12th Night by William Shakespeare

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Twelfth Night

The characters in Twelfth Night experience identity confusion throughout the play. Shakespeare puts up the plays as actions to reinforce a fragmented and incomplete identity until one can love, regardless of whether one is loved back or not.

As the play continues, the Duke is self-indulgent, as he provides an impression that he will win Olivia's love, but he relishes in self-pity and persuading people to sympathize with his plight. He says, “If music is the food of love, play on Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting the appetite may sicken, and so die...Such as I am so true lovers are (39:37’). The Duke expresses his desire for Olivia as “my desires, like fell and cruel hounds E’er since pursue me” (7:10’). Viola says that she will do her best to woo the lady for her (8:22’). Orsino and Olivia are searching for self-knowledge. However, Orsino does not have a real concept of self-knowledge because he has fallen in love with the notion of being in love. Furthermore, he does not understand who he since he has not evaluated himself discover what he truly wants in a lover.

Viola ignores the norm that the society binds her sex by restrictions surrounding correct roles; as a result, she embarks on a trans-gendered quest to liberate herself from all restraints. Viola