Shakespeare’s play, “Twelfth Night” provides a great deal of insight into gender roles, gender identities, and desire in Elizabethan society. In Shakespearean times, women, and to a much lesser extent, men, were subject to a variety of arbitrary limitations based solely on gender. For example, women could not become actresses, and were practically required to have guardians and protectors. Additionally, both men and women were strictly held to separate sets of explicit standards, expectations and values. These roles that people of each gender were held to were very important to developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Those who violated these norms would have generally been looked down upon, or even insulted, especially by …show more content…
In “Twelfth Night” a number of relationships exist and develop between the various characters. Unbeknownst to most of these characters, at least until the final scene of the play, there are a few people among them who are not as they appear. Viola, a woman shipwrecked in a foreign land without a protector, disguises herself as a man, and begins calling herself Cesario. This disguise fools everyone she meets in Illyria. In fact, it fools one woman, Lady Olivia, so well that she eventually falls in love with Cesario. Some might argue that she actually loves Viola, however this is not the case. Olivia is in love with her perception of the man Cesario. She does not love the reality of the woman Viola. When it is revealed that Viola is a woman, Olivia directs her affection towards Sebastian, who fulfills her desire to be with a man. To further explain why Olivia loves Cesario and not Viola, consider the letter Maria wrote for Malvolio. Maria tricks Malvolio into thinking that Olivia loves him. Analogously, Viola tricks Olivia into thinking she loves Cesario. Obviously, Malvolio does not think that Maria loves him, even though she is the author of the letter, and likewise, Olivia does not think that she loves Viola, even though Viola is the one pretending to be Cesario. Count Orsino similarly faces the reality that
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.
People tend to judge others based on many aspects. Sometimes they may try to force people to act upon certain rules that define their place in society. They often try to meet expectations that society has made for them based on gender and social status. William Shakespeare reinforces these ideas in his play Twelfth Night, which introduces many meaningful messages about situations that still occur in society today. He clearly develops important themes worthy of analysis. A few of these strong themes are about stereotypes and society’s expectations and rules, which he proves to be irrelevant most of the time. Many situations in the play falsify commonly held stereotypes about gender and social status by showing how they are sometimes invalid. He also shows how these stereotypes can affect the way people behave towards and judge others.
Charles is of opinion that, “the representation of homoerotic attraction in Twelfth Night functions rather as a means of dramatizing the socially constructed basis of a sexuality that is determined by gender identity” (Charles 1997:122). As mentioned above, homosexuality was not acceptable in the Elizabethan society for the most part. It was even considered as sodomy. Before the twins, Viola and Sebastian, are married to heterosexual partners, both are involved in some form of homosexual relationship. While Oliva seems to be unaware of Cesario/Viola’s true sex, the hint at the possibility of homoeroticism through dramatic irony is already enough to disrupt the stereotypical gender system. After Malvolio presents Viola/Cesario with Olivia’s ring, Cesarios says, “I am the man; if it be so, as ‘tis,/Poor lady, she were better love a dream” (Shakespeare 2004:84). Charles explains the best stating that dramatic irony tells us Oliva’s true hidden passion is for the female character (Charles 1997:133). In addition she
It is said that Queen Elizabeth I’s controversial reign at the time informed the play’s content. She, in fact, used to like to invite theater companies to her palaces[2] and saw a performance of the play at Christmastime while on a campaign in Ireland[3]. In her medieval England, people met the idea of a female monarch with hostility[4], because there had never been one until[5] . The challenge to tradition that was Queen Elizabeth I’s reign most likely to lead the discussion of gender roles in Twelfth Night.
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
Identity and Feminism: Themes such as Gender identity are illustrated in Shakespeare’s plays through the use of costuming and role playing. In texts like “Twelfth Night”, Shakespeare uses a female character named Viola who is the noblewoman disguised as a boy named Cesario, this creates a comedic gender exchange situation where the role reversal goes wrong and leads to mistaken
Shakespeare presents the male characters within the play as either being fickle or faithful, he does this using many techniques. By putting each male character under a situation can express both their faithfulness and their fickleness, also by giving evidence to represent how they are either fickle and faithful allows us as a reader to figure it out at our own accord.
In an attempt to find a job as a servant, Viola disguises herself as a man, leading everyone to believe she was someone she wasn't. The obsessive love and conflicts that arise in Twelfth Night are created from the deception and lies amongst the characters, making us question Shakespeare's definition of love. The deception starts with Viola disguising herself as a man by the name of Cesario. While her intentions were harmless, her false identity won the heart of Olivia.
Music: O Mistress Mine (music by Shaun Davey, words by William Shakespeare, sung by Ben Kingsley)
Twelfth Night is one in few of the female reversal conflicts that is so detailed however not creating conflict with the readers. Shakespeare is brilliant when changing up the gender roles to have the readers question stereotypes made by society and describing how females and males were supposed to be in Renaissance society, women portrayed obedience, mute, virginity, and modesty; the males were to be in charge, protect and provide for the family. However gender attributes are socially established and socially accepted in certain situations to be switched making it easier for writers to switch female and masculine characteristics to both genders. This allows Shakespeare to play on the characteristics of his characters and not have too much of an up roar from the
Within the play ‘Twelfth Night’ it can be argued that the audience may be entertained by the outlook of Malvolio’s gulling. To start with his name means “ill will” within Italian which already suggests his attitude towards the other characters thus showing his place within the play as an “unpopular”character. He is a part of a religious order who sought to regulate forms of worship. In modern time the word “puritan” is often used to mean "Against pleasure" . Historically, the word was has been used degradingly to characterize the puritan group as extremists. This religious group was despised for its opposition to the theater, winter festivals, musical festivals and any forms of entertainment which is what ‘Twelfth Night’ "The evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking" actually stands for, as it is a festival in itself which further comical as he is incongruous with the play's title.
When Act 2 begins, we meet Sebastian, who has washed up on shore and been taken care of by a man named Antonio. Sebastian is understandably upset, due to the fact that he thinks his sister Viola is dead, and has decided to go traveling, stopping at Duke Orsino's court first. Because Antonio has grown attached to Sebastian, he decides to follow him there.
Deception is another major theme in twelfth night that is the reason and theme for the plot of the play. The type of deception that plays throughout the play varies according to what gain and interests the characters have. Deception through identity is shown prominently by Viola when she dresses as a man in order to protect herself and become the page to Orsino. She deceives nearly everyone with her disguise except for the fool who has his doubts. Self deception is shown by Olivia and Malvolio. Olivia deceives herself by contradicted herself when she says she will not marry or see men for several years in mourning and then she falls in love with Cesario only after their first meeting during her mourning. Malvolio may think he is in love with
One of the many comedic plays written by William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, or What You Will, was produced into a film. The key actors within this film are Frances Barber, Chris Hollis, Caroline Langrishe, Christopher Ravenscroft, and Richard Briers. The 1988 film, directed by Paul Kafno, kept an almost perfect faithfulness to the text and it was very easy for me to follow along in the book. Although the film was not the most entertaining one, it did a great job of portraying the famous Shakespeare play.
In 'Twelfth Night’, gender and sexuality in many ways add to the play’s themes of madness. 'Twelfth Night ' is a reflection of renaissance thought and culture, the renaissance was a transitional period from the medieval to the radical Elizabethan era. The culture of the time was a contradictory one, as from one aspect it was influenced by the patriarchal medieval time, where women were under the rule of men and seen as needing the protection of men, however, from another perspective, the culture was a changing one as women were starting to receive education and many humanists believed that women should be given more rights. The play reflects these attitudes and often challenges the social hierarchy and establishes ideas on gender roles, sexuality and cross-dressing. These factors indeed undermine the expectations of male and female behaviour, and in turn further the play 's theme of madness which has a comedic effect on the audience due to the shock humour it provides.