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Twelfth Night is, above all, a play about love — but Shakespeare presents love in so many forms that no single definition can contain it. This lesson examines the different kinds of love in the play, the role of disguise and mistaken identity, gender fluidity, and the idea that love is a kind of madness.
Romantic love drives the main plot, but Shakespeare shows it to be unstable, irrational, and based on surfaces.
| Character | Object of Love | Nature of Love |
|---|---|---|
| Orsino | Olivia (then Viola) | Self-indulgent, performative, transferred instantly |
| Viola | Orsino | Selfless, patient, concealed |
| Olivia | Cesario (then Sebastian) | Sudden, passionate, based on appearance |
| Sebastian | Olivia | Bewildered acceptance of a stranger's love |
"If music be the food of love, play on, / Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, / The appetite may sicken, and so die." (1.1.1--3)
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