Twelfth Night has been described as a 'bittersweet comedy'. Do you think the sweetness outweighs the bitterness?

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Twelfth Night has been described as a 'bittersweet comedy'. Do you think the sweetness outweighs the bitterness?

Twelfth night is a name commonly given to the Christian feast of the Epiphany which is celebrated on the 6th of January. On this day we remember the coming of the Magi and the taking down of decorations which is a sad occasion for many but also a happy occasion as new times are beginning.

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 "plague" from which she suffers terribly. These metaphors contain an element of violence. Even the less melodramatic Viola sighs unhappily that "My state is desperate for my master's love" This desperation has the potential to result in violence-as in Act V, scene i, when Orsino threatens to kill Cesario because he thinks that -Cesario has forsaken him to become Olivia's lover. Some people achieve romantic happiness, while others do not. At the end of the play, as the happy lovers rejoice, both Malvolio and Antonio are prevented from having the objects of their desire. Malvolio, who has pursued Olivia, must ultimately face the realisation that he is a fool, socially unworthy of his noble mistress. Antonio is in a more difficult situation, as social norms do not allow for the gratification of his apparently sexual attraction to Sebastian. Love, thus, cannot conquer all obstacles, and those whose desires go unfulfilled remain no less in love but feel the sting of its absence all the more severely.
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Feste's first song in Act II, scene iii, firstly sums up the love triangle between Orsino, Olivia and Viola. He sings, "O mistress mine, where are you roaming?" This line shows that the fool knows the truth: that Orsino, Olivia and Viola are all searching for their true love. In the second verse, Feste explains more of a philosophy for life. The lines "Present mirth hath present laughter. What's to come is still unsure," can be interpreted as the modern saying of 'Live for today' and not delay their lovemaking; the future is always uncertain and youth does ...

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