The Androgyne in As You Like It
The androgyne is a strong figure that mentally joins the female and male characteristics together as one (American Heritage). Androgyny does not only refer to the physical senses it also refers to the cultural and social aspects of daily life. There are two main types of androgyny that were applied during the Renaissance which are referred to as mythic and satiric androgyny (Orgel, 38). Satiric androgyny mainly deals with "feminized male figures and unfixed, unstable individual identities, and is essentially negative," (Hermaphrodites, 1). Mythic androgyny consists of "cross-dressers, water imagery and the fluid individual identity, and is essentially positive," (Hermaphrodites, 2).
As You Like It is based on the concepts included in Mythic androgyny. We find that Rosalind dresses as a man after she is banished from the court, yet her actions continue to revert back to her female characteristics. Her disguise would be considered cross-dressing and her changing could be considered as being the fluid individual identity. The fluid individual identity is a way of saying that she changes her own identity. When Rosalind is talking with Celia or Touchstone, she takes on her female identity, but when Rosalind talks with Orlando she takes on the male identity of Ganymede.
As You Like It starts out in the court, where Rosalind in a female dressed as a female, and Orlando is a male dressed as a male. Rosalind is being treated like a woman and she clearly acts like one. She attends the wrestling match, where her uncle, Duke Frederick, asks her and Celia, her cousin, to try on talk Orlando out of participating in the match. This is the point when Rosalind and Orlando meet, coerce, and begin having feelings for each other. Orlando does in fact defeat Charles, the Duke's wrestler. In this situation, Rosalind is portraying a female with typical female characteristics and Orlando is carrying out his male characteristics. In the court, they are in there true societal roles, but once they enter the forest of Ardenne those roles are dramatically changed.
"The androgynous woman literally incorporates the independence that the male was designed to exemplify prior to the introduction of woman, but the male who depends on a woman becomes effeminate and is perceived as missing something in the outline of maleness," (Rose, 25). While in the forest of Ardenne, Rosalind is dressing in and taking on the male persona.
Criticism in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley "An Inspector Calls" has been called a play of social criticism. What is being criticised. Explain some of the dramatic techniques which Priestley uses to achieve the play's effects. "An Inspector Calls" has been called a play of social criticism as Priestley condemned the many different injustices that existed in the society between the first and second world wars.
As You Like It shifts from the political court to a seemingly peaceful forest. Duke Senior and his men attempt to make the best of the cold and isolated forest, but very soon find themselves transforming their asylum into a forest court. Jacques notes that as Duke Frederick has done to them in the old court, they are usurping the forest and the animal kingdom. In the forest, they have banquets and a clear hiera...
Each gender has its little tells and associations, the movie Victor Victoria depicts gender cues very accurately and well. Victor Victoria is a movie about a woman, who wants to have a successful singing career, but in order to do so she must pretend to be a man pretending to be a woman. This movie takes place in the 1930’s in Paris, France during the winter time. One gender cue I noticed was how women and men wore their coats differently. Men tended to wear their coats over their shoulders without putting their arms in the sleeves and women, wore their coats a help their coats together with their hand placed close to their chest, indicating they feel cold. Another gender cues I noticed was when Carole "Toddy" Todd, played by Robert Preston,
The play was written in the 1945 but is set in 1912. The 1910's was a
satisfied. He talks a lot and likes the sound of his own voice. He's a
The gendered division between feminine and masculine is made apparent, as Crawley highlights, through choice of wardrobe, personal preferences and performing tasks. Crawley demonstrates transparency of gendered discrimination by reflecting on her wardrobe choices, from the age of five, that she often had to contest with her mother about, or fellow workers that felt she held them back because she is a woman. Though society encourages women to look or be feminine, Crawley thinks it is simply a technique to manage women into a particular structure. She looks at femininity as “a social control mechanism that is transcribed on the
...e one hand, androgyny can strip meaning and leave one with the impression the satirical. On the other hand, traditional femininity can promote, in the mind of a listener, especially a male listener, double entendre, perhaps never imagined in the mind of the original author.
There is an ongoing debate on the issue of gender and some scholars, present gender as being similar to sex. However, according to Butler (270) defines sex as the state of being either biologically female or male; with this definition, Butler refutes the traditional binary opposition amid biological sexes, holding that the conception of binary biological sex is a product of social construction. On the other hand, gender is defined as the behavioral, psychological, cultural traits that are traditionally associated with the binary conception of biological sexes that is either male or female. In the traditional setting, gender or rather gender identity was believed to be a direct expression of an individual’s biological sex, but Butler refuted this assumption
The ways the characters portrayed what is supposedly masculine and feminine was when the author wrote about the type of clothes the grandma is wearing. She is wearing
In order to understand the effects that ideas of femininity have on literary texts, we must first acknowledge what the term means. Clearly both terms derive from the original sex of the being, whether male or female, and can be similarly tied in with notions of gender, either masculine or feminine, which are said to be constructs, or labels, created by society. However `masculinity' and `femininity' become, on some levels, dislodged from the idea of the biological makeup and gender constructs, and instead tend to be described in terms of discourse. It is not just the sex and gender of a being that determines their actions, but instead their thoughts and opinions.
One’s gender and their role associated with that characteristic are critical to how one fits within society. According to Conley, gender is defined as “a social position, the set of social arrangements that are built around normative sex categories.” (Conley pg. 283) In other words, through socialization someone is raised as a certain gender by treated them one way or another. This is exhibited in the film as the main character, Toula, was taught from a young age that because she was a girl she was supposed to wear long shirts and have long hair. She continued to conform to these societal norms until meeting the man of her dreams and making the conscious decision to defy those customs.
The first thing that the reader will notice regarding gender is the title of the play “A Doll’s House”. This reveals to the reader, Nora’s and possible Torvald’s status within the play. Nora is unable to be herself as she is not seen as an equal in her marriage. Instead, she is something to be admired and flaunted. This need for her to be something that Torvald can show off. Both Nora and Torvald are living lives based on illusion. Torvald has made Nora his perfect little doll so that he can look good. She thinks that he is a person with incredible strength, she becomes disillusioned with him at the end of the play when he exposes himself as just a man. This paper will look at the way that society’s expectations of gender roles are perceived
Even for the briefest moment, Rosalind regretted to dress up like a man. But luckily, using her quick-wit, in Act 3 Scene 3, she cunningly persuaded Orlando into love-counselling by letting him pretend to woo her. She states that love is merely madness and deserves to be whipped. Then she intelligently said about the marks of a love which Orlando did not have.
At first glance, this transformation is a mere change of clothes and the addition of weapons, but it goes much deeper. To Rosalind, the taking on of a man’s appearance requires certain things. She believes that while dressed as a man, she cannot bring shame to the image of men. A good example of this is in Act 2, Scene 4, where she says, "I could find in my heart to disgrace my man’s apparel and to cry like a woman; but I must comfort the weaker vessel, as doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat. (ll. 4-7). This is not the only time she mentions a doublet and hose. It seems almost that the doublet and hose are the actual source of strength for a man, as in the next example when Rosalind is begging Celia for an answer, saying, "Good my complexion! Dost thou think, / though I am caparisoned like a man, I have a Doublet and hose in my disposition?
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...