Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

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:

The play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare, demonstrates the difficulties of human love. Throughout the course of this play, all the lovers were confused, whether it be from the love potion provided by Oberon, the fairy king, or whether it be through natural terms, (those not affected by the potion). In this essay, we will be looking at how Lysander had agreed with this implication of human love being difficult, the scene where all the lovers are confused, and lastly, the time when Helena was furiously jealous of Hermia.

Love is such an abstract and intangible thing, yet it is something that everyone longs for. In Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the difficulty of love is explored through the obstacles that characters have to face while pursuing their loved ones. Those characters that are in love in the play were conflicted with troubles; however, the obstacles of love do not seem to stop them from being infatuated with each other. The concept of true love is examined throughout this play. By creating obstacles using authority and a higher power, Shakespeare examines the power of love. Through Hermia and Lysander’s loving words, it is reasonable to conclude that love conquers all if you believe in it.

There is a certain degree of expectation with the genre of comedy that despite whatever difficulties appear within the play, by the end these will be resolved and the play will have a traditional happy-ending with a marriage or a celebration in the final scene. The “Twelfth Night” is no exception to this rule. Despite problems of confused identities and sexualities, the play ends with marriage for the major characters because they “have learned enough about their own foolishness to accept it wisely, and their reward, as it should be, is marriage.”(Schwartz 5140). There is a resolution of harmony to a certain extent and an endorsement of romantic love yet despite the happiness evident in the last scene, there are many elements in the play

“Twelfth Night is an amusing and entertaining comedy of romance and gender confusion which creates a love triangle out of mistaken sexual identities. The period has been moved up to the early 19th

Patients with middle to later stages of Alzheimer’s often have spouses or children who are deceased. But these patients’ failing memories will often lead them to believe his/her loved ones are alive and well. When a patient continually asks a nurse to see their husband or wife, nurses will use a technique called therapeutic lying to reassure the patient by telling him/her that the personhas gone to visit a relative. Telling the person that he/she is dead only brings immense sadness, and patients who have an even shorter term memory will not remember the previous day’s events. Every day it is discovered that the loved one has died. This is extremely emotionally tolling both on the nurses and the patients and lying seems like a kinder option. A situation such as this one would be deception to gain something but is helping the person being lied to. In William Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night, one main characters, Viola, wakes up on the shores of Illyria after a shipwreck in which her brother has presumably died. She formulates a plan to work for the Duke, Orsino who is hopelessly in love with the sought-after Olivia. This causes many complications when Olivia falls in love with Viola’s male character and Viola falls in love with Orsino. people can agree that using deception for harm is unethical. However, using deception to gain something creates a controversy. Society can help determine these ethical gray areas whether through law, or behavior that society accepts. Something

In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the main story told is of the battle between silliness (Feste, Maria, romance, pranks, and drama) and seriousness (Malvolio, dourness, rules, and stresses of life). One facet of this is gender – the main protagonist Viola presents as male for most of the play. Shakespeare, whether intentionally or not, has shown prime examples of projected identity based on sex, gender roles, and the power associated with each sex. These messages were revolutionary at the time, and only in recent decades are people really beginning to examine them, but Shakespeare has been known to slip messages into his works that were far ahead of his time. Shakespeare uses Viola’s identity as a character in relation to gender roles and gender itself, and Olivia’s relationship with her.

Before the birth of William Shakespeare as a playwright, no craftsman could skillfully create a world composed of contradictions so shocking, yet profoundly insightful to the human condition. Shakespeare accomplishes the impossible by bringing many contradictory elements into his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a comedy on the verge of tragedy. In this play, many of his characters allude to the moon through the use of repetitive metaphors. Shakespeare specifically compares the moon to time as a means to juxtapose various elements of his play: eagerness and reluctance, chastity and fertility, as well as tragedy and comedy.

In William Shakespeare’s comedy play Twelfth Night, a love triangle between the characters Viola dressed as Cesario, Orsino the Duke, and Olivia runs rampant throughout the storyline. This conflict comes to a head in Act 5 Scene 1 lines (in my copy) 109 through 147. This is the first, and only, time during the play that the audience sees all three characters, Viola, Orsino, and Olivia, together. In this climaxing scene, it is apparent that Orsino is distraught with more than friendly feelings for his manservant Cesario, and that Olivia is in love not with Cesario, but with Viola under male clothing.

Derek Korff-Korn Shakespeare Dr. Honig–12th Grade Shakespeare’s Openness to Homosexuality (Prior to the 21st Century) Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy written by William Shakespeare around the early 1600’s, as an entertainment for the holiday of the Twelfth Night. It is a play that discusses issues that are incredibly sensitive, even by today’s standards. Homosexuality is the basis of a significant amount of deliberation in this day and age, However, Shakespeare wrote this work in the early seventeenth century, considering the topic of homosexual yearnings through humor and wit. While there is no specific evidence of Shakespeare’s personal opinions on the matter, his dealing with homosexuality in this play, especially through the relationship

Shakespeare breached new ground in this play, covering gender and questioning the norms of society, while still keeping the general populace pleased by pairing off heterosexual couples in perfect fashion. Twelfth Night’s not-to-subtle comments on love and gender through Orsino and Cesario/ Viola’s relationship have remained pertinent throughout history, and continue to be relevant even to this

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, starts off very dramatic and with a feeling of sadness and love lost or out of reach. Orsino has fallen for a woman called Olivia, whose brother has died. At the same time Viola’s loses her brother as well tragically in a shipwreck. Following immediately after this she decides to dress as a man, to gain her livelihood working for Orsino. Here we go from the Romantic mood of the story, to the slightly ludicrous but amusing idea of cross dressing or gender bending. Which is a major plot instrument throughout the entire story, an instrument that crates both hilarity and a great amount of drama.

In Shakespeare's play, “Twelfth Night”, it takes the characters and gives them a bit of both worlds through gender confusion and transgression and much more. Characters disguising as the opposite gender, others falling in love with the same gender without knowing who they truly are, and suddenly feeling a sexual desire with the same sex. Shakespeare's knew love is a kinding heart, a passion, and happy proportions, sentimental not tender. His lovers always looked forward to marriage. The love never runs smoothly. The play begins with the lines “if the music be the food of love, give me excess of it”. (Shakespeare. Act 1, Scene 1,line 1) Meaning to fully satisfy one’s

Comedy, in the Elizabethan era, often included themes of wit, mistaken identity, love, and tragedy, all tied up with a happy ending. These themes are prevalent in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, a comical play that explores the pangs of unrequited love and the confusion of gender. Love is a powerful emotion that causes suffering, happiness, and disorder throughout the play. The play also demonstrates the blurred lines of gender identity, which ties into the modern day debate on sexuality and gender identity. The main characters in the play, Viola, Olivia, and Orsino are connected by a love triangle, each person pursuing an unrequited love. Suffering from love and the fluidity of gender are the prevalent themes explored throughout the play and intertwined with Viola, Olivia, and Orsino.

The plays and playwrights of the time challenged the societal norms and pushed boundaries into never before thought of areas, this essay will show how Renaissance drama was subversive and created the world we live in today. The two plays I will be focusing on are: William Shakespeare 's 'Twelfth Night ' and Thomas Middleton 's 'Women beware Women '. Both share similar themes yet go about them very differently to one another.