Examples Of Unrequited Love In Twelfth Night

All people long to love and care for another, but their even deeper desire hinges on that same love and care returning to them. In the absence of requited love people begin to fill up with madness and melancholy. One’s own foolish acts then begin to play tricks on the mind. In the 17th century romantic comedy Twelfth Night the author, William Shakespeare, uses the character Orsino to illustrate how love drives people to insanity when unrequited, and this desperation for care can become a scar that changes people and ultimately alters one’s personality. Love engulfs the mind to the point where nothing else may enter it due to the deep influence an individual on another. Orsino displays great passion and love at the very beginning of the play saying, “If music be the food of love, play on give me excess of it that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die” which alerts the audience of Orsino’s instability without the object of his

Orsino never loses love for Olivia, but rather the madness subsides and the feelings and emotion transfer to another. In this case Orsino’s love transfers to Viola. Orsino says to Viola, “Boy, thou hast said to me thousand times thou never shouldst love woman like to me” which signals to the audience that Orsino’s epiphany masks the transfer of love from Olivia to Viola (V.i.279-280). This realisation comes after appreciating the good work that “Cesario” does for him. He also now understands the subtle hints that Viola drops on him from time to time. Orsino continues, “Give me thy hand, and let me see thee in thy woman’s weeds” which gives the audience an understanding of Orsino’s values (V.i.285-286). He has always thought that Viola had feminine features, but now he has the ability to put together the complete beauty of Viola through the transfer of love from Olivia to