Many people know what love is, the strong affection we feel for another. But there are many types of love. Shakespeare expresses varying degrees of love in his play Twelfth Night, particularly through his main characters. For example, Lady Olivia can't seem to let go of the one she loves, Cesario, and seems terribly desperate for him. Likewise, a very selfish love is manifested through the character of Duke Orsino, who insists that he cannot love any other woman than Lady Olivia when it is obvious that he enjoys being in love rather than being in love. love Olivia. On the contrary, Viola finds herself in a situation where, unlike Duke Orsino and Lady Olivia, she cannot confess her love for the Duke, even though she is the only one who is truly in love. Shakespeare uses his characters as tools to explore and display the diversity of love, and proves that everyone loves in different ways. Shakespeare uses Lady Olivia to display a desperate, emotionally attached love, as she cannot let her love, Cesario, leave her sight, nor her heart. Olivia wants to believe that she has a chance with Cesario (a eunuch in disguise) so she gives herself confidence. When Cesario simply sympathizes with Olivia's confession of her love for him by saying, "I pity you" (3.1.113), it seems that Olivia immediately responds, "It's a degree of love"! (3.1.114). Olivia is so desperate for Cesario! Her seemingly immediate response shows that she will take everything Cesario says and twist it to her advantage so that in her thoughts, Cesario loves her. Likewise, Olivia doesn't want to let Cesario go when he comes, showing that she is emotionally attached to him. In act 1, scene 5, Olivia and Cesario are first ...... middle of paper ...... and sympathize. It is now clear that Shakespeare shows that there is more than one way to love, either loving a person or love itself in his play, Twelfth Night. Olivia charges Cesario with information that she doesn't want to let him go because then she won't be able to look at him to feast her eyes. Orsino is rather proud of knowing how to love and likes to share this information with everyone around him in the form of his moans. Viola, meanwhile, struggles to maintain her love for Orsino and must fight against her own disguise. Overall, Olivia, Orsino, and Viola each have similarities and differences in the types of love they express. The characters all go through difficult times with their love (a conflict they overcome), but they express their love in various ways to those around them..