The aspects of love in Twelfth night

Unrequited love is displayed in a few characters, such as the obvious example of this Orsino and his love of Olivia. This is the set up of many situations, such as the meeting of Olivia and Viola in which Olivia falls very quickly in love with Cesario ‘even so quickly may one catch the plague’ this is an example of unrequited love, or the ‘melancholy lover’ a melancholy lover is a lover which suffers from his/her love. The other example of unrequited love is again because of mixed Identities, Viola the other ‘melancholy lover’ in the play, loves Orsino but Orsino cannot return that love because he thinks she is a man so never would think that she loves him, but she also cannot reveal her love to him because she would then have to reveal her true identity, which cannot be revealed until the right time. Cesario/Viola talks about how she knows how Orsino feels because “My father had a daughter loved a man,” Viola talks to Orisno about how her ‘sister’ loved a man that

The very formal love is shown in the way that Orsino attempt to woo Olivia with the suitors sent from him with messages which says how perfect she is and how his love is in a very flowery way, “my love, more noble than the world” but such a lack of lust and such a idealised view of love, it seems that Orsino is more in love with the idea of love rather than an actual living being. This is Similar to the way Claudio worships Hero and puts her on a pedestal at the start of Much Ado About Nothing, she is perfect ‘a divine goddess’ Claudio is more in love with the image of Hero he has constructed than the actual living woman. The language used in the way Orsino woos Olivia was typical of Shakespeare, lots of imagery and similes. Shakespeare was sometimes criticized for his extensive use of imagery saying it took away from the characters and the plot of the play.

The last form of love I am going to talk about is ambitious or selfish love. The prime example of this type of love is Malvolio when he finds the false letter supposedly from Olivia, as all he is interested in is her body, her money, and a title for him and the extensive lands owned by her. He also wishes to give Sir Toby an ultimatum, in which he is either to give up drinking or to leave the house “I will wash off gross

acquaintance.” This is a display of Malvolio’s Puritanism where he thinks he is better and purer than everyone else. Sir Toby cannot disobey as Malvolio will own the land, money and her house as in Elizabethan times the man owned everything the woman previously owned. Another  similarity to Much Ado about nothing is that Malvolio is tricked in a similar way to how Benedict and Beatrice are tricked except the outcomes are very different the one is a happy ending for the couple where as Malvolio is thought to be mad and locked up.

Traditionally in a Shakespearian comedy all the “loose ends” are all tied up at the end and this is where the last type of love to be displayed in the book true love. All the characters that are meant to end up together do Olivia with Sebastian, Orsino with Viola and Sir Toby with Maria.