Example Of Love In Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'

By: Bryan Coates

Date Due: April 9, 2014

For: Katherine Gottli

Course: DART 2F94

Assignment: Final Essay

Love has been considered one of the most complex topics in today’s society how do you know this?; love is generally represented in today’s society as something that is irresistible, spontaneous and overpowering. It is portrayed as being dangerous and something that can destroy a person and not just bring hope to someone’s life, it is also shown in society that love is very difficult to get rid of where do you see all these examples? While you’re not wrong, as you suggest that they are seen in society, you need to say where you can see these examples of love. There are many, many ways that love is shown in many, many places – are you using specific examples as reference here? This is a good way to open the essay, but it includes a lot of generalization. Shakespeare, using his comedic play “Twelfth Night” compares it to disease and suffering, and shows that it can cause pain. Orsino describes love as an “appetite” that he needs to satisfy, but is unable to, and Olivia describes love as a “plague”. Even Viola who is less theatrical, sighs that “My state is desperate for my master's love”, because those who suffer from it are consumed by it and become desperate, they resort to violence to secure the love of another this is just in the case of Viola, or everyone? Again, if it’s the latter, that’s a large generalization. For example, Sir Andrew challenges Viola to fight to the death for Olivia's hand, and Orsino threatens to kill Viola, the subject of Olivia's affections, in order to keep her for himself, “But this your minion, whom I know you love, And whom, by heaven I swear, I tender dearly, Him will I tear out of that cruel ey...

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...ituation humorous, for example when Olivia is chasing after Cesario, is constantly being rejected, but is persistent none the less, “Viola : I pity you, Olivia: That's a degree to love”; we know that Cesario is really Viola and that Olivia should just give up. Another technique that Shakespeare uses is word play. He takes everyday words, and changes them so that they refer to love as well as the intended meaning. For example, in the first scene, Curio asks Orsino if he will hunt “the hart”. Curio meant a male deer, but we interpret it to mean a heart. Orsino then extends this and compares himself to the hart. Shakespeare uses several different methods to explore the theme of love in “Twelfth Night” but the most important one is through his characters. He turns each idea into a character and the drama and relationships between them help us to understand his thoughts.