Self Love In Twelfth Night

Self-Love in Twelfth Night

In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Orsino’s attitude to love, particularly in the play’s opening speech, has often provoked charges of self-indulgence and self-deception. These characteristics can be seen in many other characters in Twelfth Night, but in particular, Olivia and Orsino are very self-indulgent. They both express self-love throughout the play, and are more concerned about themselves than anything else, even though they make it out to seem as though they care deeply about others. The way the characters fluctuate between love interests so quickly and easily suggests that they do not love deeply, and are rather more concerned with outward appearance. For example, Orsino claims to be madly in love with…show more content…
Orsino’s desires have the capacity to change direction very quickly. For example, in Act one scene one, the musicians are playing music softly in the background. The Duke’s first response is “If music is love’s food, play on. “A few minutes later, he changes his mind. “Enough! No more, Tis not so sweet now as it was before” (Shakespeare 513). Shakespeare uses Orsino’s indecisiveness when listening to music as a direct comparison to his restlessness with love. It’s apparent that he is absorbed in the drama that he has created for himself. He finds pleasure in hungering for love, but never being satiated. An indication of this is projected in his taste of music. In Act 1 Scene 1, he praises the servants responsible for the forlorn melodies by saying “That strain again! It had a dying fall; O, it came over my ear like the sweet sound. That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour” (Shakespeare, 513) From this quote one can conclude that he finds great solace in a melancholy tune since it parallels to his mood and the fact that the object of his affection pays him no mind. His constant self-indulgent complaints about his lovesickness is a display his extreme…show more content…
Olivia’s mourning for her brother could be seen to resemble Orsino’s love-melancholy because it seems more like a performance than an emotion that is felt deeply. Like Orsino, she seems to enjoy indulging in misery. In Act One, Olivia claims to be “in mourning” of her brother, and says she is not interested in any lovers, but once Cestario shows up at her door all of that has changed. She invites him to come back, if he wishes, and speak to her again about how Orsino takes it. This shows she is doing what she is doing not in respect for her brother, but rather to bring attention to herself. Olivia always has to be sure that everyone knows she is in mourning by wearing her veil and crying. Before Cestario shows up at the door, she even states to Malvolio in line 58“Give me my veil: come, throw it o'er my face” (Shakespeare, 523). This serves to shed light on the fact that she is self-absorbed and cannot stop drowning in her own sorrows. Like Orsino, Olivia also has no problem shifting the object of love from one person to the next. She is initially in love with Cestario, but at the end of the play she quickly falls for Sebastian. At first she thought he was Cestario, but she was still willing to marry him when the scene unfolds and Viola was revealed as herself. This shows that she does not love deeply if she is ready to marry someone she just met based upon the fact that he resembles the person she fell