In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare illustrates love in various forms and suggests that, like beauty, the true meaning of love exists in the eye of the beholder. Love is seen as bordering on madness, a frivolous game of ever-evolving affections and the cause of bizarre behavior. Through the characters of Twelfth Night, Shakespeare explores love as an infatuation, a fabrication of the mind, and a conventional form of love. Each type of loss produces different results, and their consequences are as uncertain as the true meaning of love itself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Some characters are devoted to love, while others are more interested in the mere concept of it. The play begins with one of these characters, Duke Orsino, who is madly in love with Olivia. After Olivia's repeated rejections, Orsino says he would like to be so full of love that he destroys the taste of it forever. He says, "If music is the food of love, then play on. Give it to me in excess, that the appetite may become sick and so die." (1.1.1-3) At this point it seems that his main desire is Olivia, but he continues by saying: "O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou, who, despite thy capacity, receives like the sea, nothing there enters, of whatever validity and tone, which does not fall into dejection and low price even in a minute, so full of forms is imaginative that only he is highly fantastic Orsino's love is not directed at any particular individual. He is completely drowned in his obsession with love and admires it with great fascination. When Orsino finally realizes that he will never receive Olivia's love, he becomes angry and threatens to sacrifice "the lamb", Viola, but immediately turns over a new leaf and decides to marry Viola as soon as he feels that "he" is really a woman. Orsino's madness for Olivia vanishes as quickly as it appeared, highlighting the inconsistent nature of mad love. Orsino sees love as a higher power, which nourishes his soul and provides it with sustenance. Orsino's infatuation has no end; instead, it results in a shift of interest from one love to another and shows that he is truly in love with love itself. While Orsino depicts infatuated love, Malvolio and Olivia portray love of another kind. Malvolio is a character who lives in his fantasy world and has a love that has no ties to reality. He forever dreams of marrying Lady Olivia and believes she is in love with him too. As he walks along the garden, Malvolio recites, "I was married to her three months, sitting in my state..." (2.5.42-43) His vanity and confidence in his love prove fruitless and mirror the love for which Olivia feels Viola. In Olivia's case, she unknowingly fell in love with Viola. Viola knows that Olivia's love will never be satisfied as she says, "Poor lady, she had better love a dream." (2.2.26) Malvolio and Olivia's invented loves are true only in their minds, and their feelings are never reciprocated by those they love. Malvolio and Olivia expose the falsity of imaginary love and its failure to flourish. For these two characters, love is what they created in their minds, and their trust lies in their inventions. The last type of love is represented by Viola, and it is conventional love that is most easily recognized. Viola disguises herself as a young man, Cesario, to help Orsino in his love situation, but in the meantime she finds herself in love with him. Because Orsino is in love with Olivia and identifies Viola as a male, he fails to recognize her affection and does not reciprocate her love. Viola says: "Mine.