Pygmalion 973ings of love for Olivia by overindulging them with
romantic music. Orsino asks his court musicians to
glut his feelings, saying,
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
(1.1.1–3)Orsino repeatedly complains of the injustice of
his rejection. He reasons that because he loves so
much and because Olivia is so worthy of love, given
her beauty and noble nature, it is only natural that
she should return his love. Typical of Renaissance
unrequited lovers, he refuses to accept his rejection
and continues to woo Olivia despite her refusal. He
sends Viola, disguised as Cesario, to plead for him
because he thinks that the words of romance are
more fitting for a youthful voice and appearance and
that Viola/Cesario will be able to convince Olivia
that she should return his love.
Viola is able to convince Olivia that she should
love, but instead of returning Orsino’s love, Olivia
falls in love with Viola, disguised, of course, as Cesa-
rio. Viola rejects Olivia as a lover, in part because she
realizes that Olivia has fallen in love with an illusion
(her disguise) and would not love her if she knew
that Cesario was a woman, but also because Viola has
fallen in love with Orsino herself. Thus, Olivia expe-
riences the same rejection of unrequited love that she
has caused Orsino to feel. She expresses her rejection
and helplessness to the disguised Viola, saying,
I have said too much unto a heart of stone
And laid mine honor too unchary on’t.
There’s something in me that reproves my
fault;
But such a headstrong potent fault it is
That it but mocks reproof. (3.4.187–191)Viola herself experiences rejection because her dis-
guise will not allow her to even make her love for
Orsino known. Instead, she must bear his messages
of love to Olivia. All three characters feel the rejec-
tion of not having their love returned.
The strong feelings of rejection that these char-
acters feel make them equate their state of rejection
with death and call their beloveds cruel. The first
verse of song that the clown, Feste, sings for Orsino
in a time of melancholy is typical of their lament:Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid;
Fly away, fly away, breath;
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
(2.4.52–55)The identification of rejection with death is so
strong that near the play’s conclusion, when Orsino
realizes that one of the main reasons that Olivia
will not return his love is her affection for Cesario
(Viola), he says that he will kill Cesario in order to
remove this impediment. Because Viola feels the
rejection of her unrequited love so strongly, she is
willing to die as Cesario rather than continue to live
in rejection herself.
What the rejection of all of these characters
have in common is that they have somehow either
misplaced their affections or been mistaken in how
they present them. Orsino has misplaced his affec-
tion in loving Olivia; she, in loving Viola. Viola’s
disguise prevents, rather than aids, her gaining the
love of Orsino. When these mistakes are remedied,
the rejections disappear. The arrival of Viola’s twin
brother, Sebastian, in Illyria provides a man that
Olivia can love when she mistakes him for Cesa-
rio and subsequently betroths herself to him. The
revelation of Viola as a woman allows her to make
known her love for Orsino, who then turns his affec-
tions to her. Thus, in Twelfth Night, Shakespeare
presents an argument that the rejection that accom-
panies unrequited love is a product of misplaced
affections, and if one loves a proper person and woos
in a proper way, the rejection of unrequited love can
be avoided.
Cory L. GrewellSHaw, GEorGE bErNarD
Pygmalion (1913)
When George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) was
awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1925, he was
praised for turning “his weapons against everything
that he conceives of as prejudice.” This is clearly true