Theme Of Romantic Love In Twelfth Night

Romantic love is defined as a very emotional recognition for another person or relationship. It can create many powerful feelings. In the play “Twelfth Night” this kind of love is seen as something that can be easily manipulated, as shown with Orsinio and Olivia throughout the play. The story started with discussing the first love which is the love Orsinio had for Olivia. They “Both claims to be buffeted by strong emotions, but both ultimately seem to be self-indulgent individuals who enjoy melodrama and self-involvement more than anything.” (Spark notes). Orsinio repeatedly says how much he is in love with Olivia in the beginning of the story even though it was obvious that he was only in love with the idea of being in love. In the beginning …show more content…
Cesario created a lot of stirs in multiple characters throughout the play. She/he put challenged Orison’s and Olivia’s of what they think is true romantic love for other people. Viola is the only one among the love triangle who actually gets to talk to the person she feels she loves. Viola has seen Orsario for what he truly is. She’s seen him depressed, angry, and filled with joy all having to do with Olivia and yet Viola still finds herself in love with him. She even feels desperation and anxiety as she has the man of her dreams right in front of her yet so far away because of her disguise. Unlike Olivias and Orsinos idea of falling in love and making it all about themselves Viola has put Orsario before herself in many occasions throughout the …show more content…
The more frequent Cesario shows up to see Olivia to deliver the messages from Orsino, the more interested Olivia becomes of Cesario. It got so serious that Olivia actually feels like she’s in love with him/her. It escalated to the point that Olivia became obsessed with Cesario and would give herself entirely to him/her. As Cesario and Orsino were getting to know each other it started off as master and messenger. Cesario simply just took Orison’s letters to its destination. They soon became close friends and after a while they became too close. Though it wasn’t made completely obvious there were some rather awkward scenes where Orsino might actually think he has feelings for Cesario. In a few scenes Orsino is caught with Cesario in his arms even though in some of them he was thinking about Olivia. If Orsino thought about the idea of having feelings for Cesario it could mean that Orsino could have actually been in love with another man despite it being a girl in disguise. Olivia also fell in love with Cesario which was a man with the personality of a woman. So in a way Olivia was in love with another woman. So it really questions on whether this is true love or not in Shakespeare’s eyes because “we have no direct evidence of Shakespeare’s personal views” (). Towards homosexuality, but through the story it did show that it could possibly be. The characters that fell in love with Cesario