Gender Roles In Twelfth Night

In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, his sonnets, and the sonnets of other sixteenth century poets all show a concern for beauty, concealment, and inner reality versus outward appearance. These themes occur throughout these works. Not only do they concern these themes, but they are also significant to the time period in which women were slowly gaining power after Mary I became Queen. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night showed readers that Viola, a woman, had to conceal her inner reality from the world so she could have more power and survive. Viola represented inner reality and concealment in the play, whereas the other female character of the play, Olivia, represented outward appearance and beauty. Shakespeare’s early sonnets, numbers one through eighteen,

However, in order to use her abilities she had to conceal her inner reality from the male dominant world so she could make a living and survive on her own. “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise” (Lines 51-52). Viola asked the Captain to help her hide her true identity so she could work for Orsino. Not only was she smart enough to devise this plan, but she was also clever enough to tell the Captain to introduce her to Orsino as a eunuch so that her story would be more believable to the people of Illyria. Her true self identity was concealed from the world so that she could please everyone and gain power. Had Viola not used a disguise in Illyria, she would have been like any other woman during the sixteenth century who remained unmarried. She would have been living on the streets, poor, and working much harder than men to survive. Shakespeare wrote Viola into the play to represent how genders are stereotyped even though women are capable of doing anything a man could do. Viola’s character reflects against Lady Oliva’s character who follows gender roles without questioning

“From fairest creatures we desire increase,” is the opening line from Shakespeare’s first sonnet. Just looking at this first line, readers already tell that he has a concern for beauty and outward appearance. He continues writing compliments about his friend and by the end of the first sonnet he says, “Pity the world” (Line 13). This is referring to how he thinks that his friend should pity the world for not leaving behind any of his beauty by having children. Throughout these sonnets, he speaks plainly of beauty. By sonnet eighteen, he had given out many compliments to his friend. Sonnet eighteen is one of Shakespeare’s most popular pieces. He wrote, “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee” (Lines 13-14, Sonnet 18). This pure and true love of his friend adds to the theme that beauty is a wonderful and important thing. It also at this point that the sonnets develop an additional significance that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night did not include. It is that you live on through the people you love. Meaning that you can live forever through love. The themes of beauty Shakespeare wrote about in his works are also seen in the works of other poets from the sixteenth