Twelfth Night

Some humans, are in love with other people and others are just in love with the idea of love. In the play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, depending on the characters and their attractions to another, love is simultaneously blind as well as clear. Viola is in love with Orsino even though Orsino is blind to her love because he thinks she is a young man. Duke Orsino has blind love for Olivia because he is in love with the idea of love. Antonio clearly has strong affectionate feelings toward…

The human personality is always changing, and to trust that a personality is stagnant tends to show ignorance. In William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” the fluidity of identity is revealed by the shifting characters and emotions throughout the play. However, two characters in the play parody the shallow nature of stagnancy. In the first act of the play, the reader meets Olivia, a wealthy noblewoman that is in mourning of her brother and father who have recently died. To each of her other…

The protagonist of the play Twelfth Night is highly regarded as Shakespeare’s strongest and most developed female character by both critics and scholars. Viola is a cunning character who prompts a central issue in the play by disguising herself as a man; she provokes hetero- and homoerotic responses. Though Viola is a very intellectual woman, it is not her mind that stirs these emotions from Olivia and Orsino. Due to the soft and gentle features Viola has when in disguise, both males and females…

In the play Twelfth Night, written by William Shakespeare, we learn its comparison to a movie titled She's the Man directed by Andy Fickman. Both the play and the movie are very similar in the case that the main characters name is Viola. The movie illustrates the need for Viola to play for and be accepted by a soccer team. In the play, Viola is shipwrecked and is searching to find a viable source of income in a part of the world she doesn't know. In both adaptations, Viola dresses as a boy to…

William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night alludes to a variety of themes that commonly include false identity, role-playing, and love. The general plot of the play could be described as a cross-dressing comedy about a woman, Viola, who tries to gain the attention and love of a Duke, Orsino, with obstacles along the way, including Olivia, the Duke’s love interest. The themes mentioned are developed and sometimes scrutinized by the play’s characters, such as Orsino, Olivia, and Feste the clown. In…

Shakespeare is known for his history in literature. In every book he has written, the drama that occurs engages the audience. In the play Twelfth Night, there are various parts where drama is created through the forms of betrayal . Throughout this play I, learned that honesty can prevent betrayal just like misunderstandings can create betrayal. Although there were many forms of betrayal demonstrated towards the end of the play, there was only one friendship in the form of betrayal between the…

the Twelfth Night have universal themes. The two plays teach valuable lessons throughout the actions going on. Readers are able to recognize themes throughout the plays based on the specific characteristics of each of the plays. The two books have some clear differences. The Twelfth Night was written in 1601 while Hamlet was written in 1599. The different times of being written can allow the reader to recognize different themes in each of the plays. Hamlet is a tragedy and a the Twelfth Night is…

In the play “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare, there is a lot of deception and deceivery. Some of it is for necessity, Some for another’s benefit, and even some of it is just for fun. I will be explaining some of the trickery that goes on throughout the play. Viola most likely deceives the most people by disguising herself as a man, not as a way to manipulate people and get what she wants, but she does it as a way of survival. She originally did it so she could get a job performing and…

Twelfth night essay “If love be the food of music.. Play on!”- The Duke Orsino Some characters in Twelfth Night become witless due to romantic attractions. Twelfth Night goes to great lengths to expose the folly of human behavior. It takes shots at love-sickness, mourning, social ambition, and even moral propriety. Throughout the play, foolish behavior is often confused with "madness" or "lunacy." Duke Orsino is clearly only in love with the idea of love itself and views Olivia as just the…

Shakespeare’s comparison of ignorance to darkness and hell in Twelfth Night illustrates the ironies inflicted on the main characters and shows that as long as they do not know the true state of their situations, they will be in the agony of their own personal hells. Feste and Malvolio deliver a shared simile in 4.2, which reveals the foundational theme of the play: the characters in Olivia’s house (sphere of influence) are ignorant of their true situations. MALVOLIO. I say to you this house…