Love in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Throughout history, love has been elucidated as the most awe-inspiring emotion known to man. Frequently, aspects of human philosophy that endow pleasure are accompanied with agony; love is no exception. In William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, this theme is expressed consistently, but specifically in the play's final scene. Through the use of Act V, scene I, Shakespeare conveys how themes of intense love generate violence, exclusivity, and continuous anguish.

The last scene of Twelfth Night begins with Orsino, the duke of Illyria, searching for Olivia, his "lost" love. He encounters her with intentions of consummating his dreams of marriage. Dejectedly, he finds that she has fallen for his servant, Cesario. Out of rage, he exclaims, "Why should I not, had I the heart to do it, / Like to the Egyptian thief at point of death, / Kill what I love? A savage jealousy" (5.1.110-113); thereby, Orsino threatens to murder his finest confidant simply on accounts of love. Because of its circumstance, this moment helps depict the play as a whole. The story contains several instances of violence, all revolving adulating emotion, but this interaction perfectly portrays Shakespeare's underlying message.

Loving emotions are also exclusive. In novels and modern society, people either achieve romantic bliss or remain melancholic and abandoned. Twelfth Night successfully represents this notion and assists the theory in its conclusion. While all the new lovers celebrate their euphoria, Malvolio, the servant to Olivia, is left in tremendous emotional agony. He perused Olivia from the initiation of the whole story and (because of maltreatment) believed she would return his love. His utter disappointment is revealed in his passage: "Why have you suffered me to be imprisoned, / Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest, / And made the most notorious geck and gull / That e'er invention played on? Tell me why." (5.1.333-334). Lucidly, he is referring to his suffering caused by Sir Toby and others, but additionally he indicates the agony provoked by her misleading affection. In addition, this scene also exemplifies themes of love exclusivity through Antonio. He ostensibly falls for Sebastian in their first relation and continuously follows him as the story progresses. When Sebastian says, "Nor are you there, by my life, deceived. / You are betrothed both to a maid and man." (5.1.254-255), he mutilates Antonio's underlying passion for him, thus causing Antonio severe emotional pain. Both examples are effective because of their consistency throughout the comedy.

Shakespeare uses Act V, scene I, to also further develop the notion of long-lasting and recurring anguish produced by love. Before this scene, Orsino had been habitually sending Viola to express his feelings towards Olivia. Interestingly, both characters have the same painful emotion provoked by their passion. Viola explains that she too feels this way when stating, "Say that some lady, as perhaps there is, / Hath for your love as great a pang of heart / As you have for Olivia; you cannot love her; / You tell her so; must she not then be answered?" (2.4.91-95). This passage indirectly expresses Viola's feelings by using broad phrases such as "some lady" and "perhaps there is". In the final scene, Orsino grows intolerant of his melancholy and determines to seduce Olivia himself. This action is quintessential of the entire play as it describes how unbearable unfulfilled passion can be.

Twelfth Night displays the tribulation that love accompanies, one of the most significant themes in all of literature. Love's anguish is expressed through essentially every character within the play and is repeatedly mentioned. Certainly, it's communicated at key plot points, but particularly in the final Act. The interactions with Orsino, Malvolio, Viola, Olivia, and Sebastian amplify how passion creates melancholy through exclusivity, hostility, and long-lasting remorse. Twelfth Night's finale effectively represents the play as a whole and explicates one its major motives, love as a cause of suffering.