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Short note- William Shakespeare's twelfth night comedy
Critical analysis of love in twelfth night
Review of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
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Someone once said, ‘learn to love with all your heart and accept the faults of others in your life. Remember anyone can love a rose but it takes a great heart to include the thorns.’ This narrates to one of William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, Twelfth Night. Twelfth Night is a play about a woman named Viola who survives a shipwreck and chooses to live on her own in Illyria. She disguises as a man naming herself “Cesario” to be able to works as a messenger for the Count of Illyria. Who she ends up falling in love with but the Count was courting a woman named Olivia, a wealthy noble of Illyria, who falls in love with Cesario. Causing Viola to be stuck in a disguise. So she couldn’t confess her love for the Count or why she can’t be with Olivia. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare includes different characters and relationships to display people will go great lengths and take risks for someone they believe they love. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare includes different characters and relationships to show how far people would go for love and what the love sprouted from. …show more content…
Claiming his ‘desires, like fell and cruel hounds, e’ver since pursue’ him (1.1.21). However, he is afraid of denial and sends Cesario as his messenger but as Cesario gives the message to Olivia, she suddenly fancies Cesario as he tries to court her for the Count. Him not going up to Olivia, face-to-face, indicated he didn’t have a great heart. By not going up to speak to her, he did push her away rather than convincing Olivia more, matter-of-fact he actually sent the one entity that caused Olivia to look the other way completely. He didn’t have the heart to pick up the rose. Therefore, he didn’t get
During the weeks leading up to matrimony, Olivia fell madly in love with Cesario, who though looks and sounds just like Sebastian, is truly Viola dressed as a man. Sebastian does not realize this as he meets Olivia for the first time. He is amazed that a woman of her statue and beauty would feel so strong for him and he wastes no time.... ... middle of paper ...
“ Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em” (Malvolio 2.5.130-132). In the well known play — Twelfth Night, written by William Shakespeare, a man named Orsino longs for the love of a young woman named Olivia. Olivia swore she wouldn’t make contact with any man for seven years due to her brother’s death. Viola, a young woman, arrives in Illyria with a group of sailors. Viola mourns the loss of her brother, but later decides to dress as a man and work for Orsino as a page. By utilizing her self-possessed dialogue, Shakespeare transforms Viola from a woman of mourning into a woman of determination and prosperity. The ultimate tone Shakespeare conveys towards the transformative power of love is bitter-sweet to display how naive one can be when yearning.
The plot deepens as Cesario proceeds to woo Olivia for the Duke. It is only the second time that Cesario appears at Olivia’s home when Olivia openly declares her love for Cesario. Throughout this time, Sir Andrew has been nursing a hope to win Olivia’s love. When he plans to give up hope of her love, Sir Toby suggests that Sir Andrew fight with Cesario to impress Olivia. Cesario, however, refuses to fight. At the same time, Viola’s brother, Sebastian, who is also shipwrecked, makes his way to safe lodging in Illyria with Antonio the sea captain. After the fight between Cesario and Sir Andrew begins, Antonio intervenes to save Cesario, whom he takes for Sebastian. But the Duke’s officers promptly arrest Antonio for a past offense. Then, Olivia later comes upon Sir Andrew and Sebastian bickering at her home. Olivia, thinking Sebastian is Cesario, leads Sebastian to marriage in a nearby chapel. Finally, Cesario inevitably reveals that he is Viola and Sebastian recognizes her as his sister. The Duke reciprocates Viola’s love offerings and proposes to her. Olivia assures Malvolio...
Unlike the other characters in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", Viola's feelings of love are genuine. She is not mistaken about Orsino's true nature and loves him for who he really is, while the other characters in the play seem to be in love with an illusion. Viola's love for Orsino does not alter during the play, nor is it transferred to another person.
As prescient and insightful as this evaluation may seem after considering the outcome of Twelfth Night’s romantic pairings, it reads as a very shallow perspective rather than any sort of wisdom – to the Duke, love is never permanent, lasting, or constant (just like the nature of the tides, it always changes). Duke Orsino has no concern whatsoever for Olivia’s feelings of grief after the loss of her brother – she is merely an object of his desires at the moment, and as his eventual courtship with Viola proves, he is extremely fickle in his affections. (Even before Viola’s disguise became apparent, Orsino showed some signs of attraction to the male Cesario – this raises a few questions about exactly how far his romantic indecisiveness
After Duke Orsino asks Cesario (disguised Viola) to make Olivia love him, although she had stated that she would not marry for seven years due to her sadness from her brother’s death, Cesario tells him “I’ll do my best to woo your lady.” Then Viola tells the audience “(Aside) yet, a barful strife—Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife,” meaning that she has to convince another woman to love the man she loves. The exchange of words in this scene exemplifies dramatic irony since the reader now knows that a love road that connects Duke Orsino, Viola, and Olivia has formed while Orsino is clueless about the situation. Situational irony can also be withdrawn from this conversation because it is shocking that Viola is in love with Orsino. Viola’s sudden love for Orsino illustrates a universal truth about life that sometimes people fall in love too quickly without thinking far ahead.
Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night revolves around a love triangle that continually makes twists and turns like a rollercoaster, throwing emotions here and there. The characters love each another, but the common love is absent throughout the play. Then, another character enters the scene and not only confuses everyone, bringing with him chaos that presents many different themes throughout the play. Along, with the emotional turmoil, each character has their own issues and difficulties that they must take care of, but that also affect other characters at same time. Richard Henze refers to the play as a “vindication of romance, a depreciation of romance…a ‘subtle portrayal of the psychology of love,’ a play about ‘unrequital in love’…a moral comedy about the surfeiting of the appetite…” (Henze 4) On the other hand, L. G. Salingar questions all of the remarks about Twelfth Night, asking if the remarks about the play are actually true. Shakespeare touches on the theme of love, but emphases the pain and suffering it causes a person, showing a dark and dismal side to a usually happy thought.
Viola, as Cesario, manages to win the favour of Orsino He truly believes that she is a he. Orsino, still convinced of my majesty, believes that he can win the love of a woman, via a proxy. By having Viola merely read the words he has prepared, he thinks that Olivia will fall immediately in love with him. But while Orsino had his head in the clouds about his love, Viola is attempting to conceal from him, her love for him.
For example, after Malvolio, Olivia’s servant, was set to believe that she is in love with him, he dresses in colors, keeps smiling, and argues with everyone around him (Act III Scene IV). Such acts offends Olivia and ruins her image as a grieving lady. In addition, another image reveals when Antonio tries to protect Cesario (Viola) thinking that she is his dear Sebastian. After getting arrested, Antonio’s heart breaks when Cesario (Viola) does not recognizes him (IV). In the following scenes, such confusion occurs due to the fact that Viola and Sebastian are twins, and Viola is dressed as a man.
In the Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the play emphasizes how there is not one way to show love, whether this is showing love to others or to oneself. Each character tends to explicitly show love towards another person whereas; Maria shows her love in a different manner. In the first act we are able to see how Orsino shows love to Olivia by sending Cesario as a messager to wooe Olivia for Orsino. And because Olivia interacts with Cesario, Olivia falls in love with Cesario instead of Orisno. She shows her love towards him by giving him the materialism in a way of buying his love. In addition, Cesario falls deeply in love with her master Orsino that she knows that she is not able to have, but only imagine having. While Antonio
Orsino sends Cesario expresses his affection for Olivia, which Cesario/Viola is not thrilled about. with.
Twelfth Night consists of a large number of love triangles, however many characters are too indulged in love that they are blind to the untrue, and the weakness of their relationship, they are deceived by themselves and many people around them ( ex. Malvolio is tricked by Sir Andrew, Feste ,Sir Toby and Maria),but there are certain incidents where the love is true and two characters feel very strongly about one another. In the play, Viola and Orsino have the most significant relationship. The way they interact with each other causes the complexity on which the play is all about, their relationship turns from strangers to friends then lovers .In the First Act Viola is not honest with Orsino because she disguises herself as a male servant named Cesario in order to get closer to the duke. Orsino. Orsino quickly trusts Cesario and sends him to Olivia to declare Orsinos Love for her, the girl he most dearly loves. This quick bond is the fast example of their relationship. At the beginning of the play, Viola thinks her brother (Sebastian) is dead (after they’re deadly boat crash, where they get separated) when actually he is alive and thinks she is dead, Viola always seems to have a part missing from her which shows her bond with Sebastian is strong, and a part of her but in a brotherly/sisterly way rather than a proper relationship like viola and orsino, At the end of the play they meet and both fall in love , Viola with Orsino and Sebastian with Olivia.
In Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, many characters feel overwhelming emotions of love which adds to confusion as all the characters gather in front of Olivia’s house. This over exaggerated love distracts the characters so much so that they turn their backs on the importance of other things in their lives. Lady Olivia halts her mourning because of her sudden love for Cesario, the Duke overlooks Cesario’s (Viola’s) feelings because he continually pursues Olivia, and Malvolio throws away all manners and dignity to gain Olivia's attention. closing ?
Twelfth Night takes a creative stab at judging a book by its cover. The topic of gender is one of the most discussed/enacted in the play, in which a female character who goes by the name of Viola disguises herself as a man. She doesn't really gauge how long she will have to take on this persona (of Cesario), and this results in a few major misunderstandings. Viola actually falls in love herself with Orsino (who fancies Olivia). The only thing is that she can't tell him that she loves him only because Orsino thinks she's a man. Meanwhile, Olivia falls in love with Viola (while under the guise as Cesario). Orsino talks about how beautiful Viola... I man Cesario looks, which actually makes it seem as though he is more attracted to Viola's male
Throughout Twelfth Night, disguise and mistaken identity works as a catalyst for confusion and disorder which consistently contributes towards the dramatic comic genre of the play. Many characters in Twelfth Night assume disguises, beginning with Viola, who disguises herself as a man in order to serve Orsino, the Duke. By dressing his protagonist in male garments, Shakespeare creates ongoing sexual confusion with characters, which include Olivia, Viola and Orsino, who create a ‘love triangle’ between them. Implicitly, there is homoerotic subtext here: Olivia is in love with a woman, despite believing her to be a man, and Orsino often comments on Cesario’s beauty, which implies that he is attracted to Viola even before her male disguise is removed. However, even subsequent to the revealing of Viola’s true identity, Orsino’s declares his love to Viola implying that he enjoys lengthening the pretence of Vio...