Unrequited Love In Twelfth Night

Blinded

The idea of unrequited love is a fear for many that oftentimes becomes true. No one wants to pour their heart out only to have their heart be broken in return. Why is love often unreciprocated? Love itself is often the answer to this question; many people fail to see someone loving them because they are madly in love with someone else. In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, protagonist Viola has the unfortunate luck of falling in love with Duke Orsino who does not reciprocate this feeling of love for Viola because he is infatuated with Olivia. In Taylor Swift’s song “Invisible”, Swift sings about how she is in love with someone, but he is in love with someone else who does not love him back: “And I just wanna show you/She don’t even

know you/She’s never gonna love you like I want to” (“Invisible”). Swift feels like she and the boy with whom she is in love could be something special, but he is blinded by his love for another girl. Because of Viola’s and Swift’s unreciprocated love, they both begin to feel invisible. These feelings of invisibility and the events in Twelfth Night and “Invisible” are very similar to each other. Viola in Twelfth Night and Taylor Swift in her song “Invisible” are both plagued by the sickness of love and feel invisible.
Viola and Taylor Swift both fall in love with someone who does not love them back because they are in love with someone else.

Viola quickly falls in love with Duke Orsino after meeting him, but she is not able to express her true feelings of love for two different reasons. First, Orsino is lusting after Olivia, so he is not open to the feelings of others. Orsino is so in love with Olivia’s beauty that he had built a wall of emotion around himself, and Viola was not able to penetrate this wall. More importantly, Viola is not Viola to Orsino; she is Cesario, who, disguised as a man, served Orsino as a eunuch. Although she greatly loves Orsino, Viola cannot openly express this love because she was invisible to him. If Viola does let the truth come out, Orsino will still not be able to love her because he is solely focused on gaining Olivia’s affection. Orsino does not love Viola because he does not see her as a woman in love with him but as a faithful servant, so Viola and her love for Orsino go unnoticed as Orsino delegates Viola to woo Olivia for himself. Viola, wishing she was the one whom Orsino loved, was deeply saddened by this: “I’ll do my best/To woo your lady: yet, a barful strife!/Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife” (Act I, Scene IV). Orsino made Viola his messenger to court Olivia, but Viola wishes she was the one whom Orsino was courting. Similarly to how Orsino is blinded by his infatuation with Olivia, the boy whom Swift is in love with is blinded by his love

for another girl: “There’s a fire inside of you/That can’t help but shine through” (“Invisible”). Swift is so in love with the boy that she often catches herself watching him, and she notices that he is always watching another girl. Because of his steadfast love for the other girl, the boy whom Swift liked is inattentive to her desires and thus does not love her back.
Viola and Taylor Swift feel like they are invisible because their love goes unnoticed. Viola is both literally and figuratively invisible to Orsino. She is disguised as a man, and Orsino believes that she is Cesario. So, Viola truly goes unnoticed, but her love for Orsino is also concealed. Viola, plagued by her unrequited love, wishes she was no longer Cesario: “As I am man/my state is desperate for my master’s love” (Act II, Scene II). Viola wishes nothing more than to be loved by Orsino, but in her disguise, she cannot let the truth be known. Her futile attempts to show her love to Orsino are imperceptible, and Viola feels hopeless. This is similar to what Swift sings about in “Invisible.” Swift begins to feel invisible when she is not acknowledged by the boy whom she likes. He is so madly in love with the other girl, he refuses to see that Swift is waiting for him with her love: “And you just see right through me but if you only knew me/We could be a beautiful, miracle, unbelievable/Instead I’m just invisible” (“Invisible”). Swift believes that she and the boy she likes could be something special together, but she feels like a single grain of sand in a vast desert: invisible. He sees right through her, but, if he were to see her and knew how she felt, he may possibly feel the same way. Likewise, if Orsino was to get his mind off Olivia and stop lamenting in misery, he would see the true Cesario. He would see someone who truly loved him for whom he was and not for his wealth and power. Olivia only caused sadness for Orsino, but Viola would do anything to make him happy. Although they both go unnoticed, this does not stop them from loving. Swift sings, “And you can’t see me wantin’ you the way you want her/But you are everything to me” (“Invisible”). She does not let going unnoticed hinder her love, and she continues to chase after the boy she loves. Viola acts the same way towards Orsino, and both Viola and Swift continue attempting to have their love reciprocated.
Viola and Taylor Swift both see that the person they love is blinded by an unwavering love. Early on in 12th Night, Viola notices that Orsino desired Olivia but that Olivia did not return this fervent love. Viola is heading back to Orsino’s house after courting Olivia when Malvolio runs up to her with a ring from Olivia. Viola knows she did not have a ring, and she understands that Olivia has fallen in love with her: “How will this fadge? My master loves her dearly/And I, poor monster, fond as much on him/And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me/What will become of this?” (Act II, Scene II). She understood the precarious predicament she was a part of and that she would be unable to profess her love for Orsino, so she questions how the complicated triangle of love would be solved. Similarly, Swift could see that the boy she was in love with loved a girl who did not love him back: “She’s never gonna see the light/No matter what you do” (“Invisible”). Swift wishes only the best for the boy she likes, and she realizes that him pining for the other girl was not healthy. If he would stop focusing on the girl he likes and instead notice Swift, he would be a lot healthier and happier.
Viola and Taylor Swift cannot profess their loves, so they attempt to hint at their endearment in hopes of becoming visible.

When Viola was talking to Orsino about Olivia, she attempts to tell him the truth of the situation: “But if she cannot love you, sir?” (Act II, Scene IV). She wants the best for Orsino, so she tries to imply that Olivia does not reciprocate his love in an attempt to break the news in the least painful way possible. Orsino does not believe this reality, and he is so conceited that he tells Viola he will not take no for an answer. As this method did not work, Viola then discreetly attempts to tell Orsino that she is actually a woman and is in love with him. When Orsino was commissioning her to woo Olivia, Viola said, “As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman/I should your lordship?” (Act II, Scene IV). Viola essentially told Orsino that she was a woman, and she was hoping that Orsino would catch her bait. However, Viola could not directly tell him that she was a woman because her disguise would be uncovered. In a similar way, Swift sees the boy whom she likes is in a hopeless love. So, she attempts to become visible: “And all I think about is how to make you think of me/And everything that we could be/I just wanna open your eyes/And make you realize” (“Invisible”). Swift is so desperately in love with him that she will do anything to be seen; her sole focus was on becoming

visible.
Viola in Twelfth Night and Taylor Swift in her song “Invisible” are both plagued by the sickness of love and feel invisible. William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night and Taylor Swift’s song “Invisible” are both very similar. Both the play and song revolve around the theme of love, but the major similarity between the two is between Viola and Swift. Viola and Swift both fall in love with someone who does not love them back because they are in love with someone else. They feel like they are invisible because their love goes unnoticed. Viola and Swift see that the person they love is blinded by an unwavering love, and as they cannot profess their loves, they attempt to hint at their endearment in hopes of becoming visible.