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Homosexuality in shakespeare merchant of venice
Gender and sexuality in twelfth night
Gender and sexuality in twelfth night
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Chad Allen Thomas, lecturer at the University of Michigan, in his article “On Queering Twelfth Night” (2010), proposes the inclusion of Shakespeare within queer theatre. Thomas focuses on Cheek by Jowl's Twelfth Night, directed by Declan Donnellan (2006), and Twelfth Night by Shakespeare’s Globe, directed by Tim Carroll (2003). He provides these productions to examine cross-gender casting and the aesthetic of queer theory.
Thomas begins by discussing Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and the queer implications within the show. Twelfth Night features a cross dressing character, Viola (Cesario), who is involved in a confusing relationship due to the implication that she is a boy. Thomas takes this one step further through acknowledging that in the
The play Twelfth Night, or What You Will by William Shakespeare is a 1601 comedy that has proven to be the source of experimentation in gender casting in the early twenty-first century due to its portrayal of gender in love and identity. The play centrally revolves around the love triangle between Orsino, Olivia, and Viola. However, Olivia and Orsino both believe Viola is a boy named Cesario. Ironically, only male actors were on the stage in Shakespeare’s time. This means that Olivia, Viola, and other female characters were played by young boys who still had voices at higher pitches than older males.
Another staple of out modern society is our loosening restrictions of sexuality. Whedon’s film takes on a level of sexuality in certain scenes only acceptable in contemporary times. While Shakespeare’s sexual double entendres seem meant more for comedy’s sake, in the film they are entwined in the acting itself, so much so that it causes certain relationships to take on new meaning.
Garner, Shirley Nelson, and Madelon Sprengnether, eds. Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender. Bloomington, Indianapolis: Indian U, 1996.
Barton, Anne. Introduction to Twelfth Night. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974. 403-407.
After Olivia has her very first conversation with Cesario (Viola), where he tries to woo her for Duke Orsino, she immediately falls in love with him. After Cesario leaves her palace, Olivia says to herself ‘Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit do give thee fivefold blazon. Not too fast; soft, soft. Unless the master were the man. How now? Even so quickly may one catch the plague?’ Here Olivia states that Cesario’s external features are what attract her to him. Her metaphor contains a s...
The protagonist of Twelfth Night is Viola, the central character in the play, a likeable, resourceful and attractive young woman. At the beginning of the story, Viola is shipwrecked with her brother Sabatian. Fearing that Sebastian is dead, she decides to dress like a man in order to get a job with Duke Orsino. Viola, in love with Orsino, is asked by Orsino to court a woman for him. She finds herself in an unusual love triangle.
Lindheim, Nancy. "Rethinking Sexuality And Class In "Twelfth Night.." University Of Toronto Quarterly 76.2 (2007): 679-713.Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a play with themes that parallel the folly of the festival it is named after. The main storyline of the plot plays on this a lot by mixing up the stereotypes around gender that were very present at the time. However, a sub-plot involving secondary characters defines this theme even more. It takes the idea even further by relating servants’ attempts to blur the lines between social classes. Twelfth Night’s Maria and Malvolio both have great aspirations to rise above their social class. However, Maria succeeds where Malvolio fails because of her capability to make use of the satiric ambiance of her mistress’s household to achieve her goals.
Twelfth Night, written by Shakespeare, centers around the convoluted and shifting nature of love. The play makes a point that the ways in which love and affection are seen and shown differ amongst the different classes. Orsino and Olivia, representing the upper class, demonstrate their love in grand, impersonal gestures, whereas the upper-middle class, characterized by Viola, does so in a selfless, more personable manner. Genuine love, according to Shakespeare, is not restrained by gender. Disguise and mistaken identity are major components of Twelfth Night, which makes gender ambiguity a major theme, with Viola disguising herself as a man. This ambiguity is further amplified with the fluidity of both Orsino’s and Olivia’s sexual identity,
Gerlach, Jeanne, Rudolph Almasy, and Rebecca Daniel. “Revisiting Shakespeare and Gender.” Revisiting Shakespeare and Gender. The Women in Literature and Life Assembly of The National Council of Teachers of English, 1996. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
Homoeroticism focuses on the proceeding of the prohibitions of women on the English stage, as young pubescent boys played female characters. (Bullion, L. 2010:7) According to Smith (1994:48); “Historical records, however, the laws were hardly rigorously enforced and cases in which a man was executed for violating the law.” Orgel states; “That Early Modern England exhibited a much greater unease towards female sexuality than towards male sexuality” (Orgel.1996:35-6). He continues by saying; “Theatre therefore, was not especially concerned by the underlying male to male homoeroticism in heterosexual relations between characters on stage (Bullion, L. 2010:7). Thus, English stages only passed a measure of homoerotic charged exchange. (Bullion, L.2010:8-9). Agreeing with these statements, for this proposal I want to understand why it was so acceptable to “act” out these homoerotic desires, but was not acceptable outside the theatres of the Elizabethan society. Can one argue that Shakespeare blatantly used homoeroticism to mock societal standards, by using gender bending as comedic device? But the question remains, did Shakespeare challenge the Elizabethan’s status quo, strictly attacking the patriarchy or was it seen as a palatable association to Elizabethan audiences – the fantasy of men playing
Gender identity and roles are a common theme found in William Shakespeare’s seventeenth century writing, Twelfth Night. The city of Illyria’s upper class society is greatly impacted by both the noble Olivia as well as the lower class Viola’s resistance of customary gender expectations. Both women thus serve as vital components in the disarray of the already chaotic city.
In theatre, a “breeches” role is one where an actress cross-dresses, appearing on stage in male clothing. Heroines in breeches roles are predominantly limited to playing youths, retaining their femininity within this in-between state (Mann, 228). Malvolio describes Cesario as “Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy” (I.v.149-50). Twelfth Night, through these breeches and androgynous characters, explores how gender is fashioned. In exploring this androgyny, Shakespeare looks back to Ovid’s myths of metamorphosis and of Hermaphroditus, incorporating a set of attitudes regarding love and union between men and women (Slights, 327). Viola’s gender performance is used to demonstrate that sexual and romantic attraction “is not an inherently gendered or heterosexual phenomenon” (Charles, 124).
Howard, J. 1988, Crossdressing, the theatre, and gender struggle in early modern England, 1st edn, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. viewed 25th May 2014
Throughout Twelfth Night, disguise and mistaken identity works as a catalyst for confusion and disorder which consistently contributes towards the dramatic comic genre of the play. Many characters in Twelfth Night assume disguises, beginning with Viola, who disguises herself as a man in order to serve Orsino, the Duke. By dressing his protagonist in male garments, Shakespeare creates ongoing sexual confusion with characters, which include Olivia, Viola and Orsino, who create a ‘love triangle’ between them. Implicitly, there is homoerotic subtext here: Olivia is in love with a woman, despite believing her to be a man, and Orsino often comments on Cesario’s beauty, which implies that he is attracted to Viola even before her male disguise is removed. However, even subsequent to the revealing of Viola’s true identity, Orsino’s declares his love to Viola implying that he enjoys lengthening the pretence of Vio...