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How Does Olivia Use Power In Twelfth Night

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Power in the eyes of beauty
Beauty was in a way equal to power in Elizabethan society. Throughout the Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, misconceptions about gender and power are highlighted by female characters. Viola and Olivia all play important and symbolic roles as women in the play. Typical gender stereotypes are dispersed by a hierarchy that emerges throughout, mainly pertaining to women and power. Beauty also ties into what the real definition of power and influence is as it relates to the time period the play took place in. Female characters defy social normalities, creating an unconventional power driven Elizabethan society.
In the multiple roles that women play in the book, Olivia defies social standards about how women act and their positions in society in relation to power and beauty. Because of Olivia’s beauty, she has many suitors, some of whom are wealthy and …show more content…

As the plot emerges at the beginning of the play, Olivia is portrayed to be the most beautiful and wealthy of all. She uses these aspects of herself to stay in control and choose a husband who is not more powerful than herself. She tries to be influential as a woman in charge. In contradiction to a woman gaining power, Viola, shipwrecked in a new land, assumes that men are the most powerful in society, so she pretends to be one. By doing so, she leads the audience to the conclusion that herself, as a woman still does not think women can be as powerful as men. She conceals her true self to be someone else, opposing Olivia who is content with her natural inner and outer beauty. Viola tries to hide who she really is, afraid it would only lessen her chance of the rise to power. In Elizabethan society, women did not believe they had a chance to become as powerful as men, and therefore did not try to gain influence leaving the men and charge and a repeated cycle of male power

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