Example Of Essay On Twelfth Night

The play, Twelfth Night, penned by the eminent playwright, William Shakespeare, delves deep into issues related to subtle human emotions. The aesthetic appeal and quintessential representation of the thematic content and course of events had left an immortal mark in the hearts of gazillion avid readers and audience across the entire globe. The universal appeal of the seminal literary work lies in its thematic content that explores the territories of human emotions. The theme of love is omniscient in the course of the play. The playwright employs his creative genius to view love with all its entailments and complications through the course of events in the lives of the play’s characters.
The readers or audience comes to know that every major character in the play has some sort of emotion of love or desire. Much of the comic content is excavated in the course of the events by satirizing the lovers in the play. The play goes on to be a mockery of the main characters’ idea about romance through the escapades of the servants in the course of events.
Through the character of Olivia, the playwright explores the relationship between love and self. The author shows how a person loses self-compose on falling in love. A person stops being able to gauge his own actions. Nevertheless, Olivia is ready to take the risk even after knowing the fact that her immense attraction to Voila would come to naught. She does so because the emotion of love or immense attraction makes her leave aside her logical sense, and surrender to the fate of her life.
However, the playwright also goes on to delve deep into jeopardy that is related to the emotion of love. In the play in context, love is shown to be synonymous to death as both of them pose hindrance or leave a person amidst challenges. It needs to be understood that if one wishes to be able to love another person, he or she should accept change. The person in love should have acceptance of the fact that no one can control what is there in one’s fate or will. The barrier or impediments of language and communication might give rise to problems also.
The several characters in the play, Twelfth Night, stick to a one-dimensional sense of self- something that never allows for change. The most understandable example would be that of the character of Malvolio. Even Orsino, who claims that he is open to emotional relation, is greatly afraid of relationship of love with anyone. However, he endeavors to conceal his true nature beneath all the high rhetoric. It can be comprehended that in some ways it is easier for Orsino to pine in the love of Olivia. Orsino says, “O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, / Methought she purged the air of pestilence! / That instant was I turn'd into a hart; / And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, / E'er since pursue me.” (Shakespeare Act 1) He send two middlemen so that they can woo her as he is simply chooses to flatter his ego thinking that he loves her much more than how much she loves him.
The play in context is essentially a romantic comedy, and the primary focus of the literary work is in portraying the emotions and subtleties of romantic love among the various characters of the play. Although the play ends on a happy note where many lovers finally find one another and tie the knot, William Shakespeare shows how this love can also be a reason of pain.
Quite a number of characters in the play see love to be a sort of curse- something that inflicts the victims all of a sudden and disrupts life. A number of characters suffer painfully as they are in love with someone who does not reciprocate to nurture that person. There is a point of time when Orsino goes on to describe love as an “appetite” that he requires to satiate, but is unable to do so. He is also seen to term his desires as “cruel hounds”, while Olivia chooses the more blatant way of expression by saying that love is like a “plague” that makes her suffer a lot.
Thus, the playwright chooses the option of portraying love with the usage of these metaphors. These metaphorical expressions contain an essence of violence, and portray the people who are love-struck to be the poor victims of a powerful force. One can even find Viola sighing in unhappiness stating that she is desperate for the love of her master. The desperation of a character for love has the immense potential to bring violence. Thus, in Act V, Scene 1, Orsino goes on to threaten about assassinating Cesario as he believes that Cesario went on to forsake him to be the lover of Olivia.
The playwright also explores in his literary work how love is quite an exclusionary thing for some people. While love makes many people happy in life, others do not find happiness after falling in love. When the play ends, while the audience sees the rejoicing lovers, they also find Antonio and Malvolio who fail to obtain their objects of desire in life. Although Malvolio wished to be with Olivia, he has to accept the fact that he is nothing more than a fool and not worthy socially. Malvolio says, “Why have you suffered me to be imprisoned, / Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest, / And made the most notorious geck and gull / That e'er invention played on? Tell me why.” (Shakespeare Act 5) On the other hand, Antonio is caught in the trap of societal norms as he is not allowed to gratify his sexual attraction toward Sebastian. Thus, the playwright shows how love fails to get the better of all the obstacles, and the people whose love remain unfulfilled feel the absence.
Thus, the theme of love is omniscient throughout the Shakespearean play. The literary work excels in bringing out the intricacies of love and relationships through the perfect portraiture of the stalwart playwright. Twelfth Night stands out in the hearts of the innumerable people across the entire globe transcending the barriers of cultures and communities.

Works Cited

Atkin, Graham. Twelfth Night: Character Studies. New York: Continuum Books, 2008. print.
Bamber, Linda. Comic Women, Tragic Men: Study of Gender and Genre in Shakespeare.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982. Print.
Schiffer, James, ed. Twelfth Night: New Critical Essays. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.