A comedic play written by William Shakespeare called Twelfth Night is full of misunderstandings and love triangles. Shakespeare uses disguises, social classes, and lies to display the love characters feel toward one another. Love blinds people, causing them to prioritize and risk their jobs and life to aid their loved ones, but in Twelfth Night characters also become blinded from social classes and unreciprocated love, to the point where other characters in the play surmise them.
Love makes characters in Twelfth Night solely concentrate on the people they love, as they place their loved ones before themselves and their reputation. Throughout the play, Malvolio, a steward in Olivia’s court, risks his job time after time for the one he loves: Olivia, a countess grieving her brothers death. Malvolio stands in the presence of Olivia, wearing yellow stockings and proclaiming that pleasing her will always be enough for him, this is shown when he says, “Sad, lady? I could be sad. This does make some obstruction in the blood, this cross-gartering, but what of that? If it please the
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Malvolio reaches for Olivia’s love, but doesn’t meet the social standards required for Olivia’s love. Malvolio even imagines a world with his true love, one where he doesn’t just get the privilege of having her, but the riches she has to offer, “Calling my officers about me, in my branched velvet gown, having come from a daybed, where I have left Olivia sleeping—” (2.5.46-48). In the play, social, economic, and physical standards are displayed as a portion of what is necessary to earn Olivia’s heart. Duke Orsino chases Olivia in circles and he has the status and riches to last a lifetime but she rejects him every single time, because she doesn’t love him and isn’t afraid to express