Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
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Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a comical drama with useful love lessons. Although meant to be a romantic comedy, it has discussed several aspects of love and relationships. In the play, love patterns and courtship have been examined by twisting gender roles. One of the main lessons is that love can cause suffering. It is a form of curse and attacks its victims abruptly and disruptively. Many Twelfth night characters suffer badly from falling in love. Others suffer from being in unrequited love. In Act 3, scene 1, Orsino has depicted love dolefully as a kind of appetite he desires to satisfy, but is unable to do so. At one point, he considers what he wants “cruel hounds” (Shakespeare, 1985). In the same scene, Olivia is blunter as she suggests love is a “plague” from her partner and herself have suffered terribly (Shakespeare, 1985). The kind of words Olivia and Orsino use to describe love are metaphorical, and contain elements of violence. This paints love-struck people as victims of an incomprehensible, random force on earth. Viola, who is not as melodramatic as the other characters, also says that she desperate for her master’s love. Such desperation can potentially result in violence. For instance, Orsino threatens to murder Cesario as the former is thought to have forsaken him, becoming Olivia’s lover in Act V, scene I.
The dangers associated with love are depicted in a way with which we can readily identify. Love is likened to death since it poses a challenge, or a threat to the self, which fears change. One must accept to change in order that loving another person becomes possible. In addition, one has to allow his or her will and fate to be controlled by the lover. This is especially so for lovers who are excessively demanding and clingy. The characters cling to a sense of self, which does not permit change to occur. Nevertheless, it is to these characters that change most often happens, and it does so explosively. A notable example of this is Malvolio, but Orsino is also a victim. Although claiming to be ready to love, Malvolio is afraid of mutual love deeply, beneath all his expectations. In a number of ways, he finds it easier to pine and woo Olivia because his ego gets flattered by the feeling the latter loves him more than him.
Shakespeare takes us to the heart of a relationship between self and love, especially through Olivia. We virtually necessarily lose self-composure when we love and cease to view our actions through the very eyes that loved. Although Olivia fears the love will not end satisfactorily, she wants to go on and take the risk since love, or at the very least attraction, is blind. It allows her mind to be left behind as she gives herself up to fate.
The deception associated with love dates back to Shakespeare’s times. Olivia displays a lot of confusion for the characters and audience when she takes on the role of wooer, which is traditionally a male role. She does this in her desperate attempt to win Viola. Olivia praises the latter’s beauty in an extremely long conversation. She addresses him believing his scorn only reveals the latent love he has for her. Nonetheless, Olivia's wrong interpretation of Viola's behavior is only the problem her speech presents. The reality of Viola’s gender, the duality of meanings of words, Olivia’s active role to pursue him or her in this play threatens to change the conventional patriarchal courtship system upside down. Olivia suggests this is tantamount to changing "night to noon” (Shakespeare, 1985). Apparently, the most important upset to this structure is the probability that Olivia has fallen in love with a girl. The audience is allowed to excuse this behavior by having Olivia remain unaware of Viola’s gender. Olivia's attraction appears to stem from the feminine features, such as the “angry lip and beautiful scorn" (Shakespeare, 1985). To a modern audience, Olivia's words can be read suspicious. She knows Viola is female, yet she chooses to love her.
Love removes all guilt or fear of victimization, even when one loves the wrong person. Shakespeare teaches us this lesson using Olivia, when she describes Viola's beauty. Upon the first encounter with Viola, she took several minutes praising some feminine qualities the latter had without minding her gender. The discussion of love along with guilt makes the readers wonder if Olivia has any guilt about admiring female attributes, which she also has. The oath on maidenhood Olivia makes also provokes us toward a lesbian affair as it hints Viola also understands the maidenhood Oath. Olivia declares wit or reason cannot hide the passion she has for Viola. The former suggests her love for Viola cannot die even if it were illogical as same sex affairs are no longer bad to her. In spite of the unacceptability of the same sex relationships in Shakespeare's time, various hints toward such an affair are apparently visible to have been perceived then as well as in modern times. The picture of a girl wooing a fellow girl presents a comical situation for us, although there is no blatant intention to portray a lesbian affair to such extents. Shakespeare ably questions homosexual love through Viola, aiming to protect the characters in his play and us from having to gnaw the challenge directly. Overall, Shakespeare teaches us that love may make someone go against societal norms and values, like Olivia and Viola disobeys the order of nature and go on to start a lesbian relationship. Initially, what seemed as unacceptable to these two characters begin appearing all right because of love.
From the last scenes of the play, it is evident that madness appears to take center stage whenever two people fall in love. We are shown madness overlaps the desire for love and romance. Orsino discusses love as an emotion that produces multiple varying images of one’s beloved, which is similar to psychotic hallucinations. For instance, Olivia remarks that her desire for Viola is driving her mad at certain points. Some of these examples of madness are principally metaphorical: characters have found madness as an avenue to express how intense their romantic feelings are. Nonetheless, the play exhibits various characters that literally appear mad. Maria, Fabian, and Sir Toby play on Malvolio at some point, convincing us that he has become mad. The confusion resulting from the mix up of characters like Viola/Cesario and Sebastian leads us to think they have turned mad. The general comedy and chaos this confusion creates lead us to conclude love can make the people in love do crazy things.
To sum up, through what was merely meant to be comical, Shakespeare teaches us important love lessons. These aspects of love, including madness and deception, are still relevant even in modern day relationships.