ITV Love Island viewers split over star's 'unexpected reference'
Love Island viewers were left divided over a comment Shakira Khan made in Tuesday night's episode
Love Island fans have been left divided by a viral comment Shakira voiced on Tuesday night's episode.
After kicking off on Monday (9th June), the popular ITV series has already witnessed its first dumping. 22-year-old Shakira Khan was instrumental in the first ousting of this season.
Following a bombshell arrival that led to losing her man Ben, aged 23, she faced the challenge of finding a new partner in the villa to avoid being evicted.
Amidst her efforts to secure a connection with someone new, the children's entertainer referenced the famous fig tree analogy from Sylvia Plath's celebrated book, The Bell Jar.
While chatting to Tommy, aged 22, she enquired: "Have you ever heard of the Fig Tree Theory?"
The islander continued, explaining: "It's the idea that there's a big fig tree and it's full of all the little dreams you've had along the way, all the potential paths you could have gone down.
"And it's bittersweet because you wanted that at one point and maybe you sacrificed something else to do something else. And people just give up their dreams to settle for a 9-5, for security and stuff.
"There's so many things you might wanna be but you can't pick all of them at once, you can just pick one fig."
Plath sheds light within her book that her main character perceives life as a fig tree, where each limb signifies an alternate journey to potentially embark upon.
"One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor," she pens.
The moment sparked a mixed reaction from viewers, with some finding the unexpected literary reference amusing, while others were left unimpressed, reports OK!.

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Some critics felt that Shakira's interpretation was disrespectful to the iconic source material, particularly her decision to label it the 'fig tree theory. '
One X user expressed their disappointment, writing: "I have genuinely never been more disappointed than when I heard Sylvia Plath's fig tree analogy from The Bell Jar referred to as the fig tree theory on Love Island tonight, after being TikTok-ified."
The famous analogy had been circulating on TikTok prior to its appearance on ITV2, with users posting images of fig trees representing their ideal lives.
Others shared similar sentiments, with one saying, "Not Sylvia Plath being misquoted on Love Island," and another commenting, "FIG TREE THEORY u cannot be serious Sylvia Plath you didn't die for this."
While Shakira provided a rough summary of the fig tree analogy, her interpretation missed Plath's original point about the consequences of indecisiveness. Instead, she seemed to misinterpret the analogy as a commentary on sacrificing one's dreams for a 9-to-5 job.
On the other hand, some viewers found humour in the comment. One said: "Was not expecting a Sylvia Plath reference on Love Island go off Shakira I guess," while another quipped: "That Sylvia Plath reference is sending me #LoveIsland."
Echoing a kindred sentiment, another individual posted: "Shakira bringing up Sylvia Plath fig tree on #LoveIsland??? She's rapidly becoming my favourite girl."
As the episode concluded, Shakira made her choice to partner up with Harry, leading to his previous partner Sophie's exit from the villa.
Love Island returns to ITV2 and ITVX tonight at 9pm