In a rare act of defiance, I, Olivia Watt, will use only She’s The Man gifs and photos throughout this blog. In another side note, I would like it to be known that at this point in time, at 9:20 PM on Thursday April 12th, 2018, that I am only in the beginning of Act 3 Scene 4 of Twelfth Night. But I’ve seen She’s The Man so we all good. *hint hint*
In the twisted comedy, Twelfth Night, love is based on utter romantic confusion. Orsino loves the Countess Olivia who’s in mourning over the loss of her brother but quickly falls in love with Cesario who is actually Viola in disguise as a eunuch that a sailor who saved her life helped her achieve who loves Orsino who is the same guy that’s fully convinced he loves Olivia. Malvolio loves Olivia and the power that would come with her courtship where Sir Andrew loves the ideas of Olivia and manliness and knightmanship put in his head by Sir Toby who seems to have a thing for Olivia’s maid Maria who hates Malvolio. But honestly, everyone hates Malvolio. Also, there’s some 1600’s shade thrown in with references to homosexuality and gender confusion and experimentation. The experimental kinds of love and hidden, secretive loves and overall love despite gender misconceptions all rise to the surface waters in this Shakespearean comedy. Which is where a majority of the humor is found.
Different kinds of love are present in all stages and aspects of life. I love God and roller coasters and my boyfriend and sports. I love food and I love my dog and I love my friends. I loved my parents immediately as a baby. I loved my siblings from the moment I knew they existed. I loved my first crush and my first relationship and I’m going to love my husband. I’m going to love my children and life and so much more. There’s romantic love and take-for-granted love and family love and material love and unreciprocated. There’s situational love and uncontrolled love and appreciative love and purely kind love. But not all of these “loves” take the same form; these different types of love don’t mean the same thing in the same context to any degree. I don’t love my dog in the same way I love running. I don’t love eating rice in the same way I love my dad. And I definitely don’t love my boyfriend in the same way I love indoor plumbing.
Where I’m sure arguments can be made as to love being an overused and overgeneralized term, it’s not up to anyone but myself to determine my definition of “love.” Similarly how it’s not up to me to determine anyone else’s definition. With that being said, it’s not up to me to determine whether some forms of love are better than others to anyone except myself. It’s up to me to decide whether some forms of love are better than others within my own life. And, honestly, I do my best to cherish every form of love I receive. But, in my life, some of the best types of love include the support of my family, the loyalty of my dog, the acceptance of my friends, and the strength in my relationship, to name a few. But who’s to say these are universal perceptions? My perception of love differs from the perception of love in Twelfth Night which differs from the perception of love in Sweet Bird of Youth and The Namesake.
Characters like Olivia and Viola/Cesario fall in love fast and unplanned, without premeditation. Characters like Count Orsino and Alexandra del Lago fall in love without much reasoning or person-to-person knowledge to back it up. Characters like Ashima and Heavenly don’t have much of a choice as to who they fall in love with. And characters like Chance and Malvolio fall in love more with the idea of someone and what the picture of what their life will become rather than the person itself. And just because I don’t empathize with the same types of love doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
First off, I commend you on being rebellious. ;) I liked this blog because we took this prompt in the same way. We described the ways we love things in different ways and I loved hearing your perspective. I also enjoyed the connections you made between the characters and the way they love. Maybe dive into that a little bit more and say why they love the way they do, and maybe who they would pair well with in other pieces of literature. That we studied, of course. Great job! Gators do it best.
ReplyDeleteI love (haha, get it) how you compared the different types of love in your love. It definitely illustrates how you can have love for someone or something, but it won't necessarily be the same kind of love you've had before or are going to have. That goes back to a saying I am very fond of but won't quote because I'll completely get it wrong - but it goes a little something like you can have many types of love, but never the same love twice. It is interesting, however, that a majority of the love in the play are confusion-based. The exception being homosexuality, which is the forbidden love of the play based on societal views. But quite frankly, almost all the loves could be considered forbidden. Great job, Olivia!
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