In William Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, performance is closely intertwined with gender and identity. Because the traditional fairy-tale structure is inverted in the play, Bertram, the son of the late Count of Roussillon, is made to portray the traditionally female role, while Helen aptly performs that of the male. Bertram’s masculinity is collateral in Shakespeare’s reversal, as he is barred from asserting his own patriarchal power, and is thus left to attempt to form an identity through defiance. Bertram’s unwillingness – and later, inability – to play a new part in society implies that manifestations of gender are fundamentally a sort of performance, and are thus dependent upon direction, societal expectations of each sex, and the ability to portray a role that acknowledges the inversion of the social order. Because the play inverts the traditional positions of female and male characters, Bertram is forced to forge a new sort of identity, and its effectiveness becomes reliant on his ability to portray a challenging role in a foreign social and sexual hierarchy.
Like a stage actor, Bertram’s actions are contingent upon direction from his superiors and contemporaries. After Helen has chosen Bertram as her prize and husband, however, he resists, impeding upon the King’s authority by asking “But follows it, my lord, to bring me down / Must answer for your raising?” (2.3.108-109). By interpreting his new role as a form of declension and consequently defying the King, Bertram asserts his unwillingness to conform to his new role. He is admonished, however, as the King declares his directive authority by telling Bertram to “check [his] contempt; / obey [the King’s] will” (2.3.153-154). Upon the public stage, he appears to p...
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...ns of gender, and anxiety surrounding his newly “female” position and its implications. His newfound identity is rendered entirely dependent upon his portrayal of the role he formerly attempted to flee, and its finality is reliant upon Bertram’s capability as an actor – which, as has been demonstrated throughout the play, is as tenuous as the masculinity he seeks to embody. When made to reconcile the relationship between performance, gender, and the blurring of a social order, Bertram becomes disoriented, and relies ultimately upon the conventions of theatre: he falls back into his prescribed role, and, as such, may finally begin to portray his journey into manhood.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. All’s Well That Ends Well. The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Edition. Eds. Steven Greenblatt et al. W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 2008. 2201 2261. Print.
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Callaghan, Dympna. Shakespeare Without Women: Representing Gender and Race on the Renaissance Stage. New York, Routledge. 2000
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