Twelfth Night Essay Olivia the significance of love
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The road of love is never smooth, no matter who treads on it. In Twelfth Night, the love for the woman, Olivia, unites the three separate plot lines of the play. The main plot includes a love triangle between Viola/Cesario, The Duke: Orsino, and Olivia. The two subplots thereafter are the gulling of Malvolio; where he is being tricked in to believing that Olivia is in love with him, and the duping of Sir Andrew; where his best friend decides to trick him into writing up a proposal for a duel. These three plot lines in the play are united because each character has a love or affection towards Olivia.
Throughout the course of the play there is one main plot and love interest, which is Olivia. As a result of this a love triangle is formed between: Olivia, Viola/Cesario, and the duke, Orsino. The first love interest in this triangle is between Duke Orsino and Olivia. Orsino is madly in love with Olivia, as he says so in this excerpt, "Tell her, my love, more worthy than the world, Prizes not quantity of dirty lands; Tell her, I hold as giddily as fortune; But 'tis that miracle and queen of gems That nature pranks her in attracts my soul". Although the fact that Orsino is madly in love with Olivia, she is not necessarily in love with him and with each moment she finds herself less attracted to him...