Hidden Identity and Romantic Love in Twelfth Night and the Odyssey

Often times in life, romantic love causes people to hide their true identities from one another. This effect of love, while sometimes counterproductive, can also be very beneficial. It prevents people from merely loving a physical appearance. While love should bring people together, sometimes it is necessary to make sure that the object of your affection is worthy of your love. It is also important for the other person to love you for who you are and not what you look like. Taking on different physical characteristics to obscure identity is one way of achieving this. While this can sometimes delay the final union of the couple, it can also aid in producing a stronger bond. We find instances of people hiding their true identities because of love in Twelfth Night and The Odyssey as well as in real life.

In The Odyssey, Odysseus returns home from his journeys to find a crowd of suitors in his home, waiting to marry his devoted wife, Penelope. In order to protect Odysseus from the suitors, Athena makes Odysseus look like a beggar. She,

Shriveled the clear skin of his arms, and legs,

Made all his hair fall out, cast over him

The wrinkled hide of an old man, and bleared

Both his eyes, that were so bright. Then she

Clapped an old tunic, a foul cloak upon him (XIII. 539-543)

Athena changes Odysseus's appearance and makes him look much older and poorer. In this disguise, he returns home and sizes up the competition. However, Odysseus also uses this disguise to reassure himself that Penelope has been faithful. At the house of the loyal swineherd, Odysseus reveals himself to his son. When Telemachus asks if he can tell his mother of his father's return, though, Odysseus refuses. First of all, he does not wish for Penelope to accidentally blow his cover. He also wishes to determine whether she has remained faithful in her love for him, before revealing himself. So, when Odysseus finally rids his home of the suitors, it is a doubting Penelope that he encounters. As she looks at the man who is claiming to be her husband, she finds him, "... clearly - like her husband, / but sometimes blood and rags were all she saw" (XXIII. 107-08). She refuses to believe that it is he even after he has been washed up and returned to his normal appearance by Athena. Instead she decides to disprove his claims by testing him. She turns to her handmaiden, telling her to make a bed for Odysseus, and "place it outside the bedchamber my lord / built with his own hands" (XXIII. 203-04). Outraged at the idea of anyone being able to move his bed because it was made from the trunk of the tree, Odysseus finally proves to Penelope that he is truly her husband and they embrace. Odysseus used his disguise to hide his identity from Penelope, in order to prove to himself that she had been faithful during the years that he had been gone. He forces Penelope to use her remembrance of old secrets in order to make sure that she still possesses a heartfelt love for him. It is because of these deeper ties, and not because the beggar now resembles Odysseus, that Penelope loves him. She knows Odysseus by his personality (and the qualities that she fell in love with in the first place), instead of his physical appearance. While the final reunion between Penelope and Odysseus may have taken a little longer than some might wish, the ultimate conclusion is one of happiness.

Another example of a disguise aiding in the eventual union of a couple can be seen in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. After being shipwrecked, Viola disguises herself as a man, in order to become a messenger for the Duke of Illyria, Orsino. She becomes the confidante for his emotional outpourings concerning the beautiful lady, Olivia. Unfortunately, as a result of being in such close contact with him, Viola (known to Orsino as Cesario) falls in love with him. In one scene, Orsino asks Viola to go to his ladylove and implore Olivia to accept his advances. To this, Viola responds in an aside, "I'll do my best / To woo your lady. Yet a barful strife! / Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife (I. iv. 40-42). Viola does not reveal her true identity to Orsino, though. She believes that the love of Olivia will make him happy, and, because her love is genuine, she puts Orsino's needs before her own. However, throughout the play, Viola and Orsino become very close, because the Duke finds that "Cesario" is the only one he can trust to confide in. So, when Viola's true identity is finally revealed in the last act of the play, the Duke says,

Your master quits you; and for your service done him,

So much against the mettle of your sex,

And since you called me master for so long,

Here is my hand, you shall from this time be

Your master's mistress (V. i. 323-327).

Orsino comes to the conclusion that Viola's devotion to him stemmed from something deeper than just a respect for his office and his station in life. He realizes that tenderness and devotion are what really denote love, unlike just worshipping Olivia's beauty from afar. By not revealing her true identity to Orsino, Viola unknowingly achieves her dream of becoming his wife.

We can also see evidence of hidden identities leading to a rewarding love in our society. There are all kinds of ways to meet people today, but the most popular one lately seems to be the Internet. Individuals can find people of similar interests and talk to them online. While it may not be altogether intentional, these people can hide their physical identities on the Internet. Consequently, people who meet online become acquainted without ever seeing the other person. In this biased day and age, this can be beneficial for the less attractive members of society. In this way, many romances begin. Instead of an individual's first impression consisting of noticing what the other person looks like, first impressions over the Internet are of a more personality and interest based nature. Very often, people who meet on the Internet get married. By the time the couple actually meets, physical appearance does not count for much, because they have fallen in love for the right reasons (personality and compatibility) instead of being infatuated with appearances.

For much the same reason, Orsino falls in love with Viola, and even once Odysseus has revealed himself in his true and handsome form, Penelope still feels that she must test him. While honesty is usually the best policy, there are times when a little deceit can be advantageous to the persons involved.

WORKS CITED

Homer, Translated by Robert Fagles. The Odyssey. New York, Penguin Classics, 2006

Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Washington Square Press, 2004