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Pages:
4 pages/≈1100 words
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Style:
APA
Subject:
Literature & Language
Type:
Reaction Paper
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English (U.S.)
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Topic:

Paper on the Twelfth Night: Love is A Disease

Reaction Paper Instructions:

http://shakespeare(dot)mit(dot)edu/twelfth_night/full.html
Above is a link to the entire play.
Your paper should be 1,000 words long and double-spaced. Please submit this in the form of a file upload. As always, be very careful to avoid copying and pasting any internet sources without proper citation.

Prompt:
What do you think Shakespeare is trying to teach us about love in Twelfth Night? Your paper does not necessarily have to address romantic love, although it certainly can. You could also address fraternal love, love between siblings, between friends, between members of a household, etc.
Some possible avenues of approach: what is Shakespeare saying about unrequited love? How should we behave when the person or people we love don’t love us back? How do we know whether and when we are in love? How do we know who we love? What is Shakespeare saying about self-love or being absorbed with ourselves? About love and gender? About love and gender ambiguity? About being in love with an illusion?
You do not need to address all of these possible topics—choose an approach that interests you!

Reaction Paper Sample Content Preview:

Love is A Disease
Institution Name:
Student’s Name:
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Twelfth Night is a Shakespearean comedic play about Viola, who dresses up as a male and gets embroiled in the romantic entanglement of two nobles, Duke Orsino and Olivia. Thus establishes a perplexing love triangle, which, when combined with Malvolio and Sir Toby's confusion, makes for a great romantic comedy. Love is depicted in various forms in the play, namely Malvolio's self-love, Antonio and Sebastian's gentle love, and Orsino's overdramatic love. However, the writer portrays love as an illness that poisons people's minds and causes people to behave in strange mannerisms. Shakespeare stresses that everyone may be overwhelmed by lust and may behave rashly to gratify their love lust. Also, they sometimes fall in love with an illusion instead of a genuine human, that they are so in lust that they disregard all facts that contradict their love interest's authenticity. The protagonist demonstrates that love is an illness by highlighting the insanity that love entails in the protagonists' behavior, using "sick" diction when portraying love, and presenting characters with a skewed view of love. In Twelfth Night, characters appear lovesick and behave melodramatically and ignorantly. The viewers are introduced to Duke Orsino right at the start of the play, who is explaining love in an excessively exceptional manner in the first scene, "If music be the food of love" (Shakespeare 1.1), and telling his servants to "give me excess of it that, surfeiting." (1.0) This phrase highlights Orsino's theatrical approach to love. Orsino's usage of fantastical diction also wants to explain his feelings for Olivia, with terms like "fancy" and "fantastical" being included. There is also proof that Orsino has a warped view of love. Orsino adores the courtship phase that precedes marriage, the overacting to win Olivia's heart.
Orsino immediately dismisses her and turns his attention to Cesario, who has recently discovered its Viola in disguise. This even happens to Olivia, who quickly neglects Cesario and continues to Sebastian. Olivia is by far the most love-struck protagonist of the play since she openly rejects proof that the person she loves is simply a deception because of her passion for Cesario. A lover will pick, crystallize, and see exactly specific attributes in the amalgam that he/she will love. This is precisely what Olivia does, according to Hunt, overlooking Viola's other characteristics to create her ideal admirer's portrait (486). Twelfth Night's protagonists fell in love easily and portray their feelings in dramatic and sometimes naive ways. The diction around love is yet another way Shakespeare highlights his conception of love as an illness; when portraying or addressing love, it is common to use toxic and poor imagery. The Duke, for instance, orders his workers to give him so much love that his yearning can sicken, and therefore perish. Olivia then asks, "Even too easily can one get the plague?" as she discovers she has suddenly fallen in love with Cesario, thus shocking herself. (15.5) Olivia compares passion to the plague, an infectious disease. Olivia orders Malvolio to give back Cesario's ring, despite not having one, only so Cesario can come once more, dem...
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