Throughout the play, Shakespeare examines three different types of love: true love. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, love is defined as a strong affection or liking for someone. In the play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare explores and illustrates the emotion of love with precise detail. 'Give me excess of it (love), that surfeiting. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: Theme of Love. In this opening scene of Twelfth Night we see Orsino pledging his love for Olivia, however, what is made clearer and clearer through the play is that he is not actually in love with her. 'When mine eyes did see Olivia first, methought she purg'd the air of pestilence.and my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, e'er since pursue me.'. Far from abjuring the sight and company of Cesario, she lavishes it and requests he(she) comes again. The very fact that Olivia so quickly changed her mind because of this 'madness' Shakespeare has seen fit to call love is merit to its power and frivolous nature. ' she hath abjured the sight and company of men'. This comment by Olivia regarding her love of Cesario clearly highlights this idea of passion and chaos that Shakespeare has presented love as. The theme of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 is the importance of the friend of the poet's loving him more strongly because of the temporal state. 'Nor wit nor reason can my passion hide.'. To love that well which thou must leave ere long. Lust for power in The Tempest, is a common theme throughout the play, which prompts characters to do anything to obtain more power, including betraying family and torturing innocent people. Love is presented as a fleeting and fanciful ideal with many of the characters showing this in their actions and speech. The power of love is strong enough to open the hearts of powerful men, who abuse their power, to obtain dominance, control, and to seek revenge. The above quote sums up Twelfth Night's idea of love and this is reiterated throughout the play. 'For such as I am, all true lovers are, Unstaid and skittish in all motions else, save in the constant image of the creature that is beloved.'. On the other hand, plays such as The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler show love in a completely different light. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare portrays love as bordering on insanity, a frivolous game of ever changing affections and bizarre behaviour. It comes in many shapes and forms and is often presented in many different ways - varying from text to text. One of the best-known themes in love poems has to be the praise of the beloveds most beautiful features, which was perfected by Shakespeare in his sonnets. However versatile a love poem may be, there are still some themes that have become more popular than others. Love has always been a persistent theme in Literature and an important part of human nature. A love poem could be about love itself or about a lover or relationship.

How has Shakespeare presented love in the play Twelfth Night? How does it compare to love as a theme in other texts.

Love is a perennial theme throughout Literature.

Theme of shakespeare in love