- If love is unreturned, does that justify spiteful actions of revenge towards the unfeeling?
- Can unrequited love change the definition of love?
- How can love be a major driving factor in decision making and character building?
- Does the way a person love define who they are?
- If two people are suffering from unrequited love, yet they handle the situation in different ways (say threatening to kill/ volunteering to die), does that mean they both are really in love, or does one (or both) just think they're in love?
These are some questions I've been mulling over in my head in regards to the play Twelfth Night. My attention was draw to this idea of unrequited love during this little exchange between Viola and Orsinio in Act V:
ORSINIO:
Come, boy, with me.
My thoughts are ripe in mischief:
I’ll sacrifice the lamb that I do love
To spite a raven’s heart within a dove.
VIOLA: And I, most jocund, apt, and willingly,
To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die.
Wait, what? Orsinio is willing to 'sacrifice'* his servant Cesario (that's Viola's disguise), and Viola is willing to let him?
In the play, both of these characters suffer from unrequited love. Orsinio is in love with Olivia, and can't seem to take a hint, and Viola is dressed as a man, so of course Orsinio doesn't love her back. But that's not what's interesting.
Both are dealing with watching their love love another, yet they handle it in starkly different ways:
- Orsinio takes the vengeful "I'll teach you" path, deciding to 'sacrifice' his most trusted and faithful servent Cesario (spoiler, it's Viola!) because he knows Olivia loves Cesario (awk).
- Viola (as Cesario) takes the "anything for you my love" path, and agrees to be sacrificed!
*It's never directly stated what Orsinio means when he says he's going to sacrifice Cesario (banish him, fire him, imprison him), so I've taken my creative license to interpret it as he will be killing Cesario.
This raised the questions you read above. Why do they take such vastly different cathartic measures in dealing with their problems? What does this reveal about the characters, and in turn, they play? How does it change our idea of love in the modern world?
Your thoughts, my homies?
My Eng 378 teacher quoted this today: “No love is ever wasted. Its worth does not lie in reciprocity. ” ― Neal A. Maxwell
ReplyDeleteOf course, she was talking about loving her students, and Elder Maxwell was probably talking about some form of God's love, and I think you are mostly talking about romantic love (correct me if I'm wrong?) but hey, it's all the same four letter word. L O V E. <3
I remember having a conversation with you last Friday about this, but I think that you've asked a different question this time around which has prompted a different response from me. I think that Orsinio actually loves Olivia (or truly believes himself to be in love with her), but I think he's hurt and afraid, and when people feel vulnerable like this, they are more apt to do things that they wouldn't normally consider. Fear and hurt cause people to do very drastic things. So whatever Orsinio meant by taking his anger out on Viola, he is certainly not justified, but perhaps we can relate. Maybe we don't react spitefully like he does, but we do change our routine and re-evaluate things that we once held to be true. Anyway, just a thought . . . Sorry for the tangent.
ReplyDeleteNo, thanks for the thought Kaylee. That's a great point I didn't even consider! Thank you so much for your insight.
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