Twelfth Night Critical References

• “Is bound by his own mask of love. The mask is a distorted sense of love and is fed by boredom, lack of physical love, and excessive imagination” Summers
• “The finality of ‘Twelfth Night’ is only acceptable because marriage is stable, and stability is what the characters desperately needed.” Eagleton Showing the conventions of comedy
• “The characters are only misguided because they have not found their true love. Not relief or satisfaction can abide in their souls until their love-matches are found” Leggatt
• “Resistance comes from the lovers themselves” Hawkins The introduction of new characters and new relationships serve to break the emotional dreadlock and allow true love to flourish. 
• “Viola plays her part as a persistent ambassador of love” Viola is understanding and resourceful. It is her humanity that offers an implied lesson to the duke and the countess in the proper working of the heart. They learn that love is not greedy and self consuming rather unselfish and generous.
• “Longing for something that they can never have” Frye
• “Viola couples with Orsino, donning her "woman's weeds" so that Elizabethan values can be satisfied.”Jardine