Foolishness of the Human Heart, Flaw of Human Nature Essay

Shakespearean comedies show many flaws that humans make through their decisions that keep them from advancing in life or lead them to undesired events. A vex of human personality is the desire to over-do things. Often times, people act foolish to entertain others as well as themselves. These controlled actions are meant as a display but under certain circumstances, foolish actions are caused without the intentions of the individual. These actions lead to unfortunate events and humility.   In the play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare utilizes the actions of three upper class individuals, when confronted with feelings for love, to show that when blinded by self-obsession, anyone can be lead to foolish, self-demeaning actions.
In the very first scene of the play, the audience is introduced to Orsino, the Duke of Illyria. Shakespeare uses Orsino to show that when someone is too absorbed in self-pity, they do not see the things that go on around them and tend to do things that are foolish and keep them from advancing in life. The Duke takes his romantic pursuits of Lady Olivia, a noblewoman that refuses to love him back, far too seriously. He starts off the comedy listening to his musicians play the sweetest tune they could muster as he spends his day wallowing in a morass of self-pity. “If music be the food of love, play on” (Twelfth Night. I. i. 1). For a man of his social rank during his times, love was most likely not the most serious of problems that Orsino would have to face but Shakespeare shows that blinded by his foolish pursuit of love, he is deeply troubled. The Duke creates an image of what he believes Olivia to be, yet he does not know her passed her outer appearance so he does understand why she is unable to woo him back “[…] / Can bide the beating of so strong a passion / As love doth give my heart; […] / So big, to hold so much: […]” (II. iv. 94-97). He continues to send his messengers to her though they are not permitted to speak with her. When his closest...