Shakespeare In Love Essay example

The decision by Shakespeare to now portray Viola as a man, creates confusion amongst the audience in

Viola and Beatrice both take on men's roles, Viola that of a manservant and Beatrice that of the perpetual bachelor and the clown: "I was born to speak all mirth and no matter," she says to Don Pedro [II.i.343-4]. They appear to be actors and manipulators, much more so than their female predecessors, who are mostly reactive and manipulated, such as Hermia, Helena, Titania, and Gertrude. None of these women seemed in charge of her own destiny, but tricked by the schemes of men and later scorned or humiliated as a result of male machinations. Viola and Beatrice, although they both seem fiercely independent and comfortable in a man's world, reveal themselves to have only the trappings of manhood, and not its full capacity for action.

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.

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.

Viola’s characters in the film shows the most power as she repeatedly switches from female to male and represents herself different ways. The film shows that being a female you can’t join the men’s soccer team no matter how good you are, which takes away Viola’s power to be able to play soccer. As Viola disguises as her brother she struggles with the social and soccer life because she is always having to prove her manliness, in order to fit in and receive respect from the other males. When she finally proved how manly she was through a series of tough actions, she then gets accepted and makes first string for soccer.

We do however see Viola’s reasoning for this gender change. Women are dehumanized and misrepresented in 21st Century societies. Sexism runs rampant as individuals, like Viola, aren’t able to engage in things that everyone should be able to partake in- things like sport, for instance. By faking her gender, Viola attempted to break these harsh gender barriers, and to simply be treated equally.After Viola, uh, Sebastian revealed his, or her, real gender at a soccer game, Duke and her were smitten and all over eachother. This may come to an end as we recently spoke to Viola. “I may go back to being a man. I was seen as tough and was allowed to play the sports I like without being judged.” Soon after the interview, Duke Orsino, Viola’s new love tweeted “He or she, I love this person!”. Quickly after the media acted with sexuality rumours, Duke quickly deleted the tweet. Now the questions remain, is Viola meant to be Sebastian and has Duke’s sexuality changed? Tweet your opinions to us

Viola has this weak heart because she falls in love with the Duke, Orsino, act one scene four, and can not show her affection for him because she is disguised as a male. The audience finds out that Viola is a female when she tells Orsino of love, then states, “ I am the daughter of all my fathers….and all the sons”(Act, Scene). Viola’s weakness does not help her during this play because she has to hide everything from everyone and ,in act three scene one, Feste has a suspicion of Viola about her being a female dressed as a male and he makes a speech about how smart a fool can actually be. He also makes a reference to Viola being Cressida,( a Trojan woman who was portrayed as the lover of Troilus, whom she deserted for Diomedes), as well as how she pretends to be something she is not and that one day someone will find out who and what she actually is and she will one day maybe get punished for not revealing who she really

The author, William Shakespeare, efficiently employs various events and characters in the play, Romeo and Juliet, to convey that love conquers all. Through manipulation of Act 2, Scene 2, also renowned as the 'Balcony Scene’, Shakespeare effectively demonstrates how Romeo and Juliet’s love surmounts numerous things, in the play. Additionally, Shakespeare portrays that/how the strength of Romeo’s love for his murdered friend Mercutio, creates a desire for revenge despite potentially receiving death penalty; displaying that Romeo’s love for his friend conquers the fear of death. Furthermore, the final scene also depicts how love triumphs over the terror of death and how the Montague and Capulet parents’ mutual love for their children, Romeo

Viola’s first words that lay out her gender defying scheme are “Conceal me what I am and be my aid for sure a disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent” (Shakespeare 1.2.53-56). Throughout Twelfth Night Shakespeare plays with the idea of gender and its role in society. The audience sees Orsino, the duke, trip over his words in his misogynistic contradictions of his opinions on women and their ability to love. Surprisingly, Viola also shares in such contradictions. However she is far from being misogynistic in modern terms. Viola’s outward duality is Shakespeare’s means of contrasting her with Orsino and reinforcing her disguise. (maybe: commenting on the nature of disguises)

Love is a passion that everyone wishes to live. It’s known as the art of living. Love is represented in many different forms. Similarly the lack of love is the reason for unhappiness and misery. The situation changes to such that at times this desire to be with our loved ones is left incomplete with thousands of obstacles in front of us. In twelfth night, Shakespeare focuses on romantic love. His way of playing around with his word makes the reader wonder on the true lovers who will remain victorious at the end of the play. In the setup, we are brought to two characters identically the same, Viola and her twin brother Sebastian. The reader is under the impression that the resemblance between Viola and Sebastian is not just a coincidence, but it has an important part to be act in the play. Lost by her past, the young women Viola decides to overcome her grief by making her own way in the world. She enters the Duke of Illyria’s palace, Orsino. Her entrance to the

Who was Shakespeare? Was he a man from Stratford-Upon-Avon who started with little and became the greatest English author to ever live; or was he a privileged Earl who was a favorite at Queen Elizabeth’s court? That is the great mystery. This particular mystery is difficult to solve because of the lack of documentary evidence. The Elizabethans did not believe in getting everything in writing as people do today. Therefore, the truth may never be known with certainty. However, evidence does exist to support at least two theories about the Shakespearean authorship: one that the man from Stratford wrote the works, the other that Edward de Vere the Earl of Oxford was the author. The question then becomes, which

Shakespear portrays the women as fragile, with the way they act, and the way others act towards them, Viola is seen as a very emotional woman, who is in mourning for the death of her brother in (1.2.4) "My brother he is in Elysium", but at the same time falls in love with duke Orsino as shown in (5.1.130-131) when she says: "After him I love/More than I love these eyes, more than my life,". While Viola is in love with Orsino, Olivia falls in love with Viola who, while masquerading as a man is charged with delivering massages of love to Olivia. Olivia's love becomes obvious when in (2.2.21) Olivia, desperate to spend more time with Cesario/Viola sends Malvolio to return a ring to Cesario/Viola which had never been his/hers to begin with. Viola quickly

Equity between men and women is a deeply rooted battle. As the modern culture shifts further from patriarchal rule, it is interesting to question why females remained the submissive sex for so many centuries. When examining the play Twelfth Night, it becomes apparent that Shakespeare considered such an issue and used the character Viola and her interaction with Orsino as a vessel for gender equality.

Viola sacrificed who she was and expressing her love to Orsino so that she could create her voice in the world and be accepted in a dominate male society. Act one, scene two, lines 53 and 54, Viola says, “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise as haply shall become.” She portrays her courage when she decides to disguise herself as a young man. She does not have to mask her inner bravery while dressed as a man, because it’s acceptable for a male to be openly courageous constantly, while Desdemona showed moments of her strength which I will discuss. Viola becomes “Cesario” and Olivia becomes infatuated with him because he is unlike any other man she has encountered. Act one, scene five, lines 296-298, Olivia speaks to herself after Cesario has exited, “Methinks I feel this youth’s perfections with an invisible and subtle stealth to creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.” Cesario acts as a close female friend would, because he is actually a female. He listens, cares, and makes Olivia a priority. I believe that this is Shakespeare’s way of convincing or proving to 1600’s men in the audience that if they show compassion and understanding toward women, young ladies will fall in love with them easier.

"Shakespeare in Love" is a fairly accurate representation of the life of William Shakespeare at the time he was writing Romeo and Juliet.