Often times in society, people have a set image of what roles specific people should have, especially when it comes to men versus women. The love between men and women is often a complicated position to be in and the way society places gender roles on people does not make it any easier. In the play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare utilizes character’s romantic relationships in order to portray the standards that society places on gender roles. Shakespeare uses the characters Olivia and Viola to show how women are often given gender roles, showing that women can have power over men, and that women have the ability to be strong and fight for what they want even if it means breaking a few rules along the way.
One way that Shakespeare is able to show
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If you mean well,/ Now go with me and with this holy man/ Into the chantry by. There, before him/ And underneath that consecrated roof,/ Plight me the full assurance of your faith,/ That my most jealous and too doubtful soul/ May live at peace. He shall conceal it/ Whiles you are willing it shall come to note,/ What time we will our celebration keep/ According to my birth. What do you say” (Act IV. iii)? This quote from the play is important because it is showing that Olivia is not afraid to break the gender role standards by asking Sebastian if he will marry her. Even today it is uncommon for women to ask the man for marriage and being that she did, not only is it breaking a strict gender role, but it is showing that as a woman, Olivia is not afraid to ask for what she wants even if it is a not so popular act. Not only is Olivia an extremely strong character in this play, but Viola is also just as strong, if not stronger. Viola’s strength is uncovered right in the beginning of the play when she says to the captain; “There is a fair behavior in thee, captain,/ And though that nature with a beauteous wall/ Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee/ I will believe thou hast a mind that suits/ With this thy fair and outward character./ I prithee—and I’ll pay thee bounteously—/ Conceal me what I am, and be my aid/ For such disguise as haply shall become/ The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke./ Thou shall present me as an eunuch to him./ It may be worth thy pains, for I can sing/ And speak to him in many sorts of music/ That will allow me very worth his service./ What else may hap to time I will commit./ Only shape thou thy silence to my wit” (Act I. ii). These lines of Viola’s from the play do an excellent job of showing just
The play Twelfth Night, or What You Will by William Shakespeare is a 1601 comedy that has proven to be the source of experimentation in gender casting in the early twenty-first century due to its portrayal of gender in love and identity. The play centrally revolves around the love triangle between Orsino, Olivia, and Viola. However, Olivia and Orsino both believe Viola is a boy named Cesario. Ironically, only male actors were on the stage in Shakespeare’s time. This means that Olivia, Viola, and other female characters were played by young boys who still had voices at higher pitches than older males.
Laura Jastrem’s essay “Romance and Gender Positions in Twelfth Night” focuses on the attraction that Olivia formed for another woman, Viola, who masquerades as Cesario throughout the play. The audience is aware of the fraud male persona that Viola has mislead the others to believe. Given that the play was written in 1601, there are diverse critical responses regarding the concept of love between two people of the same sex based on their time period. Jastrem’s critique was composed in 1999, when same sex marriage was still a notion that was not heavily accepted by the vast majority. Being 2016, with same sex marriage now legalized, it is clear that perspectives will differ concerning this view. Jastrem’s sexist critique focuses on the lesbian attraction between Olivia and Viola but fails to mention
In direct contrast to Shrew, is Twelfth Night, whose main female protagonist is by far the strongest character in the play. The main character Viola, has been stranded in a foreign land and adopts the identity of her brother so that she might live independently without a husband or guardian. She serves as a courtier to a young, lovesick nobleman named Orsino. Throughout the play she plays as a go-between for him to the woman he loves. In the course of her service, she falls in love with him. Only at the end, does she renounce her male identity and declares her love for him.
In William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, the use of mistaken identity and role reversal communicates that gender roles and social class are constructed illusions that trick people into having unrealistic expectations about how they are supposed behave.Viola crossdressing as Cesario in the play challenges traditional views of how a woman of her status should act.The differences between the accepted clothing for an individual emphasizes gender roles and social hierarchy in society. During the Renaissance, “ the idea of two genders, one subordinate to the other, provided a key element in its hierarchical view of the social order and to buttress its gendered division of labor” (Howard 423).
People are not always who they appear to be. Whether it’s that fierce tattooed muscle man or that sweet elderly lady smiling from a few seats away, what is perceived is not always what is true. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night portrays many a character whose identities do not align with their inner character. Olivia’s polite ladylike demeanour, Sir Toby’s guise of nobility, and Feste’s job as a fool all demonstrate how social identities don’t always align with inner character. Olivia’s public status shows her as a caring and high-class lady, a persona that contrasts to her inner self as a bold and tenacious woman.
Imagine being a woman in sixteenth century Europe. Females were raised to believe that they were subservient and that men knew better on any subject. Basically, women had no rights. They were considered property, first “owned” by their fathers and then control was “transferred” to the husband chosen for them. Marriage was not about love, but in most cases, it was a business deal that was mutually beneficial to both families – an interesting fact is that like young women, most young men had no choice in the selection of their future betrothed. These traditions and the gender roles assumed by men and women at that time had an impact on Shakespeare’s writing and performances and a great example of this is evident in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Plot Context: King Claudius is talking about Hamlet mourning the death of his father still. His mother Gertrude says she also still misses her husband but you have to move on.
In conclusion, through the lens of Gender theory and examination, this play not only portrays women in a degrading manner, but definitely makes the male characters overshadow the female characters. As shown through two female characters whose parts are both subordinate and very compliant. Both women act like they are suppose to and do not even the slightest but challenge the male characters. Both women by the end of the play have completely lost their identities and have conformed to what society made them into, nothing but a puppet controlled by men. Hamlet is a play that has a clear distinction between male and female roles. The male roles are powerful, dominating, and controlling while the female characters are obedient, fractured and frail. "
Love, quite an indescribable word, has such an impact upon people as to cause deceit and overall confusion in every relationship. In Will Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night or What You Will, Shakespeare attempts to have a great balance of both cruelty and joy while also containing comical qualities to this romantic play. Throughout Twelfth Night or What You Will, Shakespeare uses puns with characters such as Viola to cross-dress and change their identity. "She attires herself in the disguise of a page, as the best protection against uncivil comments, till she can gain some tidings of her brother" (O'Connor) while Viola is disguising herself as a boy, she falls in love with her employer, Duke Orsino. Viola cannot express her feelings for Orsino because Orsino thinks that Viola is a man. “She is engaged in the service of the Duke, whom she finds "fancy-sick" for the love of Olivia" (O'Connor). Shakespeare demonstrates that love is capable of causing misery by creating a love triangle in which Olivia falls in love with Viola/Cesario who is constantly bothered by Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Malvolio, who both love Olivia.
In Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, gender identity and alternative sexualities are highlighted through the depiction of different characters and personalities. In the play, Viola disguises herself as a man thereby raising a merry-go-around of relationships that are actually based on a lie rather than actual fact. Viola attracts the attention of Olivia since she thinks that Viola is a man but even more fascinating is the fact that Orsino is attracted to Viola although he thinks that she is a man. In another twist Viola is attracted to Orsino and has fell in love with him although their love cannot exist since Orsino thinks that Viola is a man.
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.
In Twelfth Night the relationships are anything but romantic. Shakespeare writes from the male point of view which implies an un-easy split between love and physical charm. In Twelfth night the romance is falsely produced by selfish desire. Duke Orsino and Viola stand out from the other relationships. By questioning the relationships between the other couples, Shakespeare highlights the true love between Viola and Orsino and the fake relationship of Malvolio and Olivia which is truly based on Malvolio’s desire of a higher status , despite his status and his personality , Malvolio tries to impress Olivia by dressing up in ridiculous clothes , which does far from his aim , and repulses Olivia.
In Hamlet, gender plays a huge role in the assumed capability of people. Queen Gertrude had to remarry instead of rule the kingdom by herself. If she wouldn’t have gotten remarried, it would have been likely that her kingdom would have been usurped by a chauvinist male ruler; who felt that women couldn’t rule a kingdom.
Throughout Twelfth Night, disguise and mistaken identity works as a catalyst for confusion and disorder which consistently contributes towards the dramatic comic genre of the play. Many characters in Twelfth Night assume disguises, beginning with Viola, who disguises herself as a man in order to serve Orsino, the Duke. By dressing his protagonist in male garments, Shakespeare creates ongoing sexual confusion with characters, which include Olivia, Viola and Orsino, who create a ‘love triangle’ between them. Implicitly, there is homoerotic subtext here: Olivia is in love with a woman, despite believing her to be a man, and Orsino often comments on Cesario’s beauty, which implies that he is attracted to Viola even before her male disguise is removed. However, even subsequent to the revealing of Viola’s true identity, Orsino’s declares his love to Viola implying that he enjoys lengthening the pretence of Vio...
Love however, is the source of much confusion and complication in another of Shakespeare’s comedies, Twelfth Night. Men and women were seen as very different from each other at the time the play was written, they were therefore also treated in very different ways. Because of this Viola conceals her identity and adopts the role of a man, in order to better her safety whilst being alone on the island, and to get a job at Count Orsino’s court. In the play Shakespeare uses the gender confusion he has created from obscuring characters identities to explore the limits of female power and control within courtship, and their dominance within society. Violas frustration surrounding her inability to express her feelings to the Count because she is a woman is an example of the limiting rules of courtship which were upheld at the time. (Aside) ‘yet, a barful strife! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.’ Here she is already expressing her anxiety and emotion at being a woman, and having to keep her emotions hidden from those around her. She longs to be able to express her love as a man could, and in her disguise as Cesario she finds an opportunity to vent her feelings for the Count, but concealed as his words and towards Olivia. Viola is unaware of how her words may sound to Olivia because she is aware of their gender boundaries however Olivia isn’t and soon falls for Cesario. Because Olivia is a Lady and head of the household, and especially how she lacks a father figure, she has a lot more freedom in courtship. Duisinberre comments on this saying, ‘...Viola and Beatrice are women set free from their fathers, and their voice is that of the adult world.’ This is seen when Olivia immediately takes the dominant role in her and Cesarios relat...