In the play, "Twelfth Night," Shakespeare writes about the emotion of love. The feeling of love is a strong affection for liking somebody and it changes the feeling you feel for someone. Several characters in this play experience the feeling of love throughout the book. There are three types of love: friendship, self love, and true love. For each type Shakespeare creates a pair of characters to demonstrate.
Friendship is the first type of love that is experienced. The pair of characters that demonstrates this type is Sebastian and Antonio. When Antonio first meets Sebastian, he did not leave Sebastian behind in a place that was unfamiliar to him. So he said, "if you will not murder me of my love, let me be your servant," (2.1.31-32). This means that Antonio cares about Sebastian and wants to protect him. Another example of Antonio and Sebastian's true friendship is when Sebastian wanted to tour around near Orsino's court, he said to Antonio to stop and not tour with him anymore because he was afraid that Antonio might get caught. So Antonio being the generous person he is, agreed and said, "if doth not fit me. Hold sir, here is my purse," (3.3.38). This shows a loyal friendship between them because they both want each other to stay safe. While Sir Toby and Sir Andrew were about to fight Cesario, Antonio thought it was Sebastian and said that he would, "for him defy you," (3.4.301). Antonio shows that he wants no harm to come near Sebastian, and wanting to protect him. Therefore Antonio and Sebastian have a true friendship because they are both very caring towards each other.
Self-love is another topic of love in this play, and Malvolio demonstrates this type of love perfectly. Many characters in this play mention that Malvolio is very self obsessed. For example Maria mentions that Malvolio is, "a time pleaser; an affection ass," (2.3.139). Maria was very right in this phrase because Malvolio is always pleased with himself.
