In William Shakespeare’s, ‘As You Like It,’ the tension between appearance versus reality is the result of the deceptive nature of the circumstances the characters of the play find themselves in. When Rosalind dresses as a male figure, she disguises her true identity and challenges the conventions of the preconceived ideas of gender roles. Thus, in several aspects, the subversion of the role she adopted through disguise eventually becomes more honest than deceitful. Rosalind was able to fully contain her new character engaging in the deceit in the short and long term of the play. The idiosyncratic nature of the play essentially advocates social struggles of gender roles and the truth behind manifestation. Shakespeare’s play investigates, the prejudiced assumptions humans have on one another suggesting that the roles that they play are a mere part of the theatricality of everyday life leading to the exploration of the truth behind love, and disguise versus deception.
The theatricality of everyday life is explored throughout the play. The world, as it may seem, is indeed one giant theater. Each individual goes through stages of their lives, conforming to a certain part of society in distinctive ways. Everyone is a victim of his or her own disguise, suggesting that subversion to a certain appearance can eventually become the reality. This is shown through one of the most dominant characters in the play, Rosalind. When she becomes banished from the court in which she resided, she leaves not with dismay but with strong idiosyncratic opinion of the male dominated court.
‘Now we go in content… To liberty and not to banishment.’ (Act I, Scene III)
When leaving the court, Rosalind dresses as a male figure primarily to escape the haunting...
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... of the importance of the distinction between appearance and reality, Shakespeare concluded the play on a note of Rosalind seeking sanction from the audience, which espouses the melodramatic world that was created in the play. Rosalind was a very powerful character. She was able to experience emotions not confined by the preconceived role her gender assigned her.
The tension that Shakespeare created between appearance versus reality was a reflection of the prejudiced assumptions individuals have on one another. The foundations Shakespeare built of characters and settings deciphered, that circumstances are not always a they seem. In fact everyone is being deceived, emphasising how quickly one can form a judgment based on appearance. Coming to the conclusion that in fact,
‘All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players…’(Act II, Scene VII, pg. 43)
equal (Act II, Scene 6, Line 4) which is a very intelligent thing to say.
In William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, the use of mistaken identity and role reversal communicates that gender roles and social class are constructed illusions that trick people into having unrealistic expectations about how they are supposed behave.Viola crossdressing as Cesario in the play challenges traditional views of how a woman of her status should act.The differences between the accepted clothing for an individual emphasizes gender roles and social hierarchy in society. During the Renaissance, “ the idea of two genders, one subordinate to the other, provided a key element in its hierarchical view of the social order and to buttress its gendered division of labor” (Howard 423).
The most obvious concern of As You Like It is love, and particularly the attitudes and the language appropriate to young romantic love. This is obvious from the relationships between Orlando and Rosalind, Silvius and Phoebe, Touchstone and Audrey, and Celia and Oliver. The action of the play moves back and forth among these couples, inviting us to compare the different styles and to recognize from those comparisons some important facts about young love. Here the role of Rosalind is decisive. Rosalind is Shakespeare's greatest and most vibrant comic female role. She is clearly the only character in the play who has throughout an intelligent, erotic, and fully anchored sense of love, and it becomes her task in the play to try to educate others out of their false notions of love, especially those notions which suggest that the real business of love is adopting an inflated Petrarchan language and the appropriate attitude that goes with it.
Though its primary function is usually plot driven--as a source of humor and a means to effect changes in characters through disguise and deception—cross dressing is also a sociological motif involving gendered play. My earlier essay on the use of the motif in Shakespeare's plays pointed out that cross dressing has been discussed as a symptom of "a radical discontinuity in the meaning of the family" (Belsey 178), as cul-tural anxiety over the destabilization of the social hierarchy (Baker, Howard, Garber), as the means for a woman to be assertive without arousing hostility (Claiborne Park), and as homoerotic arousal (Jardine). This variety of interpretations suggests the multivoiced character of the motif, but before approaching the subject of this essay, three clarifica- tions are necessary at the outset.
this is said at the beginning of act 3 scene and is saying that if
In conclusion, Shakespeare has used the concept of honour and fidelity throughout the play. He shows many different aspects of honour and fidelity through his characters, the contrasting differences between men and women. He shows us what how important these traits are to Elizabethan society and if honour was ever lost in the upper classes the consequences were never too pleasant. Shakespeare even shows us the true loyalty between Benedick and Beatrice which gives and insight to his feminist views which were quite modern for the time.
On the surface, Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night may seem like to the run of the mill Shakespearean comedy. It has loads of the ingredients you would typically see in a Shakespeare play; love being the be all end all, revenge, and yes, cross-dressing. Aside from dramatics, this comedy embodies the fundaments of the battle of the sexes; the age-old conflict is reminiscent to how gender roles are to this day. Man vs. Woman, or the main ingredient as it is, sets the ball rolling for the tone and the social construct of the comedy. Viola, disguised as Cesario, says, “Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness wherein the pregnant enemy does much. How easy it is for the proper-false in women 's waxen hearts to set their forms!” (Twelfth Night, II.ii 27-30.) This quote alone expresses not only the ambiguity of gender through identity, but also the way men portray female’s inferiority and deceitfulness. Despite the male protagonists ' view on women 's incapability to love, Viola 's
William Shakespeare’s comedy, As You Like It, like many of Shakespeare’s other plays, subverts cultural expectations of Elizabethan society from the beginning of the play. This can be seen with Orlando being the more romantic one during his courtship with Rosalind. But the biggest subversion of cultural norms comes not from Orlando, but from Rosalind, when she decides to dress as a man and flee into the Forest of Arden, after being banished by her uncle. Rosalind’s character is revolutionary, and Rosalind takes entirely unprecedented measures to take charge of her own life, insisting that women will always find a way to make themselves heard. “Make the doors upon a woman’s wit, and it will out at the casement. Shut that, and ‘twill out at
Act 1 Scene 2 Page 279 Line 40: "So foul and fair a day I have not seen"
Firstly we will commence by discovering how women are presented in Shakespeare’s play .Through-out the play women are presented as immature , impuissant characters : Lady Capulet & Juliet ,all women are regarded as possessions of men ,for them to do as they please . They are ornaments, they cannot speak their minds nor can they make their own decisions. Women are in the men’s shadows.
Shakespeare was a very fine play writer, who examined human nature and exposed it through literature. One of his famous plays, Romeo and Juliet, depict many different themes such as, fate vs. freewill, duty vs. self, feuds, appearance vs. reality, parents choose who we marry, love at first sight and confidante. Appearance vs. reality is one of the themes that are portrayed through out the play. It means, things aren’t always what they seem to be. Something or someone might appear to be another thing, but the reality is different. Romeo and Juliet show appearance vs. reality through out the play because of their secret marriage. Examples of appearance vs. reality are when Juliet finds out about Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment. Juliet’s parents think that Juliet is crying about Tybalt’s death, but she is crying about Romeo’s banishment, when the couple (Romeo and Juliet) get married, but everybody thinks they are still single and when the nurse finds Juliet dead and the Capulet’s have an unnecessary funeral for Juliet even though she is not dead and had only swallowed Friar Lawrence’s potion, which put her into a long sleep.
There is no doubt, either in the critical or play-going mind, that Rosalind is the "grandest of female roles" (Hazlitt). She encompasses a multitude of character brushstrokes, from the love struck maiden to the witty arch tongue to the steel-backboned princess to the fiery Wise One (Hazlitt). To add to the demands of the character Shakespeare adds in an exterior sex change and further makes Ganymede pretend to be Rosalind to Orlando. Though this kind of "boy acting a girl acting a boy acting a girl" kind of transmogrifications were not uncommon upon the Elizabethan stage, the kind of mind and acting portrayed ...
Rosalind outshines everyone else in the play with her intelligence, wit and depth of feeling. Her humanity and sense of fun make her the ideal romantic heroine. She seems to be centuries ahead of her time. She is a woman who is absolutely the master of her own destiny and she remains in control most of the time. Shakespeare has created an almost ideal heroine who brings the play to its conclusion.
...disguise to add comic effect by encouraging humour of an audience via the ‘theories of laughter’. Comic effect is accurately demonstrated by Shakespeare’s incorporation of confusion, disorder and farce. However, it can be concluded that Shakespeare’s use of mistaken identity and disguise was for the purpose of more than just for comic effect, but to highlight the audience more serious topics and challenge social norms and values of the period. Ironically, it can be inferred that Shakespeare has masked his underlying purpose of mistaken identity and disguise with comedy.
Shakespearian comedies have some common characteristics which are found in The Tempest. The first characteristic of Shakespearian comedy is that there is a struggle of young lovers. They have to go through many adversaries to achieve their love. Miranda is a passive character and Ferdinand is also not the hero of the play. But they are the important couple of the play. Miranda is shown as a meek lady who is very faithful to her love when she says, “I am your wife, if you will marry me; / If not, I’ll die your maid” (III.i.83–84). Along with the struggle of the lovers, the protagonist also is shown going through several adversaries. The exile theme is one of the major themes in Shakespearian comedies. For example in Just like Prospero, in “As You Like It”, Duke Senior was exiled by Fredrick. Rosalind’s adverse journey starts from here. Rosalind is portrayed as a strong lady; hence she becomes the real hero of the play. But in The Tempest, Miranda’s character is portrayed as a weak person. Unlike Rosalind from As You Like It, Miranda is not the influential lady in the play.