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Gender Roles In Twelfth Night

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In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, disguise, gender roles, and goal setting all played a huge part in the making of arguably his best piece of work. Shakespeare’s plays were appealing and excellently composed. In his play, one character wears a mask to finish an objective, while others use non-literal camouflages. These thoughts are best exemplified in Twelfth Night, written by Shakespeare in the time of 1599 and 1601. In this parody, Viola, the primary female hero, dresses as a man to look the nation of Illyria for her sibling, Sebastian, who was lost adrift amid a tempest. With a specific end goal to satisfy the objective of discovering her sibling, Viola camouflages herself as a man keeping in mind the end goal to satisfy the objective of discovering …show more content…

The falseness of Orsino's adoration is intensified by the genuine feeling that Viola feels for her sibling, Sebastian. It is nothing unexpected that she is the following character, the gathering of people is acquainted with after Orsino. Toward the start of the play, Viola strolls aground after a brutal tempest crushes the ship that she and her sibling, Sebastian, were cruising upon. Her sibling is presently absent and she starts to ask concerning his whereabouts. Defying the commander, she hears that Illyria is the most plausible place that her sibling could be, and he guarantees her that Sebastian did not die. Viola seems to trust the chief in regards to her missing sibling. All the more significantly, Viola is cheerful that her sibling is still among the living. Any other individual would have done likewise in the given …show more content…

In the first place, Viola's aim was to utilize her camouflage to look for Sebastian as it would give her entrance to the kingdom. Her camouflage still fills its unique need, but at the same time is going up against different capacities. In light of the new capacity of her mask, Viola must associate with Olivia not as a lady, but rather as a man. It is presently Viola's business to be the arbiter amongst Orsino and Olivia. Here, Viola has encountered a hindrance: her camouflage is making her embrace an occupation that she had not considered. Clearly, Viola had not thought she would be the ambassador for Orsino on the grounds that her contemplations had been devoured by worry for her missing sibling. Destiny, nonetheless, proceeds and makes Viola be the page that conveys love

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624 Words | 3 Pages

Viola reveals that she was acting as Sabastian while he was away because her soccer team got cut, and she was showing how that girls can be better at soccer than boys. So she revealed that she was a girl by lifting up her shirt and Sabastian revealed that he was a boy by pulling his pants down. But Sabastian did not even know that his sister was acting as him for the whole two weeks while he was away playing in a band. The principle was shocked when Sabastian pulled his pants down and viola lifted her shirt up.

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1166 Words | 5 Pages

In the Twelfth Night written by William Shakespeare, it demonstrates Viola using her head to make the decision to dress up as a boy and become a part of the Duke Orsino’s court. She states, “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid For such disguise as haply shall become The form of my Intent”

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1162 Words | 5 Pages

The significance of this aside is to establish a slightly more in-depth depiction of Viola 's grief for the loss of her brother through her statement of "I my brother know yet living in my glass." (3.4.399-401) depicting how she sees her brother when she looks in the mirror. This aside is additionally significant due to how it depicts Viola 's hope that her brother could still be alive after the shipwreck. It is further used to address that Viola is considering that Sebastian could possibly be alive with her statement of "if it prove, tempest are kind, and salt water waves fresh in love." (3.4.403-404).

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1806 Words | 8 Pages

Viola’s aspirations are not to go against the social order as she is not a real servant but the play allows her to transgress and glide through the class mobility. She epitomizes social fluidity, transgressing the boundaries of specific roles in society. However her flexibility is asserted on her higher social status with which she begins the play. This once again proves that although the boundaries can be broken, only the elite bourgeoisie can truly permeate them completely. Malvolio remains ‘mad’ for admitting his love while Viola moves upwards to gain marriage.

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1624 Words | 7 Pages

Deception and disguise are key themes in Shakespeare ’s play Twelfth Night. The conflicts and problematic circumstances the characters find themselves facing are the direct result of deceptive disguises and disguised deceptions. Shakespeare uses disguise, dishonesty, and misdirect to show that there are three sides of a person: their inside, their outside, and the way they are perceived by others. Viola, our shapeshifting protagonist, describes herself as “A blank,” (2.4.109).

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683 Words | 3 Pages

Since Viola and Sebastian were twins, when Viola dressed up as Cesario she looked very much like him. With all the commotion Viola realizes her dead brother was indeed alive. “That I am Viola; which to confirm.” (line 251).

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1112 Words | 5 Pages

William Shakespeare’s works, written primarily from the late eighteen hundreds to the very early sixteen hundreds, have long been the subject of academic debates and analysis. Potent with double entendres, metaphors, and social commentary, it is easy to apply queer theory to Shakespeare’s plays, notably Twelfth Night, written in 1601. Though Twelfth Night’s ending pushes its characters into traditional heterosexual romances and binary gender roles to satisfy the genre and placate conservative Elizabethan audiences, the characters in the comedy defy tradition by exploring homosexual love and expression of gender. The most apparent homosexual themes are present in the relationship between Antonio and Sebastian.

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1406 Words | 6 Pages

She wins a position at the court of young Duke Orsino (Liam Brennan), who is desperately in love with the Lady Olivia (Mark Rylance). The Duke sends his new page to stand before Olivia 's gate and press his case. But there are complications: Viola falls in love with Orsino, and Olivia falls in love

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713 Words | 3 Pages

For a woman to show interests in current affairs, express opinions, write literature was unladylike. Viola, fending for herself, in distant land, disguises herself as a boy named Cesario. Cross-dressing, in Elizabethan society, was seen as highly immoral. Viola 's male disguise “allows her to escape the confinement of a single perspective and a single voice by momentarily unfixing sexual stereotypes (184)”(Melchoir). Furthermore, Viola’s situation in Twelfth Night is not typical of an Elizabethan woman because she proves herself to be capable and intelligent.

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795 Words | 4 Pages

In the story it shows a love triangle between Orsino, Cesario (Viola), and Olivia. Cesario falls in love with Orsino, Viola is in love with Cesario, and Orsino is still in love with Olivia. The characters in the story all show happiness and joy throughout because it’s a story that ends in love unlike Romeo and Juliet where it ends in a tragedy. As said in Twelfth Night, “Its central plot concerns a love triangle between the Illyrian nobleman Orsino, his beloved but unattainable Olivia, and the shipwrecked Viola.” (Lee

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809 Words | 4 Pages

Before this quote, Olivia married Sebastian, thinking he was ‘Cesario’ due to their similar appearance. When it is revealed that the two twins were in Illyria, they realized that they were both alive even though they both thought the other died in a shipwreck. So, in the quote, Sebastian explained the misunderstanding and it was revealed that ‘Cesario’ was actually Viola. The realization of the twins further complicated the situation and the ‘knot’ of lovers. Viola 's disguise impacted the story in very important ways, entangling the knot of suffering lovers by causing Olivia to fall in love with her, hiding her own love for Orsino, and causing many misunderstandings with Sebastian.

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938 Words | 4 Pages

The play, Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, was believed to be written back in the early 1600s. This play was influential for its time due to the fact that theatre-goers of the time had not been exposed to content of this nature. Viola, the main character of this play, uses a disguise to obtain a job that she desperately wanted. Disguising herself as a male named Cesario, she finally obtains the jobs she wants while simultaneously falling in love with her boss, Orsino. A love triangle forms when Olivia, a nobel, falls for Cesario, Viola’s second persona.

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1851 Words | 8 Pages

In Twelfth Night, Viola and Olivia are the central characters to the play’s plot. Each are young women that take approaches to dealing with the people around them, which are mainly men. There is much trickery that goes on in Twelfth Night, but the ending is for the most part happy. Viola marries Orsino and Olivia marries Sebastian, but the events leading up to this are more or less chaotic. Ultimately, I argue that while Olivia uses her higher social status in order to maintain control of herself and others, Viola resorts to trickery in order to bring about her desires.

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1043 Words | 5 Pages

In the play Twelfth Night, through the depiction of Orsino’s and Viola’s desires for romantic love, Shakespeare portrays how adjustable and self-delusional human romantic attraction can be, especially when blinded by wants and needs. Viola, who puts on the appearance of a man, makes everybody think she is a male. Her disguise becomes a sexual confusion throughout the play for several characters, creating an odd love triangle where Viola loves Duke Orsino, who loves Oliva, which then on the other hand loves Viola, in disguise as Cesario. On the other hand, Malvolio dreams of marrying his beloved Olivia, and gaining authority over his superiors, like Sir Toby. Shakespeare uses disguise in the play to show several confusions and internal conflicts between the characters, proving how malleable and deluded some human attractions can be.

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929 Words | 4 Pages

Numerous events and conflicts from Twelfth Night are dependant on Viola’s disguise, as she is caught in between Olivia and Orsino’s affection due to her disguise. In the beginning of the play, she dresses up as a male in order to conceal her identity and to get a job at Orsino’s court. In doing so, she is able to gain more of his trust than she would have if she was a female. By disguising herself as a man Viola is able attract his attention and appreciation to ultimately prove her worth to him as a woman. Moreover, Viola's disguise also allows Orsino to respect her intelligence which causes her to win his love.

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