Twelfth Night begins in the mythical land of Illyria where Orsino the nobleman is in love with Lady Olivia. She is currently mourning for her deceased brother, resulting in her unacquainted love for Orsino. Off the coast, a storm produced a horrifying shipwreck that swept Viola onto Illyria’s shore. Discovered unaccompanied, she assumes that her twin brother Sebastian had drowned. Viola then chooses to disguise herself as a man, taking the name Cesario and begins work in the household of Orsino. Viola soon finds herself in love with Orsino; however, when Orsino sends Cesario to Olivia, Olivia herself falls for Cessario, deeming her a man. Succeeding accumulating confusion, misguided identities, and professions of love, Sebastian and Viola are reunited and everyone grasps that Viola is actually a woman (Shakespeare 1189-1250). Ultimately, the matter of love triggers all suffering for the characters within this eminent tale. Despite a cheerful conclusion, Shakespeare validates the distress that love can instigate. The characters directly define the painful suffering love has thrust upon them throughout the poem. In the very beginning, Orsino depicts love as an “appetite” that he wants to satisfy and cannot (1-3). On the other hand, love is also exclusionary. At the culmination of the play, the blissful lovers celebrate while Malvolio, who pursued Olivia, is prohibited from having whom he desired. Consequently, love cannot overcome all obstacles and those whose yearnings go unfulfilled prove no less in love but experience the burn of its absence all the more relentlessly (Hoy
Twelfth Night begins in the mythical land of Illyria where Orsino the nobleman is in love with Lady Olivia. She is currently mourning for her deceased brother, resulting in her unacquainted love for Orsino. Off the coast, a storm produced a horrifying shipwreck that swept Viola onto Illyria’s shore. Discovered unaccompanied, she assumes that her twin brother Sebastian had drowned. Viola then chooses to disguise herself as a man, taking the name Cesario and begins work in the household of Orsino. Viola soon finds herself in love with Orsino; however, when Orsino sends Cesario to Olivia, Olivia herself falls for Cessario, deeming her a man. Succeeding accumulating confusion, misguided identities, and professions of love, Sebastian and Viola are reunited and everyone grasps that Viola is actually a woman (Shakespeare 1189-1250). Ultimately, the matter of love triggers all suffering for the characters within this eminent tale. Despite a cheerful conclusion, Shakespeare validates the distress that love can instigate. The characters directly define the painful suffering love has thrust upon them throughout the poem. In the very beginning, Orsino depicts love as an “appetite” that he wants to satisfy and cannot (1-3). On the other hand, love is also exclusionary. At the culmination of the play, the blissful lovers celebrate while Malvolio, who pursued Olivia, is prohibited from having whom he desired. Consequently, love cannot overcome all obstacles and those whose yearnings go unfulfilled prove no less in love but experience the burn of its absence all the more relentlessly (Hoy