12th Night Qoute

1 Pages 335 Words

Quote Essay
“If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die”

These are the first lines of the play, said by the Count Orsino. These lines set one of the main themes in the story, which is that love can bring much suffering. The plays characters seem to view love as a plague or curse which does not bring them happiness.

What Orsino is saying in this first passage, is that he wants the musician to play so that the music will feed his love and that once the musician plays enough he will be sick of love and then die. Many other characters claim to be suffering from love as well.

Olivia is suffering first of all because of the loss of her father and then her bother. This effected her so much (at first) that she refused to be in the company of men for several years so she could mourn them. Olivia also describes love as a “plague” from which she suffers terribly (I.v.265). She thinks that she is suffering because Viola does not love her as well.

The theme also continues into the relationship of Viola and Orsino. Viola has fallen in love with the count but can not express her love to him because she is disguised as a man. She may also feel emotional pain because of Orsino’s constant talk of Olivia. Viola also may be suffering from the thought that her bother as died.

This suffering from love in the play is something that brings a comedic affect to the play. To the audience it is funny that Olivia has fallen in love with Viola. It is also funny that she chose a woman in disguise over a real man, who has wealth and power. We need the suffering of the characters for entertainment, but to the characters this not a laughing matter. So if this theme wasn’t in the play it would lose its main appeal....