The appetite may sicken, and so die.".
Instead, it becomes apparent that Orsino is in fact in love with love itself. This is particularly evident through his starry eyed expression and airy speech at the mere mention of the word. This idea of loving love seems to be a very Shakespearean idea, however Laura in The Glass Menagerie comes close.
"When he releases her, Laura sinks on the sofa with a bright, dazed look.".
Her dreamy state and unusual obsession with the victrola seem to show that Laura is perhaps not so much in love with Jim but the idea of love itself - this dreamy happiness that surprisingly resembles that of Olive in Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.
Several comparisons and large contrasts can be drawn between Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and Twelfth Night in their portrayal of love. The characteristic of self-love is inherent in both Barney and Malvolio. It is a portrayed in a similar way by both Lawler and Shakespeare - the characters believing they are all important and adored by all. They both begin their respective plays with a large ego full of self love and end with it deflated.
O, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a distemper'd appetite." .
This seems to highlight the fact that love may come and go at the blink of an eye - particularly the volatile nature of self-love. With Malvolio we can see the skittish nature of love in the ease in which he was convinced that Olivia desired him to appear smiling in such ridiculous clothing. Here we see the dangers of self-love in that through his arrogance Malvolio so readily believed the love letter was sent by Olivia; even though due to his position and class he should have realized she would certainly not even consider such thing. .
"She wouldn't believe, even up till the Saturday afternoon, that Nance"d ever go through with it.".
From the start of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Lawler illustrates it was Barney's superciliousness that lost him Nancy.
