Unrequited Love Twelfth Night

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When there is love, there is must also be rejection and human beings have always had a hard time getting past it. This includes various characters in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Characters in this play have shown a lack of rationality when faced with unrequited love. These characters are Antonio, Sir Andrew and Malvolio. Up first is Antonio, a sea captain. Firstly, Antonio can’t see that Sebastian doesn’t love him in the same way. After saving Sebastian from drowning to death, Antonio ask, “Will you stay no longer? nor will you not that I go with you?”(2,1,612), to which Sebastian responds, “...the malignancy of my fate might perhaps/ distemper yours; therefore I shall crave of you/ your leave...(2,1,614-616). After being told …show more content…
Malvolio pride and love for Olivia cause him to fall for a simple prank. It starts when Fabian, Maria, SIr Andrew and Sir Toby decide to pull a prank on him because of his mean demeanor. Maria forges a letter in order, so that as Sir Toby says, “He shall think, by the letters that thou wilt drop, that they come from my niece, and that she's in love with him.(II,3,863-865). Malvolio couldn’t realize he was being fooled because his unreturned love blinded him from mulling over the situation. It should be obvious that his master isn’t attracted to him if she isn’t attracted to a duke, yet he can’t see past it because of his love. It gets worse when Olivia thinks that Malvolio is insane and put him in Sir Toby’s care. Sir Toby then decides to amp up the prank by saying, “Come, we'll have him in a dark room and bound…”( 3,4,1677). Malvolio's love cause him to get imprison in a dark dungeon by a drunkard because it blinded him from stepping back and thinking it through. In the end, he is a perfect example of unrequited love blinding people from thinking rationally. All in all, unrequited love has caused many characters in the play to not think rationally. Antonio, Sir Andrew, and Malvolio’s actions were all caused by unrequited love and its ability to blind. In the end, it’s not unrequited love but the blindness that it brings that is the true

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