Twelfth Night Love Essay

In the Twelfth Night, Shakespeare presents two opposing types of love through the ironic relationship of Duke Orsino and Viola. More specifically, act 2 scene 4 demonstrates an example of what love should be through Viola and what love should not be through Orsino. The conversation between Duke Orsino and Viola illustrates different kinds of love; Orsino loves egotistically, while Viola loves humbly. Duke Orsino is a self-absorbed lover; he fixates upon a narrow view of his own love. He states, “my love, no more noble than the world” (II.4.81). Orsino is under the impression that his love is benevolent and he alone is capable of this grand, majestic love. He disregards Olivia’s feelings, or rather, lack of feelings, by stating, “no woman’s

She connects to him through a sense of male comradery and offers a thinly veiled example of a woman’s love through her father’s hypothetical daughter. She states, “Too well what love women to men may owe./ In faith, they are as true of heart as we (II.4.105-106). She hints at her own feelings for him, “As it might be perhaps, were I a woman,/ I should your lordship” (II.4.108-109). Orsino is in disbelief; he is incredulous that anyone could possibly match his love, yet he allows Viola to continue, because he values their

She states, “We men may say more, swear more, but indeed/ Our shows are more than will, for still we prove/ Much in our vows, but little in our love” (II.4.116-118). Viola criticizes Orsino’s claim about women’s love, “Alas, their love may be called appetite,/ No motion of the liver but the palate,/ That suffers surfeit, cloyment, and revolt;/ But mine is all as hungry as the sea/ And can digest as much.” (II.4.97-100). She is unwilling to let Orsino keep his egocentric idea of love, thus, she counters his point logically. Furthermore, Orsino is the representation of selfish love, obnoxiously proclaiming his love, yet never willing to take action. Viola not only proclaims that women “are as true of heart” as men but she is implicitly showing how women can love better than men (II.4.106). Āla D.Amir (2008), states in his article, “Dramatic Irony in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night” that “Viola's love is pure and sincere. She painfully sacrifices her love for the sake of Orsino's happiness and tries her best to convince Olivia of Orsino's love and worth, using her sincere emotions that are motivated by the purest motives of love of her bosom.” Thus, Viola portrays the adverse love of Orsino’s, showing that a woman’s love can exceed a man’s