Gender Roles And Roles Of William Shakespeare 's ' The Merchant Of Venice '

While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons.

All throughout Illyria, there is romance, passion, royalty, and an immense amount of gender stereotypes. William Shakespeare imagines the kingdom of Illyria to have very traditional norms for both women and men in his play Twelfth Night. In Scene 2 of Act 1, Viola, recently rescued from a shipwreck, hears about a duke named Orsino and instantly comes up with a plan to get closer to him. Her plan is to disguise herself as a boy who she will name Cesario and become one of Orsino's’ attendants. Right off the bat, we begin to see gender stereotypes. Why must Viola become a man in order to work for the duke? Elizabethan society “molded women into the form of the dutiful wife and mother” (Elizabethan Women). Viola could not have served duke Orsino as a woman because as a woman she was expected to work at home and be either a “dutiful wife [or a] mother”. Scene two prepares the audience for the idea of gender throughout the rest of the play. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is very traditional play due to its ideas of gender stereotypes in Elizabethan society.

Throughout Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, there is an overlaying presence of the typical roles that men and women were supposed to play. During Elizabethan times there was a major difference between the way men and women were supposed to act. Men typically were supposed to be masculine and powerful, and defend the honor. Women, on the other hand, were supposed to be subservient to their men in their lives and do as ever they wished. In Romeo and Juliet the typical gender roles that men and women were supposed to play had an influence on the fate of their lives.

Gender stereotypes are not a modern notion and as such expectations and limitations have always existed for both men and women. Fortunately women, who have formerly beared great burdens of discrimination, now have very liberated roles in society as a result of slowly shifting attitudes and values. Shakespeare was integral in challenging the subservient role expected of women in the 16th century. Throughout the play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, women are expressed as powerful characters who behave, speak and live in a way that breaks away from the conformist role of females during the 16th century. Therefore, the submissive stereotype expected of women in Shakespearean time is confronted and defied through

In Twelfth Night, the protagonist of the story, Viola, is displayed as a rational, sacrificial, sincere, strong, witty woman, who disguises herself as a man, to become a faithful attendant of Orsino. Viola is one with sacrificial and patient love, willingly loving Orsino, and attending to his every need. Orsino, on the other hand, is shown as an emotional man, who has superficial and transient love for Olivia. This love is very abruptly shifted to Viola at the end of the play, when Viola reveals her true identity. Through this contrast of these two individuals, we can see that Shakespeare makes a distinct different between genders, and allows to draw a contrast between characters to think deeper into their characters and purpose in the story, beyond their surface appearances.

   Throughout the length of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello there is a steady undercurrent of sexism. It is originating from not one, but rather various male characters in the play, who manifest prejudicial, discriminatory attitudes toward women.

Thrilling yet confusing, and even troublesome, Twelfth Night’s theme of identity is showed within the romantic comedy through many ways. As an essential subject establishing rich symbolism and imagery, it uses disguises and crafty characters’, which causes much confusion between the characters. Furthermore, the idea brings out the comical essence of the piece. It examines the gender roles in Twelfth Night relating to the history of Renaissance/Elizabethan Theatre; males played female roles—a male actor would play a female character (Viola) who disguises herself as a male (Cesario), for women were forbidden to act. Through What You Will, it proves one’s physical features, and how a person presents them self, possesses

In William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, gender roles are explored, culminating in two distinct scenes of cross-dressing. The men of Elizabethan society enjoy a prominent status based solely on gender, to which women are clearly outsiders. This is particularly evident in Jessica’s newfound freedom when dressed as a pageboy in Act 2 and Portia’s and Nerissa’s immediate elevation in social standing when they take on male personas in Act 4. Through these two instances of cross-dressing, Shakespeare presents class not in terms of socioeconomic status but in the benefits of being male. Although the three women all partake in cross-dressing as a means of undermining patriarchal constraint, the consequences vary as there are several

   Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello features sexism as regular fare – initially from Brabantio and Iago, and finally from Othello. Let us in this essay explore the occurrences and severity of sexism in the drama.

In William Shakespeare’s tragic play Othello there are numerous instances of obvious sexism aimed at the three women in the drama -- Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca – and aimed at womankind generally. Let us delve into this subject in this paper.

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is rich with the essence of gender expectation which leads one to rethink the issue of sexuality of that particular period of time. The play seemingly focuses on the role of Viola who disguises herself as Cesario in order to work for Duke Orsino. The relationship between the two evidently conveys the fact that they have great affection towards one another; however, due to their status and gender it was impossible for them to wed. Nevertheless, Viola and Orsino are able to have their supposedly happy ending as a result of “fate” or the revealing of Viola’s true gender. All of Viola’s actions were acceptable for she played the role of a man; she would not have been allowed to act the way she did if otherwise.

Jean Reid Norman argues the differences between women and men throughout Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night. In the early ages, Viola was played by a male whether Viola was herself or Cesario but the question Norman states is, “Does she speak as a woman, even when wearing men’s clothes? Does she try to disguise feminine speech as part of her effort to fit into a male world?” (66) He gives examples from the play in which women and men are different in various ways from the way they speak to how they act. Throughout the play, Viola was really being herself disguised as Cesario.

Viola, one of Shakespeare's most delightful and beloved feminine creations from his comedies. Surrounded by characters who express the extremes of emotionalism and melancholy that is, Viola is caught between Duke Orsino's extreme melancholy and Lady Olivia's aggressive emotionalism yet she represents the norm of behavior in this strange world of Illyria. viola has a native intelligence, charming wit, and a tremendous amount of charm. These qualities helps her obtain her position with Duke Orsino, and they are also the same qualities which cause Lady Olivia to immediately fall in love with her. It was her charming personality, we should remember, which won her the sea captain's loyalty, without whose help her disguise would have never succeeded.

Two of Shakespeare’s works, The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night, both have a parallel plot structure which involves a woman disguising herself as a man in order to accomplish some goal. In the former, Portia disguises herself as a lawyer so as to enter the Duke’s court and help her husband’s friend, Antonio, avoid having a pound of his flesh cut off. In the latter, Viola disguises herself as Cesario so she can enter Duke Orsino’s court and work as a page. This parallel structure is further strengthened by the fact that in both plays, the woman in disguise has to perform some task that (during Shakespeare’s time) was usually performed by a man. Portia has to defend her husband’s friend, Antonio, in court, while Viola has to engage in a sword fight with Sir Andrew. Despite the many similarities, there is a subtle difference: Portia seems much more confident in her role as a man when compared to Viola. We see when Portia is effective and confident as a lawyer but Viola is reluctant to spar with Sir Andrew in a sword fight, and also when she is weary that the Fool has caught on to her disguise. This difference reflects the theme of challenging prejudice in The Merchant of Venice, and also reflect the theme of highlighting gender difference in Twelfth Night, which reveals a lot about both plays as a whole.

Many of Shakespeare’s plays emphasize silence and the lack of language as an important dramatic feature. Particularly, this is in regards to characterization and the development of the composition’s theme. A character’s lack of words may signify the feeling of an emotion that is outside the limits of human understanding. It may also express that the character experiences a feeling of intimidation or communicates with defiance. Furthermore, the text of comedies and tragedies can display “silence” via the written work in regards to an activity or reaction that is not represented directly, such as the audience being aware of a character’s true identity while the characters within the play face this absence. There are various arguments that focus upon the ambiguity of whether a women’s silence in Shakespeare’s plays reflects passivity or resistance; the following analysis will argue both. The female characters of Shakespeare’s comedic and tragic plays, specifically Twelfth Night and Othello, fall silent at the periods in time when their speech would impair the writer’s effort at bringing attention to the social constructions of the seventeenth century. These moments, which manifest a strategic and vital development, exemplify the most common stereotype of females that is found within Shakespeare’s compositions: all members of this gender-based category should be