More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender and sexuality in Twelfth Night
Gender and sexuality in Twelfth Night
Gender and sexuality in Twelfth Night
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Possibly to represent how weak and almost insignificant woman were at the time, and how they would look for ways to gain power or to avoid problems that they caused, while seeming harmless. We see this in the first few pages of the play, where she says
Throughout Act 2, Scenes 1 and 2 of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, the dynamic female character, Juliet, defies patriarchy. While Juliet was talking to Romeo, she asked him, “Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say “Ay” And I will take thy word. Yet, if thou swear’st, Thou mayst prove false” (Act 2 Scene 2 Lines 90-93).
He is talking about the beauty of the queen. I believe all those were just not gossiping that Orivala is facing a paucity of beautiful girls. Queen: I will not forgive him at any cost.
This time frame can also relate to some major changes that are happening with Viola by her realizing that she does not want her son to move on in life and that she wants to be Kevin’s number one
She gives a play in Benedicks words he says “By this hand, I love thee” playing on that she responds, “Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it” Telling him to prove his love by using his hands, suggesting him to attack
The play undoubtedly showed that she was helpless in defending herself and is instead, safeguarded through the exposure of her situation. Susan Glaspell’s Trifles tells the audience that women should not be regarded as lesser individuals – less intelligent or less able. Further, that if women are being silenced and deprived, it will lead to revolution, revolt and revenge.
She is both strong-willed and courageous. Laurencia is the love of Frondoso and daughter of Esteban who is the mayor of the village. Her character throughout the play as a woman and her bravery are put through certain tests. She is tortured and abused and yet remains strong which makes her presence the anchoring force that moves the plot forward. She is also the one that knocks sense into the villagers and brings them together to take down the cruel commander.
“‘He woulda killed us,’ I say again. ‘He was terrified!’ Viola cries, her voice breaking. ‘Even I could see how scared he was.’ ‘He went for his spear,’ I say, lifting my head.”
The movie She’s the Man, Viola dresses up as her brother Sebastian in order to prove that she is good enough to play on the boys soccer team. In the play, The Twelfth Night Viola dresses up as a boy in order to get a job for Duke Orsino. In the movie She’s the Man Viola’s soccer team gets cut due to not enough girls wanting to play. Leading her to wanting to join the boys soccer team. The coach for the team says that girls aren’t capable of playing on the boys team.
This is just one of the many times that this kind of sexism shows up in the play. Violence shows up in the play Romeo and Juliet many times. The two sides tend to throw insults and threats until it escalates into a physical fight. For example in Act 3, Scene 1, Mercutio said, "Good King of Cats,
Viola, Cesario, Olivia, and Duke Orsino together form a comedy with consistently homoerotic undertones that explores the fluidity of gender. Though queer theory is rarely explicit in works such as Shakespeare, it is critical to analyze older texts to gain a clearer picture of queer identity before modern
Tamora’s resolve get the most violent revenge possible – ‘I’ll find a day to massacre them all, | And raze their faction and their family (1.1.455-6) – continues into her implementing the same inhuman brutality that has been displayed by the Romans. The atrociousness that took place against Lavinia is a gruesome, yet critical, component of the play. The episode brings sexual violence into the story, and ushers in a conspicuous stretch of verbal violence – that is inherent in the speech. The sexually vicious conversation between Chiron and Demetrius is both sexist and masochistic: ‘Stay, madam, here is more belongs to her [Lavinia]: | First thrash the corn, then after burn the straw. | This minion stood upon her chastity’
Christie Yeo Qing Wen Professor Kevin Riordan HL1002: Survey of English Literature I 6 November 2015 The Deception of Gender In The Merchant of Venice, deceptive façades are reinforced by Portia’s seeming subjugation to male rule, but in truth, her status as an empowered female who maintains her autonomy and ultimately outwits and subverts the authority of the patriarchal Elizabethan society.
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.
Shakespeare uses Viola (Cesario) as an example of a mechanism that can throw internal conflicts into temporary chaos. Viola willingly faces whatever comes in her way. Her love for Duke Orsino seems too constant and true, unlike the other characters in the play. The temporary chaos of the play is when Viola falls in love with Orsino, who falls in love with Olivia, who on the other hand falls in love with Viola’s disguise, Cesario. This love triangle is very complicated as none of them realize that Cesario is a woman, making this an internal conflict for Viola, as she cannot ‘truly’ love whom she wants.
