The Roles of Love and Gender in Twelfth Night

The roles of Love and Gender in Twelfth Night

In the play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare explores and illustrates the emotion of love with precise detail. The play raises issues concerning love and gender in the Elizabethan era. Love plays a major role in Twelfth Night, and Shakespeare addresses true love, self love and friendship in a very compelling and interesting way. He also explains the roles of gender, the confusion which originates in Act one of Twelfth Night is focused around Viola/Cesario. The three types of love question different aspects of gender fluidity in the Elizabethan era.

Twelfth Night consists of many love triangles, however many of the characters who are tangled up in the web of love are blind to see that their emotions and feelings toward other characters are untrue. They are being deceived by themselves and/or the others around them. There are certain instances in the play where the emotion of love is true, and the two people involved feel very strongly toward one another. Viola's love for Orsino is a great example of true love. Although she is pretending to be a man and is virtually unknown in Illyria, she hopes to win the Duke's heart. In act 1, scene 4, Viola let's out her true feelings for Cesario, "yet a barful strife! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife (1.4. 30)." That statement becomes true when Viola reveals her true identity. Viola and Orsino had a very good friendship, and making the switch to husband and wife was easy. Viola was caught up in another true love scenario, only this time she was on the receiving end, and things didn't work out so smoothly. During her attempts to court Olivia for Orsino, Olivia grew to love Cesario. Viola was now caught in a terrible situation and there was only one way out, but that would jeopardize her chances with Orsino. It's amazing that Olivia could fall for a woman dressed as a man, but because Viola knew what women like to hear, her words won Olivia's heart. The next case of true love is on a less intimate and romantic scale, and more family oriented. Viola and Sebastian's love for one another is a bond felt by all siblings. Through their times of sorrow and mourning for each of their apparent deaths they still loved each other. They believed deep down that maybe someway or by some miracle that each of them was still alive and well.

Many people, even in today's society, love themselves more then anything else. Twelfth Night addresses the issue of self love and how it affects people's lives. Malvolio is the easiest to identify with the problem of self love. He sees himself as a handsome and noble man. Malvolio believes many women would love to be with him. He likes to see things one way only, and he deceives himself just to suit his outlook on the situation. For example, in the play he twists Olivia's words around to make it sound like she admires his yellow cross-gartered stockings, when she really despises them. Both Sir Toby and Olivia show signs of self love but it is not as big an issue. Sir Toby only cares about himself and no one else, not even his friends. He ignores Maria's warnings about drinking into the night, and he continues to push Sir Andrew to court Olivia. Although he believes Sir Andrew doesn't have a chance. Olivia cares about the people around her, but she also believes that no man is worthy of her beauty. She thinks she is "all that," and that no one can match her.

Friendship is the third type of love expressed in Twelfth Night. The biggest and closest friendship would have to be between Orsino and Cesario. They barely knew each other at first, and before long Orsino was telling Cesario