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Twelfth Night And Gender Roles In The Elizabethan Era

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Throughout William Shakespeare’s time during the Elizabethan Era in the late 1500s, societal standards and gender roles were not like how they are in most of the world today. Women in the Elizabethan Era were raised to believe that they were inferior to men. The Church enforced this, quoting from the bible to ensure that this principle was widely followed. Women were to obey not only their parents but any other male relatives of their family. Disobedience was seen as a crime against their religion. Marriages were arranged for them in order to increase the wealth and social ranking of the family and continue the family bloodline. Women were seen as a typical housewife without the ability to express themselves freely. Women were not allowed to …show more content…

Viola is the primary character used to display Shakespear’s defiance of the Elizabethan gender roles and societal norms. After hearing about her brother Sebastian’s assumed death and her father’s death at her arrival in Illyria, she is left all alone. The captain explains how Lady Olivia is going through something similar to her. He claims that Olivia is going through mourning claiming that she will never leave her room for seven years and creates a huge deal out of it. However, she soon overcomes this and decides that she wants to preserve her brother’s identity by adopting his masculine persona, and becomes Cesario. With her new persona, she decides to work under Duke Orsino, the ruler of Illyria, as a servant of Lady …show more content…

However, Olivia constantly rejects him, yet Orsino still sends messengers to deliver his love confession for her. Here, Olivia seems to have forgotten about her mourning for her dead brother. Olivia recognizes this when she states “I do I know what and fear to find”. This means that she knows that what she is doing is unusual and admits that she is falling for Cesario. She talks about fate and talks about how she is willing to accept whatever for coming events occur. She says that fate brought Cesario to her and will let fate decide what happens later in the plot. The irony in this affection for “Cesario” is that Olivia does not realize that he is actually Viola. To some, this can mean that she is technically gay, which heavily went against religion and societal conformity in the Elizabethan

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By doing so Olivia believes Viola to be the young man named Cesario, and falls in love with him. This then causes even more confusion as Viola, a.ka. Cesario, finds herself in love with Orsino, yet Orsino is in love with Olivia who believes to be in love with a man named Cesario.

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The question of why Olivia, after dramatically declaring her affections for Cesario, would so quickly jump to Sebastian after finding Viola’s true identity, is likely answered by the societal norms of the Elizabethan era. Cesario and Viola are two halves of one whole; by loving Cesario, Olivia loves Viola too. Upon meeting “him,” Olivia says “Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit/ Do give thee five-fold blazon” (1.5.297-298). She is attracted not just to Cesario’s mannerisms, but to Viola’s beauty, which shines through her male bravado. The “actions and spirit” which Olivia refers to are Viola’s ability to converse with Olivia woman-to-woman, unbeknownst to the countess.

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It is even possible that her vow to retreat from society fueled her lack of interest in the duke who pursues her called Orsino. Olivia and Viola both have lost a brother, although Viola fortunately eventually finds her brother. Still, due to the fact both characters believe their brothers to be dead for the majority of the play, their attitudes are affected by this. Olivia in particular attempts to keep a good opinion of

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