Ongoing Theme of Love in William Shakespeare's Play Twelfth Night

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The play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare is a comedy with the ongoing theme of love. In the play we come to see that none of the relationships that develop are considered normal, or what we call true love because true love has no reason, often it just occurs without knowing. However if you consider the relationships in this play you can see that the characters are all searching for love or have a reason to find love. For example Malvolio needs Olivia’s love because this way he can gain status and wealth , Sir Andrew on the other hand wants Olivia’s love because this is what everyone has convinced him into thinking. Duke however wants love in general because he is in love with the idea of love and is using Olivia as the face to the idea of love even though he has never carried out a true conversation with her. It is seen that these relationships are not considered true love especially when compared with Viola’s love for Orsino.

Twelfth Night presents us with a pompous steward who finds himself in love with Olivia, however this love is not true in the case that Malvolio only want...

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