ipl-logo

Twelfth Night As A Romantic Comedy Analysis

880 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Literary analysis of twelfth night

William Shakespeare has written a number of romantic comedies. Twelfth Night is one of the finest comedies of the author. We know that a romantic comedy is a play in which the romantic elements are mingled with comic elements. It is a form of comedy which deals with love. Love at first sight is often its main theme. Generally, a romantic comedy starts with some problems that make the union of the lover difficult. But it ends with their happy union. Twelfth Night is a typical romantic play of Shakespeare. It has some elements which give the play a romantic air. It is romantic in its setting and theme. Love at first sight, music, improbabilities and the violation of the classical rules have lent weight to the view that Twelfth Night is a romantic …show more content…

Twelfth Night is a romantic play. Because the passion of love dominates it. It is the tale of love ending with the ringing of marriage bells. It is also a tale of love at first sight. The Duke, Orsino falls in love with Olivia as soon as he has seen her. Viola falls in love with the Duke immediately. Olivia falls in love with Cesario in the course of her very first interview with him. As soon as Cesario has left, she says to herself-

“Even so quickly may one catch the plague.”

This love is romantic, intense and passionate. It has nothing to do with reason. It is not directed and run with argument.

A Shakespearean comedy is a romantic comedy. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare has treated love as main theme. All the principal characters in the play are passionately in love. They have no other business but that of love-making. The play opens on a note of love. At the very beginning of the play and in the starting dialogue, Orsino says-

“If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, the surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.”
Thus the Duke is love-sick. Passionate love expressed in poetical language. Love also dominates the hearts of Sir Andrew and Malvolio. They both love Lady Olivia and want to marry her. In this way, the treatment of this theme makes the play even more

Show More
Related

Almost, Maine Character Analysis

1240 Words | 5 Pages

But not quite. ’The play’s intentions seem to be to portray love and relationships in the way they really are. There are eight scenes in the play, as well as an prologue, an interlude, and an epilogue; each scene focuses on one of nine ‘couples’(the prologue, interlude, and epilogue feature the same couple) whose relationships are moving from one stage to the next throughout the course of the scene. For example, the couple from the Prologue, Interlude, and Epilogue are on a date where they say ‘I love you’ for the first time; the couple from Where It Went are a married couple that realizes they no longer have fun together like they once did; and the couples from They Fell and Seeing the Thing are two best friends who realize that they are in love with each other in different ways. Each of the nine situations are situations that can, and do, happen in real life to real people.

Read More

Social Norms In The Twelfth Night And She's The Man

859 Words | 4 Pages

Both the Shakespeare play The Twelfth Night (1601–02) and the movie She’s The Man (released 2006) show women breaking social norms and ending up in difficult situations involving love triangles. In She’s The Man, a girl by the name of Viola takes on the persona of her brother Sebastian to prove she is good enough for the boys soccer team. In The Twelfth Night, a young aristocratic woman named Viola is involved in a shipwreck, resulting in the death of her brother. She was left alone on an unknown island and found work at the house of the Duke Orsino, but disguised herself as a man with the name Cesario in order to do that.

Read More

Duality In A Midsummer Night's Dream

587 Words | 3 Pages

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is often viewed as a comedic tale of love. It takes on the general ideals of a comedy—beginning with order, moving on to chaos, and ultimately ending with harmony among society. By providing opposing settings, the city of Athens and the fairy world, Shakespeare highlights the duality of man’s nature. The fickleness of human beings becomes more apparent once the lovers are placed in the dreamy world represented by the forest.

Read More

Effects Of Anger In Romeo And Juliet

1084 Words | 5 Pages

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous tragic plays written between 1594 and 1595. Romeo and Juliet is a play that portraits the force of authority and power in the face of love and happiness. Many Critics classify this play as a true tragedy because of the way it is created. Aristotle defines tragedy as " an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; … with incidents arousing pity and fear" (Else‏ 224). People often read Romeo and Juliet as just a romantic play, but to be more accurate this play is a real romantic tragedy.

Read More

A Midsummer Night's Dream Research Paper

890 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the years, authors have written about love in many endearing ways. There is the love of a puppy, the love of money, the love of a mother, the love of a friend, and the passionate love that is only expressed to a lover. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, many different forms of love are presented to the reader, from the love of a friend to the love’s truest form, romantic love. One of the most prevalent forms of love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is romantic love. There are many different examples of romantic or true love in this play.

Read More

A Midsummer Night's Dream Love Analysis

958 Words | 4 Pages

Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream dealt with the theme of love and its four types, including loves many complications such as disappointment and confusion. The play rotates around different forms of love, two of them being friendship love (Phileo) and romantic (Eros) or true love. Love is the most important theme of the play and the asymmetrical love seen in the play between the four Athenians and romantic encounters cause conflict within the play. There is a strong friendship love between two characters, Hermia and Helena. However, their friendship love is tested throughout the play by their pursuit of true love which, in the end, ultimately prevails.

Read More

Romeo And Juliet And Twelfth Night Comparison

795 Words | 4 Pages

In the story it grew with love because of three people that were stuck with a love triangle, but with every situation they had it would end with radiant laughter. The plot of the story wasn’t clear to understand because it would leave parts out of the story. The story was hard to catch on because the story moves on to fast both movie and written version. As said in Twelfth Night “Its central plot concerns a love triangle….Twelfth Night have tended to focus on the drama 's captivating characters as well as on its themes of love.”

Read More

Twelfth Night Olivia's Suffering

809 Words | 4 Pages

“Loving can hurt sometimes,” Ed Sheeran said, and this is no lie when it comes to Twelfth Night. Love is often an inevitable struggle in a plot, but in this Shakespearean play, a complete love triangle dominates as the main conflict. It cause happiness, excitement, deception, or even insanity, we still can’t seem to figure out if the benefits outweigh the consequences. Throughout Twelfth Night Shakespeare demonstrates love as a cause of suffering, a ‘knot that cannot be untied’ with Olivia’s love, Viola’s disguise, and Malvolio’s fake letter. Lady Olivia’s initial suffering contributes to the cause of this complex knot.

Read More

Examples Of Impetuosity In Romeo And Juliet

1442 Words | 6 Pages

In the original play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, two star-crossed lovers find themselves racing against death in the dangerous game of love with the aid of a corrupted Friar. The prize of endless bliss and passion would have been bestowed upon the two if they were not so reactive towards the events in the plot. The tragic flaw of impetuosity is depicted through the entire play through the actions and words of Friar Lawrence, Juliet and Romeo. The first time the reader gets a glimpse of Romeo’s impetuosity is in Scene V, Act I, where he is seen admiring Juliet from afar. In Scene I of Act I, Romeo is constantly moping about his failed romantic dream, Rosalind, but his emotions seem to take a rather sudden turn upon the appearance of Juliet.

Read More

Shakespeare In Love Comedy Analysis

2753 Words | 12 Pages

Question 1-Shakespeare in Love Shakespeare in love as a comedy Shakespeare in love is comedy that provides a clear juxtaposition of Shakespeare’s live in Elizabethan time and creates allusions to his works and modern times with allusion to famous Hollywood films. Aspects of the Elizabethan times are evidently displayed throughout the play. The clothing worn by the actors and actresses was characterised by doublets, breeches, gowns, corsets, collars, ruffs and hats. It was evident that there was a clear class division.

Read More

Love In Romeo And Juliet Analysis

1383 Words | 6 Pages

Within the play, Shakespeare uses many different forms of love, as love is seen as the dominant theme that runs throughout it. There are many different forms of love presented in the play but the most obvious of those being romantic love as seen between Romeo and Juliet, where both are willing to do anything for each other. This type of love is also seen between Romeo and Rosaline but the major difference between Romeo’s love for Rosaline and his love for Juliet is the fact that it is “for doting not for loving”. This unrequited, almost non-existent love plays a major role in the novel. Even though the idea of the romantic love could be seen as the most pertinent kind of love, Shakespeare threads many other kinds of love throughout the novel,

Read More

Theme Of Magic In A Midsummer Night's Dream

2029 Words | 9 Pages

Shakespeare lived in the time period that we call the Elizabethan era covering the years of 1558 to 1603; this is considered a part of the golden age of the Tudor period during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. William Shakespeare was a famous playwright and poet who lived between the years 1564 and 1596 (Pressley, 2005). He wrote the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream between the years 1595 and 1596. The play whose main theme is love happens to also be full of magic, fairies, and as well as comedy; it is a play full of mischief and illusion. Shakespeare also used magic to create an alternate world in which the characters find themselves trapped by Puck’s love spell; even Titania, the Fairy King Oberon’s wife, is enchanted by Puck’s spell.

Read More

Love At First Love In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

958 Words | 4 Pages

Despite popular opinion, love at first sight does not exist. The idea of “love” is widely misinterpreted as a mere attraction between two individuals. However, many do not understand that love goes much further than this, and what follows is a common misconception between love and lust. Shakespeare in his 17th century play Twelfth Night delves deeper into this idea of love. He presents the character Duke Orsino who appear to be infatuated and love-sick for the Countess Olivia, a woman with which he knows little about.

Read More

Relationships In Twelfth Night

1209 Words | 5 Pages

The first instance which supports the notion that a lapse of communication is responsible for the unsuccessful nature of heterosexual relationships is the case of Duke Orsino and Countess Olivia’s relationship. Both start the play preoccupied with their own concerns, Orsino is worried about finding love, specifically with Olivia, meanwhile she is busy mourning the death of her brother by refusing to marry anyone for seven years. However, it is Orsino’s obsession with seeking love and how he goes about pursuing Olivia that best exemplifies the problematic nature of a male and female’s relationship. Orsino opened the play by saying of love, “Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, / The appetite may sicken and so die” (1.1.1-3), essentially saying that he so badly craves the feeling being in love gives him, that he would like in so great a quantity that it would end his life.

Read More

Romeo And Juliet Challenges

833 Words | 4 Pages

Romeo and Juliet is probably the most famous love story of all time, and love is naturally the main theme of the play. Despite being written over 400 years ago, Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet is still revelent today, as it explores the themes of love, and how love is a never ending roller coaster, full of ups and downs. Once you have found your ‘true love’ it does not mean all your problems will just go away. Romeo Montague, a young man from an esteemed family in Verona, Italy, invites himself to the party at the House of Capulet, and across the room a beautiful girl, Juliet Capulet, catches his eye. Romeo and Juliet experience love at first sight.

Read More

More about Twelfth Night As A Romantic Comedy Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document