Exploring Themes of Love, Obsession, and Identity in Twelfth Night

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, focusing on the complex interplay of love, identity, and social dynamics within the play. The essay examines the characters of Duke Orsino, Viola, and Malvolio, highlighting their motivations, relationships, and the thematic significance of their actions. It explores the nature of romantic love, obsession, and the role of deception and mistaken identity in driving the plot. The analysis delves into the characters' desires, their pursuit of love, and the consequences of their actions, ultimately revealing the play's exploration of illusion versus reality and the multifaceted nature of human relationships. The essay also touches upon the use of language, imagery, and dramatic irony to enhance the play's themes. The essay also includes references to modern songs to emphasize the timelessness of the themes in the play.

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1. JAYSON FT LIL WYNE DOWN (ORSINO)
Duke Orsino’s character is somehow short-lived and not deep as other key players.
However, Shakespeare ensured that he compensated his shortness with wanton satire which
makes the book a standard in romantic comedy category. What makes Orsino stand out is his
unrestrained quest for love which keeps on dodging him up until the conclusion play. The
first character trait of Orsino is that he is a romantic. Orsino’s life generally revolves around
winning a woman’s heart. He does not care what people perceive of him or how many times
he gets rejected. He persists to the very end in his pursuit of Olivia- the woman of his dreams.
Duke Orsino can be considered as a romantic man. He falls in love with the idea of being
loved and desires the stimulation and excitement of emotion. Although the character gets
controlled with his emotional state, he similarly recognises that love is so powerful . The
self-awareness he shows, even though limited, specifies that Orison has a logical and
emotional outlook of love(Shakespeare,pg 23). He want to rash to show Olivia that he loves
her, nonetheless he is not really sure she is right woman to settle with. He denounces love for
confronting him as animal which is hunted down,. This image also shows on the
characterization of love as Cupid,as the arrow tend to shoot whoever tend to love the shoter.
Orsino seems unrehearsed when a sincerely dominant emotion takes over him, when Viola
comes into the picture. The woman he admires also has a strong feeling for him .Duke
Orsino's type of love seems bizarre in that it is not an honest love, but just an obsession. he

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appear to be more in love with impression of the self-fulfilment he can gets from love but
does prefer love in the first place.
AEXES 1 [Verse 3: Lil Wayne]
I'm fightin' for this girl on the battlefield of love
Don't it look like baby cupid sending arrows from above?
This song depicts a show in love, someone who is able to stand strong despite the
situation he faces in order to win lover.Orsino compares himself to soldier also in the battle
of love where he fear getting shot at any time. Orsino is torn between the courtly or romantic
ideal of love, Orsino seems unrehearsed when a sincerely dominant emotion takes over him,
when Viola comes into the picture (Shakespeare,pg 67). The woman he admires also has a
strong feeling for him .Duke Orsino's type of love seems strange in that it is not an honest
love, but just an obsession. he appear to be more in love with impression of the self-
fulfilment he can gets from love but does prefer love in the first place. He openly has the
obsessiveness and real narcissi feelings.Orsino words in this act focuses more on himself as
well as the pain he is undergoing when under the influence of love,while giving less focus to
Olivia.
AEXES 2
Orsino knows how to play with is words and he is not shy to reveal his deep feelings for
Olivia. He accurately applies beautifully dialect to define his love, at times likening love with
flowers lovers and sweet songs. Even though accompanied by silliness, his engagements are
really very passionate. For example, while speaking to Curio he compares his yearnings to
cruel wolfhounds that that hunt him:

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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. (Act 1 Scene 1)
The song below matches with the Orsino vision of getting hunted by wolve in the Song Li
Wyne also put himself in a soldiers shoes and gets ready to fight foot the cause of love
(Herder and Moore,pg 4).
She cold, over-freeze, I got that girl from overseas
Now she my Miss America, now can I be her soldier, please?
Orsino is very obsessive about his love . He never gives up and keep sending different
people to convince her on his behalf accept him, however he gets disallowed. In act 1 , when
valentine notifies Orsino that Olivia is bereaving her departed brother for the next seven
years, he does not get discouraged, although he recognizes that it this is a trick to get him
discouraged . However receives the message with passion. He perceives her eccentric way of
lamentation, as a sign of devotion to Olivia;s family and states that the lady be a good lover
to the man she will eventually falls for:

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2. VIOLA’ Pink -True Love
Viola is a very likable character who no severe mistakes, and readers can easily see
the uniqueness of her decision when moment she chooses to dress like a man, as it pushes the
whole plot into cycles. Viola is the player whose love appears unadulterated. The other acts
love are indecisive: Orsino for instance shift from Olivia to Viola, on the other hand Olivia
Viola then to Sebastian. Only Viola seems to be really, single-mindedly in love as opposed to
being unrestrainedly infatuated. she describes as true love to Orsino (Shakespeare,pg 12)
AEXES 1
True love, true love
It must be true love
In the Song True love Pink describes what is meant to be loved and what it feels like
to truly love someone with honesty. Viola seems like honest lover who is only into love.
The plan of book revolves around mistaken identity and love. Shakespeare seems to
be utilizing players to reveal how playful and unpredictable is the notion of love, mainly
through the act such as Orsino,Olivia, Sebastian, and Viola . Each character is in love with
falling in of love, particularly Olivia and Orsino. Sebastian and Viola appear to be fairly firm
and clever (Shakespeare and Evans).
Viola's love for Orsino seems to pull him out of his narcissism domain and into a
relationship with another person. Likewise, Viola is also the attractive player that draws
Olivia from her secluded state of "lamentation" into world of the living. Although Olivia does
not wind up with "Viola" she does transfer her desire from "Viola" to Sebastian..This action,
seemingly simple, is important since it displays that Cesario /Viola is ready to take up the
tests of the male-controlled world by herself (Garfield, et al,pg 13).

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This raises the issues, which our modern criticisers prefer to categorise as feminist
matters. Certainly, Viola attests to be the toughest act in the entire play. Viola, (aCesario,pg
11) too adopts a masculine character which however, did not hide her feminine features
fully. Orsino invariably reacts to her charismas instinctively:
" Diana’s lip/ Is not more smooth and rubious. Thy small pipe/ Is as the maiden’s organ,
shrill and sound,/ And all is semblative a woman’s part."
Awkwardly she has to be the Orison ’s go-between to Olivia. Nevertheless, the
genuineness and sense of ethical accountability makes her carry out the duty nonetheless at
the same time the manner of performing the Orison’s command results in completely adverse
outcome- Olivia falls for Viola camouflaged as Cesario. It is at this point of realization that
Viola seems to be surprized with uncertainties but her intrinsic wisdom makes her make wish
decisions (Cahn,pg 43).
In Pink song She sings that Sometimes I wanna slap you in your whole face
There's no one quite like you, you push all my buttons down
People tend to get hungry when they are rejected, and they will fill more angry when they
have to act as go between, between partners they are interested in.Viola has to be send to
deliver messages even though he also has love interest in Olivia (Middleton).
3.Mavolio

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Malvolio firstly appears to be a small act and his dishonour appears little more than an
humorous catalyst to the Viola-Orsino-Olvia love story. Nonetheless he becomes very
stimulating as the drama advances, and most faultfinders have adjudged him . Malvolio is a
steward to Olivia. He is jealous and condemns just about all things – Toby's revelry lifestyle,
Feste's qualified fooling,. He himself is a party-pooper ways and continuous tattle-telling
(Sobran,pg13).
AEXES 3
Example 1 : Just leave with me now, say the word and we'll go (we can go)
I'll be your teacher, I'll show you the ropes (show you the ropes)
You'll see a side of love you've never known (never known)
I can see it going down, going down In my head, I see you all over me
Malvolio is interested in being close to Olvia,and want to be her favourite
character ,however this is not possible since Olivia is not interested.
When readers catch Malvolio fantasising about tying the knot with Olivia, readers learn that
his wish is not focussed on love but is on ambitions for social authority. What does the
character’s power make-believe look like?, it encompasses wearing fancy attires, giving
orders around to the employees, and taking part of moral police to Toby's. Malvolio appears
to be disciplined as much for his moral arrogance as for his leadership status climbing
imaginations (Cahn,pg 14).
Example 2
In Jayson Derulo song he says you fulfill my fantasy,On the other hand Mavoli is
interested in marrying Olivia but all this are just but imagination

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Contemporary readers often find his character to be compassionate figure. He is
maddening and he receives what he had been looking when Toby put him in a room then
carry out mock exorcism, nevertheless his positions make readers awkwardly alert of the
pure brutality of treating a individual like a mad person just for fun. Sly and Malvolio are
both ill-treated for the amusement of other people – including the Shakespeare's
spectators.one of the most multifaceted and captivating acts in Twelfth Night. When the
readers first meet Malvolio, the act appears simple —a puritan, a rigid and good helper who
is better at spoiling other individual’s fun. It is this fun-despising trait which earns him the
hostility of the drunken Sir Toby, clever Maria and zany who together cause his collapse.
But they do so by taking one aside of act (Malvolio) which may have otherwise continued to
be concealed—his self-respect and his extraordinary drives, which spreads to marrying Olivia
and becoming a leader (Shakespeare,pg 16).
Love is furthermore exclusionary: some persons achieve romantic contentment, while
people do not. At the end of the play, as the happy lovers celebrate, both Malvolio and
Antonio are banned from getting what their heart desired. Malvolio, a persistent man who has
followed Olivia, must eventually face the real truth that he is a fall guy, socially undeserving
of his noble lover. Antonio on the other hand in a more challenging state, as social standards
do not permit for the satisfaction of his seemingly sexual magnetism to Sebastian. Love,
therefore, cannot overcome all problems, and the people whose needs go unsatisfied stay no
less in love nonetheless feel the bite of its absenteeism all the more harshly.

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References
Cahn, Victor L. The Plays Of Shakespeare. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001. Print.
Garfield, Leon, Ksenia Prytkova, and William Shakespeare. Twelfth Night. New York:
Knopf, 1993. Print.
Herder, Johann Gottfried, and Gregory Moore. Shakespeare. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2011. Print.
Middleton, Haydn. Shakespeare. Tunbridge Wells: Ticktock Media, 2003. Print.
Shakespeare , William. The Works Of Shakespeare. London ;aToronto: Cassell, 1908. Print.
Shakespeare, William, and Gwynne Blakemore Evans. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1999. Print.
Shakespeare , William. William Shakespeare Poetry. Chandni Chowk, Delhi: Global Media,
2007. Print.
Shakespeare, William, and Gwynne Blakemore Evans. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1999. Print.