Many people, even in today's society, love themselves more then anything else. "Twelfth Night" addresses the issue of self love and how it affects peoples lives. Malvolio is the easiest to identify with the problem of self love. He sees himself as a handsome and noble man. Malvolio believes many women would love to be with him. He likes to see things one way only, and he deceives himself just to suit his outlook on the situation. For example, in the play he twists Olivia's words around to make it sound like she admires his yellow cross-gartered stockings, when she really despises them. Both Sir Toby and Olivia show signs of self love but it is not as big an issue. Sir Toby only cares about himself and no one else, not even his friends. He ignores Maria's warnings about drinking into the night, and he continues to push Sir Andrew to court Olivia. Although he believes Sir Andrew doesn't have a chance. Olivia cares about the people around her, but she also believes that no man is worthy of her beauty. She thinks she is "all that," and that no one can match her.
Orsino is the first character who speaks in this play. The theme of romance – love is the main topic of all Orsino’s speeches. Orsino portrays superficial love. Some evidences from the text that prove this are, “If music be the food of love, play on” and ”love thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers” He depends a lot on the external environment in order for him to feel like he’s in love. This suggests he is more in love with the idea and atmosphere of love and not really in love at all. He is also very exaggerated. An evidence to prove my point is, “Give me the excess of it…” His speech is characterized by a lot of exaggerated, flowery language for example, metaphors, puns, similes and more. This proves his exaggerated personality. In the first lines, he asks the musician to play on so that he can dwell even more in his own emotions. All these are signs not of true love but only infatuation and superficial love. He is also fickle. An evidence to prove this is, “Enough, no more! ”. He changes his attitude and mind very quickly. One minute, he is absorbed in the music and in a melancholic reflective mood. The next minute, he shows his impatience and asks the music to stop. This also points to a temperamental side of his character. His emotions have a quality of unpredictability and instability. This is yet another sign of superficial love. Orsino is also a blinded lover. An evidence to prove my point is , “O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou” Ironically he does not realize that his own love for Olivia is as inconstant, fleeting and transient as the love he describes. Orsino enjoys wallowing in his emotions. I say this because of the following evidence. “Why so I do, the noblest that I have” When Curio asks Orsino to hunt, he plays on the word ‘hart’ and turns it into a pun, implying “heart”. This shows that Curio’s attempts to distract Orsino and get him out of his thoughts by going out to hunt has failed because Orsino turns his own words back to his thoughts on Olivia. This implies his self-indulgent personality and how he constantly dwells on his own heart (or emotions) for Olivia. Orsino is being controlled by his emotions “my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, / E’er since pursue me” He is saying here that he is controlled by his own emotions which he describes as hounds or predators that are after him. In this sense he is a hart or a deer – a prey to his emotions which has over-powered his reasoning. His desires are so strong and overwhelming that they actually overcome his reasoning. These points lead me to come to a conclusion that Orsino’s ‘love’ for Olivia is just infatuation I say this because I mentioned earlier that, infatuation is driven by emotions and true love is driven by reason. Orsino is rather egoistic and is a person who is full of self-love. I say this because of the following evidences. “Why so I do, the noblest that I have”, “How will she love, when the rich golden shaft…one self king”. In his speeches he has claimed that he has a noble heart for loving a lady like Olivia and he has also called himself Olivia’s king and assumed that he is able to supply and fill her heart (meaning satisfy her desires) with his love. By saying all these he is just praising himself and thinking highly of himself. He is simply flattering his own ‘love’ [superficial love] for Olivia. All in all we can say that Orsino does not genuinely love Olivia and he simply loves being love-sick! Orsino also appears desperate, beyond reason. He wants Olivia for himself and tells Viola to "leap all civil bounds" which means to disregard rules or courteous behavior. Orsino's love may be described as self-centered, self-indulging, and exaggerated. For example he says "unfold the passion of my love, / Surprise her with discourse if my dear faith....act my woes". There is a repetition of the word 'my'. Orsino assumes that my a public display of his love, Olivia will fall for him (but we learn in scene 5 that she is sick of hearing about him). Orsino's attention is more on his self, the magnitude of his own love rather than on the subject of his love i.e. Olivia. It suggests once again that he is more in love with himself and with his ideals of love than with Olivia. This again shows his self-centered irrational side. He is so insistent on having what he wants that he fails to understand what Olivia wants. On the outside, he appears to be devoted to Olivia and constantly praises her but inside he is actually more in love with himself and with the idea of being in love. On the outside, he appears to be the romantic lover but inside he is overly sentimental and wallows in his emotions. On the outside, he shows that he is deeply in love and addicted to love but actually his love is superficial.
Olivia is a character who is tremendously similar to Orsino. They have many things in common especially their understanding of love. Both of them are highly emotional and sentimental. Here Olivia claims she will weep and mourn for her brother for 7 years. Both of them also enjoy wallowing or indulging in their emotions as observed in that she wants to “season” or constantly remember the loss of her brother. Both display excessive and exaggerated emotions. Olivia claims that she would cry for 7 years which appears ridiculous and exaggerated. We know later that she of course, cannot fulfill this promise and in fact very quickly falls in love later with ‘Viola’. Her claim however suggests she likes to call attention to herself and wants people to notice her devotion to her brother. Both of them have a superficial understanding of love. Like Orsino, Olivia’s love is demonstrated through the external in this sense it is simply by her tears. There appears a lack of sincerity or genuine love in her actions. In fact, she appears to be self-absorbed. Her mourning draws more attention to her than to her brother. One evidence is that Orsino himself later praises Olivia and hardly mentions her brother at all. This happens when Orsino says, “ How will she love, when rich golden shaft Hath killed the flock of all affections else that live in her; when liver, brain, and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied and filled, her sweet perfections, with one self king!”. Everything that Orsino said was all about “her” meaning Olivia. Nothing of anything that he said was to do with Olivia’s lost brother. In addition the last two words that Orsino used were self king, and he was referring to no one but himself. This shows that he is self-delusion and self-indulgence. Well, in conclusion, I can confidently say that on the outside, Olivia appears to be devoted to her brother but actually she is more concerned with attracting attention to herself. On the outside, she wants to show her sincerity to her brother and father as well as her disillusionment about love, but actually this is all very superficial as observed in that it is excessive.
Now, the character I am going to write about is a total contrast to Orsino and Olivia. This character is in true love and is not even close to being active in infatuation. This character is non-other than Viola. Viola's love is silent and concealed. She is the long-suffering woman and her sincerity is shown in her actions (sacrificing her happiness for Orsino) and also in her silence. She does not indulge in public displays of affection like Olivia. Rather her love is silent yet strong and powerful as may be observed in the soliloquy which ends the scene in a rhyming couplet "Yet a barful strife! / Whoe'er I woo myself would be his wife". These short lines reveal her intense longing and desire for Orsino. Viola's shows a sacrificial type of love. Viola is obviously at first reluctant to go to Olivia and unfold to Olivia the "passion" of Orsino's love. This can be observed in her lines which express doubt and a certain hesitation "Sure my noble lord...As it is spoke, she never will admit me" and "say I do speak with her, my lord. What then?" Her dilemma is due to the fact that she is torn between pleasing Orsino and making him happy by helping him get Olivia and yet the fear of losing him of she helps him. Despite her dilemma, she tells Orsino that she will do her "best / to woo his [your] lady". She sacrifices her own happiness for his. Viola's love for Orsino is a great example of true love. Although she is pretending to be a man and is virtually unknown in Illyria, she hopes to win the Duke's heart. In act 1, scene 4, Viola let's out her true feelings for Cesario, "yet a barful strife! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife (1)." That statement becomes true when Viola reveals her true identity. Viola and Orsino had a very good friendship, and making the switch to husband and wife was easy. Viola was caught up in another true love scenario, only this time she was on the receiving end, and things didn't work out so smoothly. During her attempts to court Olivia for Orsino, Olivia grew to love Cesario. Viola was now caught in a terrible situation and there was only one way out, but that would jeopardize her chances with Orsino. It's amazing that Olivia could fall for a woman dressed as a man, but because Viola knew what women like to hear, her words won Olivia's heart. The next case of true love is on a less intimate and romantic scale, and more family oriented. Viola and Sebastian's love for one another is a bond felt by all siblings. Through their times of sorrow and mourning for each of their apparent deaths they still loved each other. They believed deep down that maybe someway or by some miracle that each of them was still alive and well.
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” . more bluntly describes love as a “plague” from which she suffers terribly. These metaphors contain an element of violence, further painting the love-struck as victims of some random force in the universe. Even the less melodramatic sighs unhappily that “My state is desperate for my master’s love”.Love is also exclusionary: some people achieve romantic happiness, while others do not. At the end of the play, as the happy lovers rejoice, both and are prevented from having the objects of their desire. Malvolio, who has pursued Olivia, must ultimately face the realization 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 . 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.
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
