William Shakespeare Gender Roles

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.

Viola is disconcerted at being confused with Sebastian in Twelfth Night's final acts, but this confusion is not one plotted by men. She and Beatrice remain two of Shakespeare's few undeceived women.

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.

Queer theory examines the manner in which characters behave according to their assumed sexuality and gender, or how their behaviour deviates from these roles. This school of criticism also takes the sexuality and gender of authors into account when analysing a text. Scholars have been debating William Shakespeare’s sexuality for decades, claiming his sonnets contain hints about his homosexual relationships. It is almost certain that Shakespeare engaged in sexual relations with men as well as women (Giantvalley 9. When reading Shakespeare’s play Hamlet from the perspective of queer theory, the misogynistic and homoromantic behaviour of its protagonist Hamlet can be explained by his struggles with his sexual identity.

Though its primary function is usually plot driven--as a source of humor and a means to effect changes in characters through disguise and deception—cross dressing is also a sociological motif involving gendered play. My earlier essay on the use of the motif in Shakespeare's plays pointed out that cross dressing has been discussed as a symptom of "a radical discontinuity in the meaning of the family" (Belsey 178), as cul-tural anxiety over the destabilization of the social hierarchy (Baker, Howard, Garber), as the means for a woman to be assertive without arousing hostility (Claiborne Park), and as homoerotic arousal (Jardine). This variety of interpretations suggests the multivoiced character of the motif, but

    Othello represents a prime example of Shakespeare's ability to develop relationships between the sexes so as to demonstrate those relationships' weaknesses. In Othello, the sexes are divided by misconceptions and ego- centric views of the opposite gender. The men of the play, in particular Othello, maintain a patriarchal, chivalric notion of the sexes, while the women of the play yearn for more involvement in their husbands' affairs. So it is that the thrust of the play emerges from "the opposition of attitudes, viewpoints, and sexes." (Neely 214)

Much of the first half of the Twelfth Night is about disguised identities and general misconceptions about who is actually who. The play opens on a note of melancholy and death, Orsino grieving because Olivia refuses to love him and Viola and Olivia mourning the deaths of their brothers. It is following a shipwreck that Viola disguises herself as a male, ensuring that confusion will be part of the plot. The idea of masquerading as a member of the opposite sex is a familiar device and the “complications, artificial as they may appear, are an essential part of the play’s complete development.” (Travers 308) It is interesting to note that unlike other comedies such as “The Tempest”, Shakespeare does not create an older generation who prevent the young lovers from being together; instead it is the perplexity about gender and that keeps them apart. Sebastian, Viola’s identical twin, is the solution to all of the problems, though his appearance does add to it for a short while. Viola, dressed as Cesario, is mistaken for Sebastian by Antonio, and is asked for the money that he gave to Sebastian. However, this type of confusion adds to the comic nature of the plot as the audience is aware of the concealed identities. Order eventually comes from the chaos, disguises are shed and identities are revealed. The appearance of Sebastian ensures that the marriage will be possible for the main characters; Viola is free to marry Orsino and Olivia marries Sebastian, although she

Shakespeare’s society was strongly patriarchal .Women were expected to behave passively obediently and submissively toward their husbands ,who were considered the superior sex and were given the responsibility of governing the household .This is a topic undoubtedly critical to our understanding both of the role of women and the traditional concepts of gender and sexuality.Tarub explains that even domestic households were structured in accordance with patriarchal values ; the man ruled whilst his wife managed it .Traub sums up the repression and confinements of women within the domestic households as ‘’the body enclosed’’ to refer to their ‘closed genitals ,closed mouths and closure within the home ‘’ .Weakness and ‘the body enclosed’’ may have been synonymous with women at the time , but certainly not with the heroic and overbearing Rosalind who shows a reckless disregard for social conventions in donning on the disguise of Ganymede ,mocking the principles of love and bringing Orlando under her sway .She is ‘’a woman .When {she} thinks , {she} must speak ‘’ .To arrive at a tentative argument as to whether Rosalind acts as an ‘agent of change ‘ (Todd 1 ) and a challenge to the ‘body enclosed’ or a reflection of traditional gender roles , we must first of all define ‘heroine’ and look at how the its sense has changed over time , and how it may be applied to her as a ; cousin : daughter : man and boy .

When Cesario enters into Orsino’s life he quickly becomes very close with him. As the play progresses Orsino begins to display a sort of slight fascination with his servant Cesario, where the dialogue touches upon “the homoerotic overtones of Orsino's sudden infatuation with his new domestic servant, to whom he "unclasps . . . the book even of [his] secret soul," delighting in Cesario's "smooth and rubious" lips and "shrill and sound" voice, which he calls a "small pipe" comparable to a "maiden's organ" This ambiguous affection for his male servant sets the stage for their discussion of the differing capacities of male and female amorous longing in act 2.”(Charles, “Gender Troubles in Twelfth Night”). Finally there is the most obvious relationship within the play that displays a clear homosexual tone, the relationship between Sebastian and Antonio. After rescuing Sebastian from a shipwreck and taking care of him Antonio begins to grow very fond of Sebastian.

By using gender criticism, an approach of understanding the impact of sexual identity on literary works, to view Twelfth Night, Shakespeare reveals confusion brought by gender identity to both individual and

Shakespeare breached new ground in this play, covering gender and questioning the norms of society, while still keeping the general populace pleased by pairing off heterosexual couples in perfect fashion. Twelfth Night’s not-to-subtle comments on love and gender through Orsino and Cesario/ Viola’s relationship have remained pertinent throughout history, and continue to be relevant even to this

Antonio is a character whom it could be argued does not receive a happy ending. It is easily identified by particularly modern audiences, that Antonio is a character who may have homosexual desires. The language used in: ‘my desire, more sharp than steel, did spur me on’ could be interpreted as rather lustful especially the words ‘sharper than steel’ which suggests sexual imagery. This circumstance of mistaken identity, when Antonio is in trouble and mistakes Cesario for Sebastian, for some audiences leans more towards tragedy than comedy because the consequences are more severe. We see how betrayed Antonio feels in the line ‘how vile an idol proves his god!’ Antonio worshipped Sebastian like an idol, and ‘relieved him with such sanctity of love’, only to discover he is the ‘beauteous evil’. The audience may feel pity towards Antonio; this is something they will want resolved. It can be argued this does happen when Sebastian returns. This may have been a good enough resolution for an Elizabethan audience, as many of them will have had no desire to see a homosexual pairing, and perhaps Sebastian’s marriage to Olivia would leave them satisfied that no homoerotic acts occur. The question to Antonio’s happiness never seems to be resolved,

When observing gender in our society, women and men are stereotyped with specific roles. Men have always been seen as the family’s main source of income whereas the women take care of their home and children. However, Shakespeare challenges these gender roles in his play with the three female characters Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. While all three are independent, powerful women and even lead their armies into battle, the men seem to be foolish and weak such as King Lear and Albany. Furthermore, Mira cel Batran makes a point in her essay, “Feminist Reading of William Shakespeare’s King Lear”, that although women are regarded as dependent on men, Shakespeare explains that it can be the exact opposite. The men seem to depend on the women such as King Lear depending on Cordelia and Albany depending on Goneril. Shakespeare, in his play, King Lear, portrays women who are strong and intelligent and men who are weak or overpowered by female characters, challenging the societal belief that women are inherently less than or dependent on men.

     Shakespeare's Twelfth Night examines patterns of love and courtship through a twisting of gender roles. In Act 3, scene 1, Olivia displays the confusion created for both characters and audience as she takes on the traditionally male role of wooer in an attempt to win the disguised Viola, or Cesario. Olivia praises Cesario's beauty and then addresses him with the belief that his "scorn" (3.1.134) only reveals his hidden love. However, Olivia's mistaken interpretation of Cesario's manner is only the surface problem presented by her speech. The reality of Cesario's gender, the active role Olivia takes in pursuing him/her, and the duality of word meanings in this passage threaten to turn the

According to Chris, Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’ touches on sensitive concepts within the society (1). Similar to the majority of his literary works, Twelfth Night captures the concept of love and how individuals use love through marriage to achieve power or a higher social status. Throughout the play, there is an apparent struggle for social status by the key characters. Lindheim asserts that there are some characters in the play, such as Antonio who would do everything within their means in order to achieve their sexual desires (2). For example, in a more traditional society or contemporary setting, Antonio could never hope of