What Views Of Love Are Exploited By Shakespeare In Twelfth Night

Introduction

Twelfth Night is a play about misrule where people’s roles are turned upside down for a day. In this play there is confusion and misunderstanding and trickery. These are the ingredients for a good comedy.

In this essay I will be discussing what views of love there are and how Shakespeare exploits these views. I will also be discussing the effects of these views and how they are portrayed in this play.

In this play Viola and her twin brother Sebastian are separated in a storm, which washes them both up at different points on the shores of Illyria. Believing each other to be dead, both attempt to survive by using their wits. Viola cross-dresses and enters the service of the lovesick Orsino, in love with Olivia, an heiress in mourning for the loss of her brother. Orsino's saucy young page Cesario (Viola) soon falls in love with his master. Unfortunately, whilst Viola falls in love with Orsino, Olivia falls in love with her alter ego, Cesario, whilst also being pursued at the same time by her pompous servant Malvolio. Olivia's house is also turned upside down by the antics of her drunken uncle, Sir Toby Belch, and the whole crazy situation reaches boiling point when Sebastian reappears.

Orsino’s Love

Orsino is very romantic and poetic in his love. Orsino only dreams of love and never acts with love, as all he does is dream about it. He talks about this love in the beginning of the play, which begins, with music.

”If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken and so die.
That strain again, it had a dying fall;

O it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound…”

That extract was from the very beginning of the book. That quote from the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Orsino’s Love

”If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken and so die.
That strain again, it had a dying fall;

O it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound…”

That extract was from the very beginning of the book. That quote from the play shows that Orsino is in love with love yet he is still very passionate due to the amount of description of his love is said.

Orsino hires an elegant page called Cesario to do his wooing. Cesario is really Viola dressed up in male clothes.

Viola: Say do I speak with her, my lord, what then?
Orsino: O then unfold the passions of my love,

Surprise her with discourse of my dear faith…

That extract was from the bottom of page 17, line 22 onwards in Act 1 Scene 4.

Orsino is a true believer of love and feels if you love someone so much you will eventually win that person over no matter what the circumstances which in this case is Olivia mourning for her brother.

Here is another quote between Curio and Orsino:

Curio: Will you go hunt, my lord?
Orsino: What, Curio?

Curio: The hart

Orsino: Why so I do, the noblest that I have.

O when mine eyes did see Olivia first…

Whenever Orsino is being talked to all of his replies are mainly based around Olivia and how much he loves her. He immediately talks about Olivia in this extract when being talked to by Curio. He shows hyperbole in his conversations, which is shown by his lavish descriptions.

Olivia’s Love

Olivia is mourning for her brother and she says she will not be in the company of men for 7 years. The stylish Cesario, who takes her away with his good looks, even though Cesario is Viola in disguise, dazzles her.
Olivia probably falls in love with Viola because they are both in a similar situation as they both have lost a brother and are both female. Olivia’s love is very confusing. She shows this by wanting to see Viola again by sending Malvolio off to give Vila her ring back even though Viola wasn’t wearing one.

Malvolio’s Love

Malvolio is very stuck-up. He is self-absorbed and is in love with himself. Everyone because of this hates him. That is why someone said; “O you are sick of self-love Malvolio,” this shows that he is unloved. He is shown as somebody who is extremely critical of those with a lower status than him showing that he is quite complacent. He is so in love with himself and with Olivia as well that he falls for the tricked and he is gulled. He was so in love with himself that when he read the letters, “M.O.A.I.” He immediately thinks the letter is addressed to him. He also is unaware of the fact that Sir Toby and co. are spying on him and he doesn’t realise this because he is so gullible, selfish and self-absorbed.

Viola’s Love

Viola is in a bad situation, as she cannot really portray her love as she is dressed up as a man and if she did she would lose her cover. She is very loyal as she woos Olivia even when she really likes Orsino. Her excellent linguistic techniques help her in her love, and Olivia adores her because of them. Viola does not let the fear of her brother’s death interfere with her life like Olivia does, but she just lives in hope and carries on with life. She also has sibling love for her brother because when she talks to the captain about her brother’s life she keeps persisting in asking the captain to say what she really wants to hear. She is also very hopeful in finding her brother and getting Orsino to love her. Her sibling love is shown in Act 1 Scene 2. She is also very secretive. Her cover disguising herself as a man and adventuring in a place that she hasn’t heard of portrays this.

Conclusion

Love plays a major role in "Twelfth Night," and Shakespeare addresses true love, self-love and friendship in a very compelling and interesting way. There are many people in the film who portray several forms of love and from their actions you are able to depict what type of love it is. The person who has the most love or at least the most unbelievable love has to be, of course, Malvolio with his self-absorbed nature.