Gender Discrimination in Twelfth Night: A Modern Perspective

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William Shakespeare’s early play, Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a classic romantic comedy placed in a Christian-Pagan environment. By comparing and contrasting Twelfth Night with the movie She’s the Man, I am arguing that discrimination of the female gender in Twelfth Night is still relevant today.
Shakespeare plays are known as being universal; his plots and characters are just as alive as they were in the late sixteenth centuries. By 1601, Shakespeare had already written A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, and As You Like It. Though Twelfth Night was written 400 years earlier, the female gender role is still characterized or portrayed as the weakest one. The main character Viola from Twelfth Night disguises herself, through voice, costume, and manners into a young man after surviving a shipwreck that separates her from her twin brother (Greenblatt 1077). Why does Viola disguise herself as a man? She states the reason why she disguises herself as man is in order to buy some time and figure things out, but she could have stayed …show more content…

A male having multiple sex partners is considered “masculine,” On the other hand, a female would be labeled as promiscuous women, committing the same action (Chipe “Women’s’ discrimination”). For example, in She’s the Man, Duke is portrayed as the hottest guy in the school. He is well-known for being skilled with soccer and women, which is considered good. However, Olivia is portrayed like the “typical” blond girl who likes to party and only dates athletic guys. She is portrayed as a materialistic and promiscuous than her play counterpart. For example, when Olivia says, “girls with butt like mine do not talk to guys with faces like yours.” Women, like men, have the same desires; however, women are still portrayed as materialistic, gold diggers, and promiscuous when committing the same actions

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