Love in Twelfth Night essays

Love in Twelfth Night essays Love is generally something sudden and irresistible, it is extremely difficult to get rid of. People seem to suffer from love, or at least people claim to suffer. Despite Twelfth Nights comic plot, Shakespeare paints the ambiguous picture of romance and infatuation in the play. It is a story of the madness of love, it can as well be viewed as an essential celebration of romantic love. Most characters in the play are involved in love in varying degrees. Throughout the play, many forms of love are portrayed. The first form of love explored is romantic love. Duke Orsino is seriously in love with love. At the beginning of the play, Orsino says, If music be the food of love, play on (Act1 Scn1 L1), he is hungry for love so bad. But actually Orsinos love is a false love, since he is satisfied by the idea of being in love, he is only in love with love itself and he doesnt know what true love is. The second form of love portrayed is the love at first sight. O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence! ... (Act 1 Scn 1 L17-22), says Duke Orsino. As soon as the Duke saw the beautiful Lady Olivia, Orsino is lovesick for her and she has become the passion of his life. There is another example of love at first sight in the play, which is performed by Olivia, who is in love with Cesario. However, Cesario is in fact a woman, Viola, who disguised herself as a young man and becomes a page to the Duke, makes both Olivia and Orsino misunderstand. Once Olivia see Cesario, who comes to her to carry love messages from Orsino, she is in love with the fake image of Cesario. As Olivia does not know the genuine identity of Cesario, Olivias love is as well a false love. The third form of love portrayed is secret love. Secret love obviously means the love that cannot be exposed to the public. Viola loves Orsino secretly; Orsino loves Olivia secre ...