How do Characters Respond to Love in the Early parts of Twelfth Night?
Twelfth Night is a play all about love. Not mutual love as in the love between two lovers but love in all other shapes and forms. During the play we encounter love of a man for a woman, love of a woman for a man, love of a woman for another woman, love for a sibling, love for oneself, love for money or power, pure physical attraction and love for love itself. Almost all of the characters are involved in love in some form or another and most of their love affairs are intertwined between each other. At the start of the play all are in love with somebody but in all cases this somebody does not love them in return.
Count Orsino opens the play using very elaborate language to describe his undying love for Lady Olivia. This shows the magnificent scale of his love; it seems so magnificent that it is almost unbelievable. He mostly uses metaphors to describe his love in a more beautiful way for example 'O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound that breathes upon a bank of violets'. However, it is hard to tell whether the opening speech is positive or negative because although he is speaking very positively about how much he loves Olivia he is also in great sorrow at the fact that she rejects him. He treats love like an appetite and says 'if music be the food of love, play on'. This phrase can be read in two ways; it at first seems very positive as he wants to be fed more on the love. However, when you read on you discover he says 'Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die'. This not only shows his sorrow at the fact that Olivia rejects him but also his indecisiveness about whether love is a good or bad thing. He compares love to the sea 'that not withstanding thy capacity recieveth as the sea' here he is saying that its capacity is huge and you can get sucked in to it very deep here. It is very odd how Orsino spends very little time describing why he loves Olivia and what is beautiful about her as his only compliment of her is that she 'purg'd the air of pestilence'. This perhaps suggests that it is not Olivia he loves but merely love itself that he is attached to. The fact that he uses such high style language, complex metaphors and references to Greek mythology makes his love that he is describing seem more like an excuse for a show of intellect rather than true love. All in all there is an underlying feeling that Orsino loves Olivia purely for the sake of being in love rather than the fact that he is truly in love with her. When he meets Viola dressed as Cesario the audience can see that he is slightly attracted to her by the fact that he says 'Diana's lip is not more smooth and rubious;' comparing Cesario to the same goddess he compared Olivia to in the first scene. He doesn't know that he is attracted to her as he thinks she is a man however this subtly hints at things to come.
Twelfth Night is a play all about love. Not mutual love as in the love between two lovers but love in all other shapes and forms. During the play we encounter love of a man for a woman, love of a woman for a man, love of a woman for another woman, love for a sibling, love for oneself, love for money or power, pure physical attraction and love for love itself. Almost all of the characters are involved in love in some form or another and most of their love affairs are intertwined between each other. At the start of the play all are in love with somebody but in all cases this somebody does not love them in return.
Count Orsino opens the play using very elaborate language to describe his undying love for Lady Olivia. This shows the magnificent scale of his love; it seems so magnificent that it is almost unbelievable. He mostly uses metaphors to describe his love in a more beautiful way for example 'O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound that breathes upon a bank of violets'. However, it is hard to tell whether the opening speech is positive or negative because although he is speaking very positively about how much he loves Olivia he is also in great sorrow at the fact that she rejects him. He treats love like an appetite and says 'if music be the food of love, play on'. This phrase can be read in two ways; it at first seems very positive as he wants to be fed more on the love. However, when you read on you discover he says 'Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die'. This not only shows his sorrow at the fact that Olivia rejects him but also his indecisiveness about whether love is a good or bad thing. He compares love to the sea 'that not withstanding thy capacity recieveth as the sea' here he is saying that its capacity is huge and you can get sucked in to it very deep here. It is very odd how Orsino spends very little time describing why he loves Olivia and what is beautiful about her as his only compliment of her is that she 'purg'd the air of pestilence'. This perhaps suggests that it is not Olivia he loves but merely love itself that he is attached to. The fact that he uses such high style language, complex metaphors and references to Greek mythology makes his love that he is describing seem more like an excuse for a show of intellect rather than true love. All in all there is an underlying feeling that Orsino loves Olivia purely for the sake of being in love rather than the fact that he is truly in love with her. When he meets Viola dressed as Cesario the audience can see that he is slightly attracted to her by the fact that he says 'Diana's lip is not more smooth and rubious;' comparing Cesario to the same goddess he compared Olivia to in the first scene. He doesn't know that he is attracted to her as he thinks she is a man however this subtly hints at things to come.
