Twelfth Night the Play, Twelfth

¶ … Twelfth Night

The play, Twelfth Night, is all about love. While we generally associate love with positive emotions, Shakespeare illustrates in Twelfth Night that love is not always joyful but that it is also an emotion that causes pain, turmoil, and frustration.

Orsino, Viola, Malvolio, and Olivia are characters that demonstrate the power and our lack of power over love. While the theme of Twelfth Night is love, it is clear that Shakespeare wanted to show us more than the beautiful side of love - he wanted to unearth the drama that can sometimes be associated with love when it becomes bigger than life itself. Love is not always straightforward - it is often unstable and can create conflict. Twelfth Night demonstrates the many different directions love can take on the bumpy road to bliss.

The major characters in the play are either looking for love or they happen to stumble upon it. With this diverse group of characters, Shakespeare illustrates the vastness of love and all of the emotions - good and bad - it causes.

Love is indeed a powerful emotion. It makes us behave foolishly, it often strikes without warning, and, in many cases, it may seem like a disease. Shakespeare sets the mood for this romantic comedy by having Orsino speak these words at once:

If music be the food of love play on, give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die

That strain again! It had a dying fall. (Shakespeare I.i.1-4)

From this opening scene, we become aware of the tone of the play as well as see what the power of love can do. For instance, Orsino loves love. In fact, he may love the idea of love too much. His feelings for Olivia are over the top - so much so that he seems like a raving lunatic. If he were living today, he might stalk her. His intensity, however, is critical because it allows us to see the influence that love, or what we think to be love, can have over us. What is significant about his "love" is the fact that he has succeeded in convincing himself that he is in love with someone that he rarely knows. He does not love her as much as he loves what she, or her lifestyle, has to offer him. "Love" in this case is blind and needs a does of reality to see the truth.

Shakespeare sets the romantic tone for the play when Orsino says, "So full of shapes is fancy/That it alone is high fantastical" (I.i.14-15). This statement is significant because it connects the notion of love, or the fancy, to the imagination, or the fantastical. These lines emphasize the previous point of music being the food to feed on in that it is all something intangible. It is a mystery and this makes love almost like a secret. However, it is not always something that makes us smile.

While love is lovely, it is not always positive. One of the downsides of love is that it cannot be controlled. Simply put, love will not be rushed and it operates on its own timeclock. We cannot tell ourselves whom to love. Olivia's infatuation with Viola is perfect evidence of this fact. We see her frustration when she says:

Even so quickly may one catch the plague?

Methinks I feel this youth's perfections

With an invisible and subtle stealth

To creep in at mine eyes" (Shakespeare I.v.294-97).

In more contemporary terms, we can say that love makes people crazy and it makes people do crazy things.

While love is the primary focus of the play, we see that it is not always flowers and butterflies. Shakespeare does provide a happy ending, for the most part, but it not so easy getting to that point. Along the journey, Shakespeare is sure to teach us a few lessons about love. One lesson that we learn is that love is can be painful at times. For example, Orsino describes love as an insatiable appetite that he is unable to satisfy.

I.i.1-3); and his yearnings are "cruel hounds" (I.i.23). Similarly, Olivia refers to her amorous feelings as a "plague" (I.v.296).

In addition, Viola declares, "My state is desperate for my master's love" (II.ii.37). Here we see that love does not always bring out the most beautiful emotions in people. It can cause desperation, isolation, frustration, and agitation. These are emotions that can sometimes make us appreciate love even more - if we have the strength to do so.

One of the things we learn from Twelfth Night is that love looks to the inner man. In other words, love discovers the truth because it eventually brings the truth to the surface. As the play moves along, Orsino realizes that he might not love Olivia as much as he thinks he does. He declares his love for her but we all know that he is in love with something else - namely her beauty and her social position. As times progresses, we see that he in more in "lust" with her than anything else. When Orsino experiences true love, he looks to the inner woman of Viola and loves her genuine characteristics. It is also significant to notice that his love for her is gradual - it is not something happens at first glance. Instead, he must get close to Viola and experience the "person." He loves who she is on the inside - her soul, her heart, and her body.

Another thing we learn about love in Twelfth Night is that it is foolish. Malvolio behaves foolishly when it comes to Olivia. He will even wear yellow socks if it means she will glance his way. Olivia behaves foolishly as well when she calls for Malvolio, telling Maria, "If sad and merry madness equal be" (III.iv.14). Olivia's behavior regarding her brother's death is rather foolish and, to prove the point even more, she falls in love with a woman dressed as a man.

Love can also cause complications. Viola's actions from the beginning of the play till the end is the best illustration of how love can be problematic. Love seems to act on its own accord and Viola, no matter how she wants to be in control, has no control whatsoever. While Viola caused some of her own distress, she could never have controlled the coming of love into her life.

Sebastian puts it succinctly when he says:

So comes it lady, you have been mistook;

But nature to her bias drew in that.

Nor are you therein, by my life deciev'd