Twelfth Night Group

Question:

tafadzwa
tafadzwa
Student
High School - 12th Grade

What are the different kinds of love explored by Shakespeare in the play Twelfth Night?

loving oneself and loving others

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Posted by tafadzwa on Sunday October 14, 2007 at 1:31 AM and tagged with love, themes, twelfth night.

Answers:


  1. malibrarian Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    The different kinds of love include loving oneself (Malvolio being a good example) and loving others, but with regards to loving others, I think there are a variety of different loves seen throughout the play.

    There is the "love from afar" that Duke Orsino feels for Olivia - one that ends up not standing the test of time...a fleeting crush, so to speak.  There is the familial love of Viola for her brother, Sebastian, who she assumes has died at sea.  We see that same type of love with Olivia's decision to remain in mourning for her dead brother for seven years.

    There is also the love a servant holds for his master - Antonio decides to follow Sebastian to help him, despite the threat of death he's under for returning to Illyria.

    Finally, there is the "love to end all loves" - the romantic love which we find in happy endings.  Olivia and Sebastian pair up, while Orsino and Viola are a match as well.  And "all's well that ends well"!

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    Posted by malibrarian on Sunday October 14, 2007 at 5:25 PM

  2. chhandasi143
    chhandasi143 Student
    College - Freshman

    Romantic love and love at first sight are an axiom in the comic plays of Shakespeare. the heroes and heroines are voyagers in the persuit of happiness which they would get only from love they live in the rainbow world of love and idleness. shakespeare's greatest comedies, Love's Labour's Lost, and his one of the ripest comedies, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, have so much resemblence that they are about lovers and their wooings.

    love, as we are reminded by the opening words of the play,is the abiding theme of Twelfth Night. virtually, all Shakespeare's comedies are on this theme,though it would be grave disserce to deny the master artist's insightinto the other dimensions of comedy.

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    Posted by chhandasi143 on Sunday May 25, 2008 at 6:51 PM

  3. summer14
    summer14 Student
    High School - 11th Grade

    Loving oneself and loving others.

    Self-love- the most obnoxious kind of love to be shown by malvolio, his overweening pride and outrageous conceit

     Romantic love- Orsino's "love" for olivia is of a typically romantic kind.

    Love at first sight- Olivia's irresistible passion for "cesario" is a classic example of love at first sight.

    Love and Marriage

     

    Friendship love- Antionio's genuine affection, unswerving loyalty and unflinchiong generosity towards sebastion are all shown to be virtous and noble attributes.

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    Posted by summer14 on Monday June 23, 2008 at 6:56 AM