Is Duke Orsino Really In Love Essay

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Love can be characterized as an intense feeling of affection towards another person that arises from a kinship, or recognition of attractive qualities in that person. Although love can be classified in different ways, the basic concept of love is any number of emotions related to a sense of strong affection and attachment towards a person. People sometimes confuse true love with infatuation; an intense desire for another person. In Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, Duke Orsino is not truly in love with Olivia, however he is in love with love itself. Orsino shows this superficial love through his speech, his intense emotions, and his incorrect thoughts about love. A person can be said to love something if they value it greatly and are deeply committed to it. Love is caring about someone so deeply that your life would be very different with out them there and there would always be a …show more content…

Orsino’s speech is the first notable sign of his over indulgence of love. His speech is full of melodramatic words. Duke Orsino shows himself as a self-loving, egotistical man, who is love obsessed. He constantly moans that he is lovesick, and wishes that "if music be the food of love"(I.i.1) he could kill his unrequited love through an excess of music. He interprets music as his emotions, and believes that an excess of love can defeat his depressions. Orsino states that Olivia had purified the air around her the first time he saw her. He explains to Curio about when he first met her, “O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, methought she purg’d the air of pestilence” (I.i.20-21). This displays Orsino’s immediate infatuation with Olivia even before he speaks to her. The instant he set eyes on Olivia, Orsino became a victim of love. His desire for Olivia has pursued him ever since then. This demonstrates Orsino’s very superficial love for Olivia, even though he claims he is truly in love with

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