In the play twelfth night , Shakespeare explores and illustrates 3 different types of love--true, self, and friendship. Show how these aspects play a major role in the play and in the creation of...

Persuasive Essay: The ideas of love in the play, “The Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s twelfth night revolves around the many forms of love we know and understand. It reflects upon the concepts of platonic love between friends, of physical love between couples and lovers and even love shared between families. Despite the different forms of love that have been so brilliantly portrayed in this play, Shakespearian work most often urges us to not take love seriously. The entire premise of the play goes forward and backward between either comedy or tragedy. Often throughout the play we find ourselves questioning the concepts of love and its existence. We ask whether there is such a thing as finding one’s soul mate or is it just a mere illusion that we put ourselves into. As we delve deeper into the characters that bring the play Twelfth night into life, we often see the ideas of love that develop the relationships between our four major characters and their acquaintances. We go through their lives and we understand what each character means when they talk of love. Much like many of Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth night also manages to make us question about the so called happy ending and makes us wonder whether they belong in their right places. Each character builds an unique perspective of love which has become the main theme of this play.
Webster’s dictionary defines love as a feeling of strong affection towards someone. While the definitions of affection vary among each individual, with Olivia we see that that her affections and loyalty greatly lies with her family. She has sworn of off men owing to her brother’s demise and has lived a life of solitude to repent her of that grief. Yet her strong inhibition soon gives away as soon as she gets to know...