Shakespeare

Twelfth night is a comedy about a woman separated from her twin brother in a storm, who gets washed up on the shore of Illyria. She then meets Orsino, the duke of Illyria. He hires her to disguise herself as a man and decides to name herself Cesario. She is then sent to woo Olivia, the countess. Meanwhile as Cesario put in a good word for Orsino, Olivia falls in love with Cesario; therefore causing a love triangle.   William Shakespeare uses Orsino’s character to encompass most of the themes in this play. The theme I selected is appetite. This theme plays a role from both the emotional and physical level. “When liver, brain, and heart, /these sovereign thrones are all supplied”(Act I: Sc I, line 36-37) Orsino displays both levels of appetite in a contradictory manner. He speaks of love, and yet, doesn’t act as a lover emotionally.
If music be the food of love, play on.
Give me excess of it that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
(Act I: Sc I: Line 1-3)
In this quote Orsino craves music, but not as anyone normally does. He looks at music as though it represents love and asks for “excess of it”. “The appetite may sicken and so die.” He asks for excess of it, so that he can become sick of it,

There is no woman’s sides
Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
As love doth give my heart. No woman’s heart
So big, to hold so much. They lack retention.
Alas, their love may be called appetite,
No motion of the liver, but the palate,
That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt;
But mine is all as hungry as the sea,
And can digest as much. Make no compare
Between that love a woman can bear me
And that I owe Olivia.
      (Act II: Sc IV: Line 92-102)
      Orsino refers to women’s love as appetite. It’s only something physical as oppose to something emotional when he says, “Alas, their love may be called appetite, no motion of the liver bet the palette.”(Act II: Sc: IV Line: 96-97) Also, Orsino claims the his love is like the hunger of the... [continues]

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