Different Kinds of Love in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Different Kinds of Love in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night, in itself, portrays many hidden meanings and themes

that speak out to different people, in different ways. Shakespeare

makes use of the many characters, and choreographs different steps and

creates relationships and the plot, and sub-plot, to make Twelfth

Night complete, with its many themes. One of the central messages of

this play is prominently, love. With this main theme, Shakespeare

creates an interesting plot and sub-plot, to entertain, and also

provoke his audience to think hard, and allow them to decide for

themselves, which kind of love is one that they would choose in their

own lives.

Different kinds of love, such as in love with the idea of love,

imaginary love, self-indulgent love, self-love, or true, sacrificial

love are displayed in this play. Shakespeare uses this theme of

different kinds of love to show the many different situations that can

arise from these different kinds of love, and henceforth lead the

audience to think deeper and ponder upon the wonders of the different

kinds of love. “What you will”, could probably be speaking out to the

audience as well, to carefully think about which type of love

impresses upon them most, and allow the audience to choose for

themselves, what applies to them the most.

The theme of love is brought up over and over again in the play. It is

portrayed through many of the characters, and each character specially

brings out something special about the main theme of love. Shakespeare

skilfully crafts the play, and allows the play to speak out to the

audience, and make a difference, in some way, or ano...

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...-love can lead to

many unforeseen consequences, and is often born of pure conceit and

pride, or self-delusion or just foolish vanity.

In conclusion, Twelfth Night is a play driven by love, with the theme

of love recurring through out the play. Shakespeare brings out the

different kinds of love in various characters, and implants a unique

purpose in each character to emphasize and imply the different kinds

of love and ideas he wants to introduce to his audience. Several of

the characters are bound in love, be it romantic love, self-love,

platonic love, love between siblings, or the greatest love of all

(Viola’s in this case), we can see it brought out in each character.

All in all, there are different kinds of love presented in Twelfth

Night, in the plot and sub-plot, in the main characters and minor

characters.