Love Can Be Seen to Be Considered a Sole Motivation for Much of the Comedy and Comedic Behaviour in ‘Twelfth Night’. How Far Do You Agree with This?

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Love can be seen to be considered a sole motivation for much of the comedy and comedic behaviour in ‘Twelfth Night’. How far do you agree with this? Love is used as a motivating force in ‘Twelfth Night’ in various ways. Love as a motivation has been used on many characters in the play. This play is about love and suggests the effects of love on a person. On the other hand it can be argued that love is not the sole motivation for all the comedic behaviour. Power is a powerful source which can change a person entirely which is displayed in the play. In act one, scene one Orsino, the ‘Duke of Illyria’ is vainly expressing his love for a Countess Olivia. “If music be the food of love, play on”. The use of the metaphor is used to notify Curio his attendant about his excessive love for Olivia. This suggests that food gives us the energy we need so the more energy Orsino has, the more he can love. This is comedic because Orsino has not met Olivia and has not had a conversation with her but he suggests that he loves her very much. This is an absurd and is hyperbolic which makes it comedic. This is an oxymoron and is Dramatic Irony because it is theoretical and over the top. It’s like it is unreal love and he has excessive emotion towards love. He has a sexists view on who can love more out of the two genders, “There is no women’s side can bide the beating of so strong a passion as love doth give my heart”. This means that in Orsino’s view no one can love as much as him and cannot embrace the amount of love he has for Olivia. This is comedic because He believes that he is superior because he is a man. This is dramatic irony because it is theoretical and is over the top. The specific language Shakespeare uses is also very comedic because the words used are over dramatic. “The appetite may sicken, and so die”. The word “die” is a contrast to love which questions the

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