or loyalty is evident throughout the storyline. It is observed when Romeo discusses his depression with his cousin, Benvolio. Romeo describes love using the words `O loving hate… feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health [and] still-waking sleep`. Shakespeare uses the literary techniques of oxymoron’s to express Romeo’s confusion as he tries to elucidate what

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.

According to The English Review, Duke Orsino has “full of devotion to an ideal of love.” He does not understand that love is not straightforward, and if you love someone, they might not love you back. Orsino loves Olivia, but Olivia loves Cesario who is really Viola. Olivia’s love is complicated. She decides to confess her love to Cesario by saying “Would thou ’dst be ruled by me!” (4.1.68). The confusing part of this encounter is that Olivia really says this to Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother, not Cesario. Olivia’s confusion is most likely not commonly found in the everyday world. However, her complex relationship shows how love is not simple. Olivia thought she loved Cesario/Viola, but in the end, she loved Sebastian. Now, Viola’s character shows the pain and complication of a silenced love. She loved Orsino the whole time she was pretending to be Cesario. She says that she would marry Orsino in the beginning of the play when she says “myself would be his wife” (1.4.46). However, she couldn’t act upon this love until her true identity could be revealed. Sounds very simple and easy does it

Much of the first half of the Twelfth Night is about disguised identities and general misconceptions about who is actually who. The play opens on a note of melancholy and death, Orsino grieving because Olivia refuses to love him and Viola and Olivia mourning the deaths of their brothers. It is following a shipwreck that Viola disguises herself as a male, ensuring that confusion will be part of the plot. The idea of masquerading as a member of the opposite sex is a familiar device and the “complications, artificial as they may appear, are an essential part of the play’s complete development.” (Travers 308) It is interesting to note that unlike other comedies such as “The Tempest”, Shakespeare does not create an older generation who prevent the young lovers from being together; instead it is the perplexity about gender and that keeps them apart. Sebastian, Viola’s identical twin, is the solution to all of the problems, though his appearance does add to it for a short while. Viola, dressed as Cesario, is mistaken for Sebastian by Antonio, and is asked for the money that he gave to Sebastian. However, this type of confusion adds to the comic nature of the plot as the audience is aware of the concealed identities. Order eventually comes from the chaos, disguises are shed and identities are revealed. The appearance of Sebastian ensures that the marriage will be possible for the main characters; Viola is free to marry Orsino and Olivia marries Sebastian, although she

Despite the greatness of Orsino’s love of Olivia, he never seems to visit her in person, only sending messengers, like Cesario, to express his feelings for the countess. Olivia begins to find herself falling for the messenger, Cesario, and not Orsino. Olivia uses a metaphor to show how surprised she is that she has fallen for Cesario. She compares falling in love to “catch[ing] the plague” (1.5.297-301).

While an argument may assert that since “journeys end in lovers meeting,” Sebastian and Olivia, likewise to Viola and Orsino, must transition from infatuation to love; however, as the Fool sheds light on the true fate of many characters, he makes no exception for Olivia: “She will keep no fool, sir, till she be married” (III.1.34-35). As they wed, Sebastian is indeed the infatuated “fool” that Olivia keeps; thus, these “lovers” that meet are not parallel to the lovers that are Viola and

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

A person's desires for love is so powerful that they want the loved one all to themselves. This is an act of selfishness seen through Duke Orsino he tells Curio and Valentine his messengers that he was the first one who had fallen in love with Olivia, and that Olivia is refusing him only because of her dead

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare is a romantic comedy, and romantic love is the play’s main focus. The play starts by following Viola, a girl who has been shipwrecked. Viola and the many other characters face many obstacles due to who they love. Despite the fact that the play offers a happy ending, in which the various characters find one another and achieve wedded bliss, Shakespeare shows that love can cause pain. Throughout the play, many of the characters seem to view love as a kind of curse, a feeling that attacks its victims suddenly and disruptively. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare shows that the theme is that strong and abrupt emotions, like love and hate, can be the cause of suffering.

In the play, one of the real subjects introduced was love. This play makes it clear that the possibility of sentimental love would be the core interest. Despite the fact that the end of the play is a cheerful completion, Shakespeare demonstrated despite the fact that affection can be an euphoric thing, it can also be a difficult one. The characters in the play do certain activities that cause torment to themselves, as well as different characters. Love is nearly

“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.