Twelfth Night Theme Analysis

In the play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare illustrates the theme of love with very decisive detail. Love is defined as a “profoundly tender, passionate affection for another.” Throughout this play Shakespeare examines three different themes of love, such as self-love, true love and love in the form of friendship. Twelfth Night consists of many different love triangles throughout the play, however many of the characters that are tangled up in this very sticky mess of love are too blind to see that the feeling and emotions they have toward the other characters are actually untrue. The characters are being deceived by not only themselves but also the people around them. There are many sure examples in the play where the theme of love is shown.
Malvolio is the easiest character to identify with the issue of self-love. He sees himself as a good looking and noble man and he believes that many women would love to be with him. Malvolio likes to see things as one sided, and he deceives himself to fit his own outlook on the situation. For example, in the play Malvolio twists Olivia's words around to make it seem like she adores his yellow stockings when really she hates them. Another instance that shows the theme of love in the form of self-love is Sir Toby and Olivia. Sir Toby only cares about himself and nobody else not even his friends, while Olivia cares about the all of the people around her, but she also believes that there is no man who is worthy of her beauty and she thinks that she is basically "all that," and that no one can match her. The final example that shows the theme of love in the Twelfth Night is love expressed in the form of friendship. The most popular and most important friendship in this play is the friendship between Orsino and Cesario. At first they barely knew each other and before you know it Orsino was telling Cesario about his love for Olivia and he even had Cesario running his love messages back and forth to