Mistaken Identity

As the semester is beginning to wind down, my service experience at Vanguard Collegiate Middle School with Soccer Without Borders is coming to a close. The experience has been everything I hoped for and much more. I have been able to help and teach the students, and in return I have learned a tremendous amount about myself. I look forward to going to service every week, and now consider it part of my identity. The students are very kind and are always striving to learn, which makes my job even more important. This has been an amazing experience and I hope to continue volunteering here in the future.

            The first half of the play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare explores the theme of mistaken identity and disguise in order to promote chaos and comedy in his play. The first case of mistaken identity in this play is Viola, who disguises herself as a man named “Cesario” so she can serve in Duke Orsino’s household. Duke Orsino, who is the ruler of Illyria, the setting of the play, seeks to marry the beautiful noblewoman Olivia. To show his interest in marrying her, he sends “Cesario,” or Viola to profess his love for Olivia. However, while Viola is talking to her, Olivia falls in love with Viola, mistaking her identity for the man “Cesario.” To make matters even more confusing, Viola has fallen in love with Duke Orsino while serving him. This creates a love triangle between these three characters, as Duke Orsino loves Olivia, Olivia loves “Cesario,” or Viola, and Viola loves Duke Orsino. This is typical of Shakespeare, as he would often use mistaken identity to create confusion and complicated love triangles to express comedy in his place.

            The theme of mistaken identity and disguise does not always come about through physical appearance. In Act II of the play, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria play a cruel trick on Malvolio, who is the head servant in Olivia’s house. These three characters are closely connected with Olivia, and are not fond of Malvolio because he is very strict and often ruins their fun. The three of them trick Malvolio by writing him a letter pretending they are Olivia, confessing their love to Malvolio. This is a weakness of Malvolio, as he often believes everyone loves him. Since Maria and Olivia have very similar hand writing, the plan should work. Included at the end of the letter, Maria writes the things “Olivia” wants Malvolio to show he too is in love. However, these are things that Olivia actually hates, and will make Malvolio look a fool. As they predicted Malvolio falls for their trick, and is greatly excited by this confession from “Olivia.” This case of mistaken identity contributes to the comedy of the play because it will greatly embarrass Malvolio in front of his love, Olivia.

            The first half of the play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare explores the theme of mistaken identity and disguise to promote chaos and comedy in his play. However, in applying mistaken identity to the real-life example of service learning, it is very different. As many of the students that I work with at Vanguard Collegiate Middle School are refugees, I feel they are the victims of negative mistaken identity by American society. Many Americans believe refugees are a burden on society, a potential threat, and that it is not our responsibility to help them. This cannot be farther from the truth. As we are all members of the human race, it is absolutely our duty to help those who are in need due to dangerous conditions in their home country. Secondly, 99.99% of these refugees are loving and caring people, who are desperate and in seek of a better life. I have first-hand experience with this, as the students I tutor are always happy and smiling, with a very warm and welcoming attitude. So if moving to the United States can help these people, it is our duty to allow this to happen. American society is falsely misidentifying refuges, as they are no different from the people currently in our country.