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Gender Roles In Twelfth Night

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Early in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night it becomes apparent that Shakespeare shows blatant favoritism towards the three female characters featured in this play. The play includes Viola, a young woman who after being shipwrecked and believing her twin brother, Sebastian, to be dead, she dresses as a man going by the name Cesario to try and survive in Illyria. Through this, though she falls in love with Duke Orsino who is in love with Countess Olivia who falls in love with Cesario, creating a true love triangle. The third female and final female character in the Twelfth Night is Maria, who is the servant of Olivia and although the favoritism she is shown is perhaps not as blatant as what Viola or Olivia is shown, she is nonetheless shown …show more content…

However, Shakespeare continues to push the boundaries even further with how he has the Duke Orsino speak to Viola after they have become engaged at the end of the play and she has informed him that she cannot go and change into more womanly clothes because the captain still has them and he is still being kept prisoner by Malvolio. Orsino proceeds to tell her “We will not part from hence. Cesario, come- For so you shall be, while you are a man; But when in other habits you are seen, Orsino’s mistress and his fancy’s queen” (5.1. 362-365). This brings the question to light of who is Orsino in love with Cesario or Viola? He seems far too comfortable with the idea of being with Viola while she is dressed as Cesario to not be harboring some feelings for Cesario. This idea is encouraged by his rather observant description of Cesario “That say thou art a man: Diana’s lip Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe Is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound, And all is semblative a woman’s part” (1.4. 29-32). Here Orsino gives a rather observant description of Cesario’s feminine looks comparing him to a goddess and talking of how soft and red his lips are, which seems rather strange since most would take offense to basically being told that they look like a woman, however, …show more content…

Later in the play, she can even come across as no more than a lovesick woman obsessed with Cesario who she has fallen for. However, often it is not taken into consideration how strong her character is because she is a woman who seems to be running an entire estate on her own, which would not have been common during Shakespeare’s time if it was even allowed at all. Still, Olivia’s character is shown great favoritism by Shakespeare as even though she is unintentionally tricked she ends up marrying a man who she is at least attracted too since Viola and Sebastian are twins. However, this does bring into question what love actually means in this play. Since everyone in it seems to only fall in love with physical appearances, with the exception of Sir Toby who falls for Maria’s skills as a trickster. Olivia seemingly has no problem with the fact that she is not married to the man who she thought she was married too, in fact there seem to be no lines that show any kind of anger or discord after she learns that she married Sebastian and not Cesario. Even when she first sees them both together all she can say is “Most wonderful!” (5.1. 210) Showing that she is mainly enamored by their looks, however, I do believe that she initially fell for Cesario’s charm, how little she is

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