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Comparing Love In Antigone And Twelfth Night

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Comparing Love In Antigone And Twelfth Night
Is love really all you need? Over hundreds of years, plays have shown a variety of themes and stories; a popular and recurring one being love. It can be paired with different and sometimes opposite themes to add excitement, even making the story have unexpected plot twists. Focusing on two plays; Sophocles’ Antigone and William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the theme of love will be depicted differently. Love, a universal subject in many plays, can be incorporated as various forms and be paired with themes such as tragedy, and humor.
Love, when combined with tragedy, creates unpredictable consequences. In Sophocles’ Antigone, title character Antigone believes both her brothers deserve a proper burial; as they deserve under the laws of the gods. …show more content…
Another way this play humors love is how quickly Olivia, who is at the center of various plots in the play, moves on from suitor to suitor and from a state of grieving to one of flirtation. The play takes a humorous spin when Sebastian not having met Olivia before marries her and quickly finds himself in love with her.Towards the end of this play Olivia says to Sebastian, “Blame not this haste of mine" (Shakespeare). This gives you insight to how short of a time period passed from her state of grievance to one of love. Another way this play incorporated love is by using the idea that when people fall in love they will do whatever it takes to be with that person. An example would be when Malvolio is tricked into believing that Olivia is in love with him by Sir Toby Belch and Maria. He then proceeds to wear a ridiculous outfit, “I will be strange, stout, in yellow stockings, and cross-gartered…”(Shakespeare). Malvolio is convinced that Olivia is in love with him and is not afraid to put on something as appalling as yellow stockings if it means that it will impress the love of his life. Love is incorporated into this play with humor to give it a light hearted ending with almost everyone falling in love, it also shows just how far people will go to impress the one they
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