Viola's Identity In Twelfth Night

The world is ever changing, and today is completely different than the years of my child hood. In that time, being different was not acceptable. You could either go with the status quo, or be completely outcast from the rest of our peers. This is similar to the time in Twelfth Night. Men were the ones that were allowed to be in the in-crowd, and women had to hide in their houses. They were the outcast, only to be present when it was beneficial to the in-crowd. To me Viola and I are alike, in that we both had to hide who we are/were to be able to be successful and accepted by others. In the play, Viola’s main struggle is her identity. To make it in this land she has the captain to dress her like a man so that she can walk the streets without raising suspicion. “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid / For such disguise as haply shall become / The form of my intent.” (1.3.51-53) says Viola. Although we were a little different in the way that my appearance didn’t need to be changed, but what I truly was had to be hid. As I grew up, I began to notice that I wasn’t like my fellow peers. I was different. The type of different that would get me bullied and thrown out of the social circle. So I decided to lock this part of me away, and pretend to be someone that I wasn’t. The next few years of my childhood, I struggled. Trying to keep who I am and who I was pretending to be separate. Just like Viola’s feeling for Orsino emerged and had to be hid for the time, I to started having feelings that I could not act upon being in the situation I was in. Toward the

And maybe, just like in the play when Orisio accepts Viola for who she and and expresses his love for her when he says “Cesario, come / For so you shall be while you are a man. / but when in other habits you are seen, / Orisino’s mistress, and his fancy’s queen.” (5.1.380 – 382), I too will find someone who will love me for me and not expect me to pretend to be someone