Orlando: A Lack of Understanding Orlando is a film about men and women. It is about how they interact, and how they fail to comprehend each other. Orlando explores both sides in an intimate manner, and in being both a man and a woman, Orlando realizes that the two are truly unique and mysterious, but inexplicably drawn to one another and torn apart in an endless cycle that carries on over generations. Orlando’s experiences as a Renaissance man in the 16th century and then as a women of both influence and lost power allows him to comprehend the duality of the sexes and the societal pressures which are placed upon both genders, ultimately realizing that neither men nor women understand the other, and both love and suffering are the result of …show more content…
Orlando’s life as a courtier for Queen Elizabeth the First, near the end of her life, is centered around her in every way. He spends his days serving her and attempting to please her with poetry and song in order to remain in her favor. It is also worth noting that he pleases the Queen in his effeminate appearance, which is an ideal of the Renaissance man but also plays into the irony of Orlando’s gender swapping as he appears somewhat androgynous in either gender. In this life, Orlando finds some pleasure, but when Elizabeth passes he is both saddened and relieved to have the freedom with which to pursue love. He is entered into an arranged marriage, but soon falls in …show more content…
Orlando understands the male gender, and relates thoroughly to them. Orlando can relate his fellow men, and gains comfort and consolation in being with a gender he understands. Again, all of this is critical to emphasize his displacement when he becomes a woman. In one of Orlando’s final scene’s as a man in the film, he chooses to help defend Constantinople, and when in combat, he rushes to a fallen soldier who happens to be one of the invaders. The visiting Archduke Harry, who came to bestow a high ranking upon Orlando, tells Orlando to leave the man to die, to which Orlando responds “This is a dying man.” The Archduke responds that “He’s not a man, he’s the enemy” to which Orlando does not respond verbally (Potter, “Orlando”). Instead the encounter is left to the audience to ponder. This moment bears intense significance upon the theme of the unknowable nature of the opposite sex which pervades the film. Orlando sees a fellow man, whom he has spent many months in the company of, and reaches out. However, the more firmly masculine man who will not become a woman sees only the enemy, which is, in a sense, the male view of women as portrayed in the film. Men cannot understand women, and so they are driven to passion towards them. That passion manifests itself either in love or hatred, and in this case, it is hatred. Orlando, in his final moments as a
She is always there for Victor as a source of comfort. In contrast, Victor leaves Elizabeth to explore his passion. For instance, after Victor goes to university, he doesn’t come back for two years. During this time, he expects Elizabeth to wait for him as if she was his property. Moreover, Elizabeth is not the only female character who is under Victor’s control....
I have chosen to talk about manhood and womanhood and how it is represented in the novel Dracula. Due to being set and written in the Victorian era, there are many differences in the way each gender acts, speaks and views the world, and Stoker uses this well to portray how acceptable or unacceptable these were in society at the time. Bram Stoker also effectively modernized the way he was writing to fit in with the ever changing culture in society at the time.
In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Stoker’s use of inverted gender roles allows readers to grasp the sense of obscureness throughout, eventually leading to the reader’s realization that these characters are rather similar to the “monster” which they call Dracula. Despite being in the Victorian era, Stoker’s use of sexuality in the novel contributes to the reasoning of obscureness going against the Victorian morals and values. Throughout the novel the stereotypical roles of the Victorian man and woman are inverted to draw attention to the similarities between Dracula and the characters. Vague to a majority of readers, Bram Stoker uses Dracula as a negative connotation on society being that the values of the Victorian culture are inverted amongst the sexes of characters, thus pointing out the similarities of the characters and the so called “monster” which they call Dracula.
According to Elizabethan society, the center of Olivia’s dilemma with her marriage was ensuring her wealth, not marrying a man she loved (Joseph 170). Social class increases division among individuals in society. This play “ is not the story of a Juliet's or an Orlando's love .., but of the very realistic struggles and intrigues over the betrothal of a rich Countess, whose selection of a mate determines the future” (170). Readers looking past these boundaries created by class and gender, can find striking similarities in emotions characters have for each other. The personal struggles the characters face in this play demonstrate the obstacles that individuals faced because of their gender or place in the social hierarchy.
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.
Elizabeth is a strong character whose strengths are perhaps not too apparent at first. She also forms a contrast with the fiery, feisty Abigail in that she is dutiful, morally scrupulous, and maybe, just a little dull. It is only in Act IV, though, that we really see her depth of character, in her private moments with her husband in prison. She confesses her own sense of inadequacy which she believes drove him to adultery: 'It takes a cold wife to prompt lechery.' This shows that that she does not just blame him for their marriage going wrong as she seemed to do earlier, she is also capable of self-criticism. Her loyalty and real love for him are nowhere more evident than in this scene. She wants his life to be spared but she understands why
Elizabeth led England during it’s greatest time of influence as a nation despite the prejudices against her gender. Many people believe that her life was like a fairy tale-“Beloved by the kingdom; dressed by servants in jewels and gold, silk and velvet; pampered and treasured by kings and married to princes”, but in reality her life did not come close to being a fairy tale. Many of her subjects hater her from the moment she was born. She experienced imprisonment, her sister threatened to kill her, and she was almost forced in marriages with men she hated. Some of her friends caused uprisings in her name. Her enemies tried to assassinate her. Her father had her mother beheaded and ignored her for most of her life. Although she had many suitors, she never loved any of them. She understood the common people and eventually gained the loyalty of those who hated her. She could also be ruthless. The city gates and London Bridge held the bodies of the people that she executed during her reign.
was countered by his love for Elizabeth. In the end, he overcame his pride and
Another critical issue Disney has voiced and influence on was the topic of gender roles. Gender roles are known as how a person behaves or what their roles are in society based on what is appropriate for their gender. Before the 1970’s, women were forced to be known as household wives, which meant the men would go to work and the women would take care of things at home. Women were depicted as fragile and feminine, while men were strong and masculine. For a long time, this was the belief everyone abided by. Overtime, women grew weary of these stereotypes and began to fight back against the norm. With Disney’s few movie films, such as Cinderella or the Little Mermaid, women were depicted as naïve and priorities of a lady were to be married to
Similar to the devotion shared between Celia and Rosalind, Adam, the servant for the De Bois Family shows a great degree of loyalty towards Sir Rowland. This is shown threw his generous acts towards Orlando. Adam's un-dying allegiance to Sir Rowland is shown through his response to Orlando's departure into the Forest of Arden: "Let me go with you; I'll do the service of a younger man in all you business and necessities" (Act 2, Scene 1). Adam did not allow Orlando to go alone into the forest and gives him all his life savings so that Orlando could survive. Orlando is a great model of loyalty and committed service. Orlando reciprocates the loyalty of Adam, who was at one point near death.
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.
In the play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare employs a plot filled with contradictions to portray love as an insurmountable force, and with the use of symbols insinuating deception, along with dolefully forthright metaphors and similes, Shakespeare further demonstrates that deception and suffering are the true fueling entities of this puissant force known as love. The extreme actions of Olivia and Sebastian exemplify the power of love and depict how this force can blind an individual to the point where their actions display high levels...
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.
I aim to show how the “human” relationships in the play reflect real life relationships within Shakespeare’s own society (as well as his future audience), for which his plays were written and performed. Ferdinand and Miranda’s type of relationship shows Shakespeare’s ideas about true love, recognising not just the emotional side of love, but the physical nature too. Miranda promises Ferdinand “The jewel in my dower” which is her virginity, a prized thing in Jacobean times. This knowledge would have been known by Shakespeare’s audience, and knowing this helps us to understand Prospero’s protection of his daughter from Caliban. Ferdinand is asked not to have lustful thoughts about Miranda as “Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew the union of your bed with weeds so loathly that you shall hate it both” meaning that sex before marriage will poison the lovers’ marriage bed so that they will both grow to loathe it.
One central point is Rosalind’s disguise as a boy. When Rosalind is not disguised she finds it hard to act how she likes without discrimination. For example before Orlando wrestles with the court wrestler, Touchstone says that it is not a sport for women to watch;