FREE ESSAY ON LOVE AND SHAKESPEARE

LOVE AND SHAKESPEARE

Love and Shakespeare
The love theme in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is confusing but at the same time
entertaining. The love triangle involving Viola, disguised as Cesario, is in love with
Orsino. Orsino is in love with Olivia. Olivia, however, loves Cesario. Orsino tries to
woo Olivia with the language of love; however, his many attempts fail because the heart
cannot be controlled. Orsino, a man in love with love itself, is on a mission to win the
heart of his current object of affection, the Lady Olivia. She, however, has somewhat
different plans as she envisions herself married to the lovely Cesario. Shakespeare's
beautiful sonnets 18 and 73 describe the changes in season and the passages of time that
correlate with the play's main theme and mood.
In both sonnets and in the Twelfth Night introduce the issue of the effect of the
weather. In Twelfth Night, a stormy sea has shipwrecked a vessel leaving the passengers
scattered at sea. Viola, a Sea Captain, and some sailors believe that they are the only
survivors of the wreck. The Captain believes that their being saved was only as fate
would have it. Viola struggles with what to do with herself in a foreign country with no
male companions. She, with the Captain's help, disguises herself as a boy so that she can
protect her identity, support herself, and not be taken advantage of. The Captain agrees
with her plan and convinces Duke Orsino that Viola, disguised as Cesario, is one of his
noblest men. When the play ends, Viola is revealed and happily lives with Duke Orsino.
The change in weather from days of stormy to calm correlates with the weather in sonnets
18 and 73. Shakespeare begins with, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art
more lovely and temperate: / Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, / And summer's
lease hath too short a date . . .(I-4). In sonnet 73, Shakespeare writes, That time of
year thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang / Upon those
boughs which shake against the cold, / Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds
sang, (1-4). Shakespeare wrote two different sonnets that referred to a change in
weather. These comparisons are similar to those in Twelfth Night. The stormy weather
brings confusion for Viola when she lands on Illyria. The calming of the weather in
Twelfth Night resembles happiness and a new beginning just like the summer's day in
sonnet 18. 
Another similarity between the sonnets of Shakespeare and Twelfth Night is the
comprehension of the one day dying. In sonnet 18, Shakespeare makes the reader come to
the realization that even though the person will one-day die, they will never fade away
from memory because they will live eternally through words. Shakespeare emphasizes that a
person cannot live forever in his bodily form, but he surely will be alive in spirit so
long as the poem lives. In Twelfth Night, Duke Orsino comes to comprehend that no matter
how hard he tries, Lady Olivia is never going to change her feelings for him. This
understanding comes after Orsino realizes that she will no longer love him. Since Orsino
is no longer in love with any particular person but the idea of love itself, it is not a
hard to imagine his reaction when Viola reveals her love to him. Cesario, come-/ For so
you shall be while you are a man; / But when in other habits you are seen, / Orsino's
mistress, and his fancy's queen, (v.1. 380-383).
The mood in many of Shakespeare's sonnets reflects the attitude in Twelfth Night. Both
the sonnets and the play have double meanings behind them. The weather is significant in
both sonnets, and as is expected, cold, dreary, and stormy are associated with death. In
the 73 sonnet, the suggestion is death; however, in Twelfth Night, a violent storm causes
Viola to lose, or at least assume that she lost, all her family, which is a death in
itself. Also, sunny, calm days reflect the idea of youth and happiness, just as Viola
lives 'happily ever after' with Orsino at the end of the play. The realization of the
passage of time is brought to attention in both play and sonnets. In Shakespeare's 18
sonnet he makes the reader understand that humans will die, but the works will live on
forever. Orsino finally understands that his efforts to make the Lady Olivia his were a
waste of his time, and he learns to focus his attention to a more open prospect, Viola. 
The common themes of love are revealed in Shakespeare's sonnets 18 and 73 and in the play
Twelfth Night. Shakespeare clearly demonstrates with his beautifully crafted sonnets and
poetic characters in Twelfth Night that lovers will come and go, the weather will change,
and people will parish, but words will live forever.