William Shakespeare 's 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

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

love when actually they just loved the idea of it. One such a man is

through his vanity is easily fooled into thinking it is he who she loves although

I believe that excessively relying on others is another lesson to be learned in Twelfth Night. Relying on others excessively is a lesson to be learned in Twelfth Night because Orsino never went to confront people that he loved. He said to Cesario “Thou know’st no less but all. I have unclasped / To thee the book even of my secret soul. / Therefore, good youth, address thy gait unto her; / Be not denied access, stand at her doors, / And tell them there thy fixed foot shall grow / Till thou have audience. (I.iv.13-18)”. Eventually when he asked Viola to woo Olivia for him she fell in love with Cesario instead. Leaving him without the love of his life for the time being. Moreover, relying on others excessively is a lesson to be learned because

William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest playwright of modern Western civilization. He wrote 37 plays in his lifetime, all of which have some varying degree of fame, such as Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Twelfth Night. Although he has been dead for 400 years, these pieces are still being read and analyzed under scrutiny today. One of the plays that seems to get the most attention is Hamlet. Much of the diction uses double entendre which causes much dispute among critics, and because of this there have been many elements of this play that have been put under a very fine microscope. One of these is the main male characters’ treatment of the women in the play, Gertrude and Ophelia. It is very apparent from the very beginning that on the surface the characters Polonius, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet think very little of these women as people, often citing sexual references in a few different ways directly in front of them with total disregard for their feelings, yet they also show true compassion toward them and seem to care for their well-being. These women provide much more, however. Ultimately it can easily be said that, based on the evidence, the entire reason for Hamlet’s, as well as the other male character’s, motives have to do directly with the influence these women have on them, so in many ways these women are responsible for the entire outcome of the play. Though they may appear on the surface to be one-dimensional characters, Gertrude

In Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, there are quite a few characters that don't seem as important and generally irrelevant to the overall message of the story. Although it may seem that way while glancing at what the characters say and their frequency in the play, they are all deeply relevant. One in particular is the fool. The fool is one of the most impactful characters of them all by influencing other characters.

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.

Shakespeare’s play, “Twelfth Night” provides a great deal of insight into gender roles, gender identities, and desire in Elizabethan society. In Shakespearean times, women, and to a much lesser extent, men, were subject to a variety of arbitrary limitations based solely on gender. For example, women could not become actresses, and were practically required to have guardians and protectors. Additionally, both men and women were strictly held to separate sets of explicit standards, expectations and values. These roles that people of each gender were held to were very important to developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Those who violated these norms would have generally been looked down upon, or even insulted, especially by

In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare is skeptical of love which is evident when you analyze the characters of Orsino and Malvolio. Orsino experiences the constant rejection of Olivia’s love while Malvolio on the other hand is blind to the fact that he is narcissistic. Viola’s character has the most genuine love within the cast of Twelfth Night since she is willing to put her own love for Orsino aside to try and woo Olivia into loving Orsino. Shakespeare uses numerous kinds of love throughout the play which include self-love, false love, and unrequited love which helps us differentiate between what both men and woman desire from love.

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.

Romance has been a theme in literature for years and years. It has recognized many hardships, it has recognized many happily-ever-afters as well. In Shakespeare 's play, Twelfth Night, there are many profound and overpowering themes of love that float around throughout a majority of the play. Most of the main characters find love near the end of the play; however, a few are not so lucky. Although this is a comedy, Shakespeare utilized comedic plans and tricks to make characters fall in love; however, some get left to feel the burden of deteriorated love.

Finally, the strongest lesson that can be learned in Twelfth Night is having genuine friendships. I believe that Antonio and Sebastian have a great friendship. When Antonio saved Sebastian from drowning he wanted to be his servant so bad he was willing to beg for it even though he SAVED his life. Antonio said “If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your / servant. (II.i.29-30)”. Similarly, Maria and Sir Toby had a true friendship too. When Maria was setting up the letter prank for Malvolio, she wrote the letter by mimicking Olivia’s handwriting. Sir Toby was very happy with her and started to like her for who she truly was. Not for her looks which other guys usually do. He ended up eloping with her from something that made them stronger

Far from an unfamiliar concept, love can be seen throughout time by tracing its countless strings in stories of ancient gods and goddesses to modern fairytales. As such a timeless and endless subject, society continues redefining, reanalyzing, and recasting it as humanity deciphers its many facets. The resulting interpretations appear in some of history’s greatest artworks, in forms of musical compositions, paintings, or dramas. Shakespeare explores his own view of love throughout the comedic Twelfth Night, with its many love conflicts and subplots. Set in Elizabethan times, the play contradicts the common belief of a set hierarchy that controls the universe. The hierarchy begins with God, filtering down through celestial objects, man, animals, plants, and ending at elements. Each of the four distinct levels contains a primate, a head among the group running along the border of the next rather than inside of it. These positions and the levels themselves develop from the balance of elements. The more perfectly the elements mix, the higher they are in the pecking order and the less prone they are to decay. Shakespeare, instead of depicting his characters to follow this hierarchy, allows them to break social norms of the time in the name of love. Through the quickly knotting ties between those of the love triangle, Shakespeare surmises that love surpasses any limitations.