Love And Disguise In The Twelfth Night Essay

The art of revel suggests that this complex emotion cannot be substantially defined it must instead be conceptualized within the confines of run-in and images. One writer that mastered this presentation of recognise is William Shakespeare. Through his sonnets and plays, he immortalized the concept of get laid for referees of all generations. His comedy 12th Night in particular presents acknowledge as an elusive object which throws out piece of musicy an(prenominal) tricks along its path. Through the artful use of language and disguise, this play presents love as a comic yet sentimental quest. The first speech in this play are spoken by a patch in love If music be the food of love, play on/Give me excess of it, that surfeiting, /The appetite whitethorn sicken and so discover (I,i,1-3). Duke Orsino is lovesick for Lady Olivia, who, adversely, has gone to great lengths to avoid his pursuit. He uses a metaphor comparing himself to a hart hunted by loves cruel hounds (I, i, 22). This use of negatively connoted language reveals to the reader how much pain and suffering the Duke feels due to this unrequited love. The plot becomes ironic when the shipwrecked genus Viola chooses to disguise herself as a eunuch, a serving boy, in the stomach of Orsino in order to quietly pass the time until she can muster up out if her twin brother has survived the same disaster at sea. In doing so, she finds that she has spenden in love with him but cannot evince it because she is masquerading as a man. Her job is to woo Olivia, who is continuing to disguise herself in her mourning lop to thwart Orsino, which creates a further complication in that Olivia herself falls for the man that she thinks Viola is Cesario. Thus, a triangle forms Viola loves Orsino who loves Olivia who loves Viola (as Cesario). Clearly the signal that love is confusing is well-taken. Yet, this play has more to say about the complexities of love. Olivia marvels at the quick onset of her feeli ngs How now/Even so quickly may one catch the plague? (I, v, 206-207). Again, love is presented here as an sickness to be avoided. TO make matters worse, Malvolio, Olivias grumpy servant, carries a secret love for his mistress. When Olivias uncle and his friend, who also loves Olivia, find out, they set him up for embarrassment. The love letter he finds compels him to make romantic gestures toward Olivia, who has him banished for madness. The further irony is that the choices of love interests in this play defy reason. Orsino emphatically asserts that nothing and nobody can remain the beating of so strong a heating/ as love doth give my heart (II, iv, 72-73) for a char charr that has constantly spurned him. Olivia, on the other hand, has fallen in love with a disguised woman I love thee so, that maugre all thy pride,/Nor wit nor reason can my passion hide/ (III, i, 121-122). Viola, disguised as a man, loves a man, and Malvolio has made the unfortunate mistake of loving a woman o ut of his class. Of course Andrew has been convinced to love Olivia as well, out of toby fillpot jugs staminatevolent and horrid needs. The role that disguises play in the love situations above cannot be ignored. With the practical exception of the Duke, nobody is who they seem to be on the outside. Typically, Olivia would not fall for another female, but the traits in the person she perceives to be a male jive with her own desire for independence and autonomy. Likewise, Viola knows that she cannot formally forecast her love for the Duke because she is disguised as a male. However, he is drawn to her because he must somehow sense her femininity. Olivia is pretterminus to still be in mourning for her brothers death by hiding herself chthonic a veil, though the period for mourning has long since passed. Further, when Sebastian, Violas twin brother enters the picture, Olivia naturally gravitates to him, resulting in hilarious results. Oddly, he accepts her end of marriage only minutes after coming in clashing with her.This just goes to show that the characters in this play are not respectable about love while they are disguised. It is characterized as a painful, cancerous emotion, yet they still seek it. When the characters finally are able to express their emotions as their true selves, the love seems more substantial. The marriage of Sebastian and Olivia is false until she constitute that she hasnt married Cesario, but really Sebastian. Likewise, the moment that the Duke discovers that Cesario is really the woman Viola, he offers his hand to her. What appears to be a happy ending is itself disguised. The reader must wonder what has compelled these individuals to profess their undying love then spay their minds so quickly. If love is as painful as they might suggest, why pursue it in the first place? The idea of the happy ending is shadowed in the forced marriage by bet of Toby and Maria, and the angry outburst of the wronged Malvolio. The marriages of the play are reduced to a farce, which the clown around can only sum up with a song.ReferenceShakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Mineola, NY Dover, 1996.