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Shakespeare in elizabethan era gender roles
Shakespeare and disguise
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Shakespeare has incorporated several important themes in “As You Like It”, some of which are gender disguise and homoerotism. The play revolves around some acts of deception, for example Rosalind and Celia disguising themselves as Ganymede and Aliena. Rosalind’s disguise remains more debatable because she dresses herself as a country man, Ganymede, while Celia maintains her sexual identity. By inventing new appearances, however, Rosalind and Celia sort of inspire their lovers. Orlando reveals to Ganymede about his extreme love for Rosalind which he couldn’t have if he knew that he was talking to Rosalind and not Ganymede. Moreover, Celia and Rosalind are extremely close friends and their intimacy seems to be more intense than that …show more content…
The play ridicules the traditional ideology of mature love. Instead, it follows several different forms of love including requiting love, lust driven love and romantic love. Orlando says in his poems that he should “live and die (Rosalind’s) slave”. The characters fall in love at first sight, which is exaggerated representation of love. As the play progresses, however, the several ridiculed forms of love conclude into more reasonable and mature form. Rosalind proves of herself being a fair judge of love at the end of the play as she concludes who shall marry …show more content…
Music represents the basic themes of the play; love, freedom, joy and romanticism. In the production, there were quite a lot of scenes where the old traditional music was replaced with some modern music of different genres. According to the director, many of the songs used in the play were written by students and one was a song in Spanish. Modern musical instruments like a guitar and electric guitar were also used. Some songs represented the love and romance between Rosalind and Orlando. The song in Spanish represented the new feelings of love and joy felt by the new lovers. I personally liked the acting of Lindsey Tindall, Rosalind, because she immersed herself completely in her role. Her pronunciation for every word was really careful. She changed her clothes in front of the audience which shows the respect she had for her performance; all she cared was to follow the character and forget the limitations of her own self. I could notice wrinkles forming around her lips and on forehead which proves that her gestures were parallel to her acting. Lindsey, therefore, did a great
In Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, gender identity and alternative sexualities are highlighted through the depiction of different characters and personalities. In the play, Viola disguises herself as a man thereby raising a merry-go-around of relationships that are actually based on a lie rather than actual fact. Viola attracts the attention of Olivia since she thinks that Viola is a man but even more fascinating is the fact that Orsino is attracted to Viola although he thinks that she is a man. In another twist Viola is attracted to Orsino and has fell in love with him although their love cannot exist since Orsino thinks that Viola is a man.
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.
Love is often perceived as something perfect and flawless in today’s society. However, Romeo and Juliet, a play written by William Shakespeare, portrays love as a form of passionate and violent force that comes with both rewards and consequences.The tragedy focuses on two young lovers called Romeo and Juliet, whose families are intertwined in an ancient feud that disrupts the peace in Verona, Italy. For love, the two teenagers are driven to overcome obstacles they will never imagine doing, and as a result, they along other family members are forced to pay the price of their lives. Through the play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare exhibits the reality of young love through the portrayal of the Queen Mab Speech, the impulsive actions taken by both lovers, and the results caused by the powerful nature of their love.
Deceiving and irrational, love can be a challenging emotion to endure. It can be difficult to find happiness in love, and on the journey to find that happiness, love can influence one’s thought process. Shakespeare uses specific wording in his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to poke fun while exploring the individual’s quest for love. The desire to find love and a happy ending with a lover is so strong in the foundation of mankind, that people will not accept a life without it. In fact, they would rather give up their attribute of rationality than their opportunity to find a significant other. The heart’s control of the mind can make a foolish man.
In Shakespeare's comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It, the playwright deals with love, relationships, and how couples come to terms with their problems and resolve the conflicts within themselves and with those around them. Both of the plays point out that when individuals look within themselves and face the issues that are keeping them apart from the one they love, they can begin to heal the relationship. Helena and Demetrius from A Midsummer Night's Dream go to the forest to run away from their problems while Rosalind and Orlando from As You Like It are forced to flee to the forest because they are no longer welcomed in their homes. Both couples find the forest to be a place of refuge and are able to resolve their conflicts and come together in the end of their respective plays to be married.
Since the early 1990’s, “Queer Theory”, or queer study, has emerged and become very common in influential readings throughout literature. Many scholars apply this poststructuralist theory when criticizing works within the Renaissance period, including the works of William Shakespeare. Twelfth Night continues to be a commonly reviewed work when discussing the recurring homoerotic themes throughout Shakespeare’s works. Though Twelfth Night is often used for the discussion of homosexual interaction in Shakespeare, the conclusions drawn from these possible same-sex attractions are still divided and unclear. Regardless of this division, there is a large amount of substance that supports the unquestionably present homosexual relations in the play.
Many characters undergo a change in William Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It”. Duke Senior goes from being a member of a court to being a member of a forest and Orlando changes from a bitter, younger brother, to a love-struck young man. The most obvious transformation undergone, is undoubtedly that of Rosalind. Her change from a woman to a man, not only alters her mood, candor, and gender, but also allows her to be the master of ceremonies.
With every great story line comes a theme. William Shakespeare created an art of intertwining often unrecognizable themes within his plays. In Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice, one hidden theme is the idea of homosexuality. This theme might not have even been noticed until modern Shakespeare fans discovered them. According to Alan Bray’s book, Homosexuality in Renaissance England, “the modern image of ‘the homosexual’ cannot be applied to the early modern period, when homosexual behavior was viewed in terms of the sexual act and not an individual's broader identity.” (Columbia University Press). This difference between homosexuality as a “sexual act” and an “identity” proves why, during Renaissance England, this theme in Shakespeare’s play was almost invisible. The actual merchant of Venice, Antonio, displays this homosexual identity that might only be recognizable to the modern day reader. Through a close reading of a speech given by Antonio, one can begin to understand the significance of Shakespeare’s word choice and how it plays into this idea of homosexuality.
The theme of love is highlighted effectively in Romeo and Juliet. At the play's beginning, Romeo describes his infatuation for Rosaline. His feelings are not returned and this means that he feels desolate: he shuts himself away from his friends and family. Shakespeare allows his audience to see that unrequited love can be painful. However when Romeo meets Juliet, all thoughts of Rosaline disappear. Romeo and Juliet's attraction for each other is immediate. The love they feel is passionate and based on a genuine understanding of each other's feelings. Romeo declares, "Did my heart love till no?" (Act 1, Scene 5) and Juliet realizes their love is special. Shakespeare encourages his audience to consider the qualities people need to fall in love and to remain in love.
Love is the central theme in the play ‘As You Like It’ by William Shakespeare, the author expressed many types of love in the play. Some of them are, brotherly love, lust for love, loyal, friendship love, unrequited love, but of course, romantic love is the focus of this play.
In Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night the great bard uses humor and mistaken identity not only to poke fun at romantic stories of “perfect love” and the foolish behavior of the aristocrats, but also to reveal man’s anxieties surrounding courtship, gender performance, and love as a whole. The portion of the play I have chosen to analyze are lines 188-256 in Act 5 scene one when Sebastian enters the stage and discovers Viola alive. The siblings give information about themselves to determine each other’s identity before Viola finally reveals herself to be female, allowing the farce to come to an end and the characters to return to their normal roles. Viola then declares her love for Orsino and he accepts her affections. While this scene is certainly
While it is a comedy of the turmoil of love and the experimentation with gender roles and identity, William Shakespeare's As you Like It is a historical preservation of Renaissance music. The play is fraught with spontaneous song and poetry, yet Shakespeare strategically manipulates these musical elements. Specifically, the lyrics and poetry of the play function to establish a soundtrack and a direct appeal to their Elizabethan audience, while providing Shakespeare with a valuable shorthand for character development.
Gender issues and social commentary are especially relevant in published criticism of Shakespeare's As You Like It since the beginning of the 1990's, as evidenced by the number of articles published in scholarly journals during the past twelve years. Janet Gupton's review in Theatre Journal, published in 2001as well as Louise Schleiner's article in the Shakespeare Quarterly in the fall of 1999, both deal with the treatment of gender-subjectivity.
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
In Shakespeare's As You Like It loyalty is dominant theme. Each character possesses either a loyalty or disloyalty towards another. These disloyalties and loyalties are most apparent in the relationships of Celia and Rosalind, Celia and Duke Fredrick, Orlando and Rosalind, Adam and Orlando, and Oliver and Orlando. In these relationships, a conflict of loyalties causes characters to change homes, jobs, identities and families.