William Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night

In the play twelfth night, Shakespeare covered three types of love : Lust, true love and brotherly love. Love is one of the most confusing and most misunderstood emotions that we as humans posses. Love is an extremely diverse emotion which is why it was used as the main topic in twelfth night.

Love is quite an indescribable word. Love is an essential part of human life though, Shakespeare seems to mock the general idea of romantic love with his play, Twelfth Night. Although some may perceive love to be joyful, others think that it is an unpleasant spirit that interferes with their emotions and causes them to suffer. William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night demonstrates how love influences the strongest minds to make irrational decisions and to act in uncharacteristic ways. Love is unique and in the play, every character is affected by love and they all have different reactions, helping develop the plot and recognizing the theme through their actions and decisions. This can be demonstrated through Duke Orsino’s indomitable and uncontrollable

Despite knowing that Orsino “loves” Olivia, Viola almost immediately falls in love with Orsino. And because Viola is disguised as a man, she cannot show her true feelings for Orsino. After Orsino asks Viola to speak with Olivia and professes his love to her, Viola lets the reader know what she is truly feeling by saying “Yet a barful strife! Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife” (Act 1, Scene 4, Line 40). This shows that even though she is willing to help Orsino pursue Olivia, Viola ultimately wants to marry Orsino. Viola’s love for Orsino is revealed again at the end of Act 2, Scene 4. Orsino is asking Viola to try harder in the quest for Olivia and he basically says that there is no love more noble or great as his, so she must love him. Viola then proceeds to say that maybe Olivia doesn’t love him; however, there is “someone” out there that does. She says:

Love is a passion that everyone wishes to live. It’s known as the art of living. Love is represented in many different forms. Similarly the lack of love is the reason for unhappiness and misery. The situation changes to such that at times this desire to be with our loved ones is left incomplete with thousands of obstacles in front of us. In twelfth night, Shakespeare focuses on romantic love. His way of playing around with his word makes the reader wonder on the true lovers who will remain victorious at the end of the play. In the setup, we are brought to two characters identically the same, Viola and her twin brother Sebastian. The reader is under the impression that the resemblance between Viola and Sebastian is not just a coincidence, but it has an important part to be act in the play. Lost by her past, the young women Viola decides to overcome her grief by making her own way in the world. She enters the Duke of Illyria’s palace, Orsino. Her entrance to the

Throughout the history of literature and writing, love has been one of few constant human experiences and themes. Love can be expressed, viewed, and taken in many different ways. According to Webster’s Dictionary, the term love is defined as, “a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person; attraction that can include sexual desire or the strong affection felt by people who have a romantic relationship; and/or a warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion” (Webster). It is difficult to decipher an exact meaning of love or situation where love is shown since this word has such a broad definition. In Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night, love is expressed frequently and in quite a specific way. Particularly, throughout

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

Orsino's love, however, is a courtly love. He claims to be in love with Olivia but seems rather to be in love with the idea of love and the behavior of a lover. Orsino is a Petrachan lover who chooses an object that will not return his love. Because he is not ready for commitment, he courts Olivia in a formal way. By sending his messengers to her house instead of going himself, he does not have to speak to her directly. Early in the play, Viola realises that Orsino's love for Olivia is denied and that she would also reject all men for a period of seven years. Viola believes that Orsino might not be rejected if he visited Olivia himself and says to him: "I think not so, my lord," but Orsino, not wanting to see Olivia himself and wanting to keep up the role of the disappointed lover, insists that Cesario woo her.

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 fantasy of Olivia he supposedly unconditionally loves is not about Olivia, but all about himself. Not only this, but Orsino is easily convinced to return the deep affection of Viola, possibly because the Duke focuses entirely on his success and desires in love rather than genuine affection. Perhaps, Orsino only developed these feelings for Olivia because he wanted more luxurious things in life. Orsino had great food, servants, and a giant castle. The one thing he lacked in was love. Therefore, the Duke wished to have the most beautiful countess in all of the land: Olivia, to continue owning more and more luxurious things. Through this, Shakespeare conveys that an egotist and wealthy man cannot genuinely love if he does not fixate the gain of love on himself. Not only this, but it also continues the previous message that one might be irrationally obsessed with the idea of love rather than a person due to all of the pleasures there are to

The English Review says that “love is not always, ‘the real thing’.” In Twelfth Night, there are three characters whose false love is majorly evident: Malvolio, Sir

Love plays a major role in "Twelfth Night," and Shakespeare addresses true love, self love and friendship in a very compelling and interesting way. Love is great to read about because everyone deserves a little love. "Twelfth Night" is the true definition of love, and Shakespeare does a great job of explaining a somewhat difficult topic.

It is often said the surest cure for vanity is loneliness. This saying is proven true in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Within the story, a prodigious love triangle is created between the characters. The wealthy Duke Orsino loved the wealthy, young heiress, Olivia. Olivia later fell deeply in love with the Duke’s servant, Cesario. Olivia was not aware that Cesario actually was a woman named Viola. Viola dressed as a man to make it easier to obtain employment. Viola grew fond of Duke Orsino, but he was not aware of her true identity. On the side, Maria tricked Malvolio, Olivia’s servant, into loving Olivia. Additionally, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, a wealthy friend of Olivia’s uncle, wanted to marry Olivia for her money. The characters involved

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.

A quote from Orsino proves that this is the case, “O when mine eyes did see Olivia first, me thought she purged the air of pestilence.” This quote in simple terms means that when Orsino first saw Olivia he felt that she made the world perfect and this was someone he wanted to marry, but Orsino did not know Olivia’s personality and only liked her because of her looks and wealth which means that what Orsino was feeling is lust. Lust is when a person is attracted to somebody purely off attraction rather than true feelings and does not even consider the person’s morals and mannerisms. Shakespeare was attempting to show that this type of love is not real love and purely for one to use someone else for wealth and or pleasure.

At first he pleads for the “excess of it, that, surfeiting” (I.i.2). For, music nourishes the soul; therefore he wants more of it. However, later in the soliloquy Orsino says that because of love, music “tis not so sweet now as it is before” (8). Shakespeare is already showing how Orsino tries to force passionate love for Olivia that it is not as sweet and fulfilling as it should be if it was genuine true love. This theme goes throughout the play and even comically plays out in Olivia’s forged love for Malvolio. Any type of false love in Twelfth Night comes to a crash landing at the end.