William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as a Feminist Play

1777 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Shakespeare during elizabethan era gender roles

William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as a Feminist Play

I agree to a certain extent that twelfth night is a feminist play.

What exactly is feminism? It simply means subversion of traditional

ideas of gender. This means that men are supposed to be active,

rational, wise, perceptive, loyal and trustworthy. On the other hand,

Women are supposed to be passive, emotional, shallow, vain, deceptive

and fickle.

I agree to a certain extent that “Twelfth Night” is a feminist play

[meaning that I agree to it] as the female characters are essentially

good and most males in the play have flaws. For example, Sir Andrew is

weak, Sir Toby is a drunkard, Orsino is full of self love and Malvolio

is extremely egoistic. In addition, apart from Feste, all the males in

this play are not really witty unlike the females in this play who are

extremely witty.

In this play the women are strong and they enjoy challenges. Olivia is

a good example of this characteristic. She totally enjoys challenges

and does not like a boring life. An evidence to prove my point is when

she was having a conversation with Feste in Act One Scene 5, when

Feste said, “Good Madonna, give me leave to prove you a fool.” And

Olivia replies to him by asking him “Can you do it?” When Feste said

the above he was being brave and persistent. His ultimate motive was

to challenge Olivia and to prove her a fool, Olivia likes challenges

and therefore she agreed to let him speak by telling him “Well, sir,

for want of other idleness, I’ll bide your proof”. She is telling him

that she has got nothing to do and therefore she does not mind

listening to what he has got to say, but the truth is ...

... middle of paper ...

... Toby tells Sir

Andrew to accost Maria. Sir Toby meant Accost as in to assail Maria,

to make love with Maria, to get on top of Maria, but Sir Andrew took

it the wrong way thinking that it was Maria’s last name.

In conclusion, I only disagree because Feste brings out the main theme

of the play. Women are deceptive meaning Viola is in disguise and

Olivia indulges in pretenetence. In this play, men also make the

choice and women do not really have a say they do not really have a

voice and have no place to voice their feelings.

But in an overall conclusion, If I am really asked to make a decision,

I would surely say that yes, Twelfth Night is a feminist play because

all the women are witty wherelse only one male is witty and

entertainment is not all that is needed in a play there are also other

factors to consider.

Show More
Related

  • Eugenics: An Excuse To Be A Racist Or A Means To A Better Tomorrow?

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    The basic freedom of the world is woman's freedom . . .. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother."

    Read More

  • Gender Casting In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night By William Shakespeare

    952 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Handmaid's Tale

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    book, it is proved that all women don’t have a right to state what they want or how they feel .

    Read More

  • Why Did The Equal Rights Fail?

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    men is that if you give women the same rights as men, they will become like men and

    Read More

  • Gender Identity And Alternative Sexualities In Twelfth Night, By William Shakespeare

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Feminism In Hamlet's Hamlet

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    One way that feminism is shown is through how the characters think that the men in the book act like women. Since the beginning of the book the author subtlety hint that the way Hamlet acts loses his respect because of the way he acts. Such as when the king states” ‘Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, to give these mourning duties to your father.... but to persever in obstinate condolement is a course of impious stubbornness. 'Tis unmanly grief. It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, a heart unfortified, a mind impatient, an understanding simple and unschooled” (1.2.90-92; 96-101). For this reason just because he shows his emotions he gets called a girl. Meanwhile hamlet soon starts making horrible comments about how he acts.

    Read More

  • Shakespeare’s beliefs on gender roles

    668 Words  | 2 Pages

    From the beginning, Macbeth is a play filled with contradictions. In the opening scene, the witches, who are women with beards, declare, “ fair is foul and foul is fair”(1.1.12 Shakespeare). In this disarranged and chaotic world, the conventional gender roles are sometimes unseated as well. However, when they are unseated, negative repercussions always ensue. Furthermore, in Macbeth, Shakespeare implies that traditional gender roles are the most beneficial and should be followed invariably.

    Read More

  • Characters of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

    1969 Words  | 4 Pages

    upon her. She knew she had fallen in love with Duke Orsino and had the

    Read More

  • Goodnight Desdemona: a Feminist Introspection of Shakespeare

    2493 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Goodnight Desdemona (Good morningJuliet) uses intertextuality to unveil the complete Shakespearean characters of Juliet and Desdemona to reveal the feminist narrative lurking between lines of Shakespeare’s plays. Only through the intertextual re-examination of the Shakespearean text itself via the interjection of genre and the reassigning of dialogue, within the metatheatre, is the true feminist representation of the female Shakespearian characters unveiled from behind the patriarchal preconceptions. From this understanding we may read Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) to be true feminist reworking of Shakespeare. Therefore the metatheatre’s intertextuality reinforces and supports the traits of the feminine. MacDonald’s main Character, Constance Ledbelly is searching for the missing link in Shakespeare’s Othello and Romeo and Juliet, the missing link from the original source works of his plays. Just as Constance explores from studying the Gustav manuscript that something is missing from Shakespere’s plays, we the reader can complete the information with Constance’s exploration to uncover the feminist narrative hidden within Shakespeare’s plays. MacDonald uses intertextuality and meta-theatre to dive into the mystery that is the source works of Shakespeare. The opening dumb show introduces us to the three different worlds that we are about to explore. This introduction to the meta-theatre, showing the ‘new’ narrative and play, that is the story of Constance, and the two familiar plays of Othello and Romeo and Juliet, invites the reader/viewer into the exploration of the inner workings of the texts. Constance is thrust into each play, creating the play within the play which is then manipulated by Con...

    Read More

  • Sita as the Hidden Hero of Ramayana

    2226 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...of society. If women want to take control of their own lives and are tired of "proving"themsleves to others, they must first find a voice and then act upon their convictions, otherwise these gender roles will never change.

    Read More

  • Hamlet from a Feminist Perspective

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare’s Hamlet, shows strong prejudice against woman especially with such characters of Ophelia and Gertrude. Shakespeare created an interesting character with Gertrude; he created a character that sits in the middle of all the conflict and appears to not partake in much of it. However Gertrude does seem intent in defusing it at every possible chance she receives. Gertrude is a central figure in the play. She appears a great deal but doesn’t say much – implying mystery and creating an interesting uncertainty in the audience. Hamlet spends a lot of time dwelling on her marriage to Claudius and Shakespeare leaves many questions unanswered with Gertrude such as did she have an affair with Claudius behind old hamlets back? Why does she drink the poisoned wine that is intended for her son? Does she know it is poisoned? Gertrude is the mother of Hamlet and although they do not have a typical mother son relationship she does love him. Queen Gertrude is often interpreted by many as an adulterate, incestuous woman. Catherine Belsey states that typical interpretations of Hamlet maintain: ‘Gertrude a slut; and Shakespeare a patriarchal bard’ (Belsey,1997:34). Gertrude’s actions throughout the play could be read to show her to be a very passive character, far from a strong independent woman. This is shown with her obedience to Claudius, three times during the play, Gertrude is told to leave and each times she complies without hesitation. In Act 1, scene 2 Claudius says to Gertrude, ‘Madam, come’ (122). Then again, Act 3, scene 1, Claudius says to her, ‘Sweet Gertrude, leave us .’ (28), she complies with ; ‘I shall obey you’ (37). And finally, in Act 4, scene 1, Claudius say, ‘O Gertrude, come away!’ (28). This obedience that Gertrude ...

    Read More

  • Abortion: I Am Pro-Choice

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some women have accepted the definition that a woman’s prime role as wife and mother is to have control of one’s own body and mind (Reardon 3) .Once they had choices about life roles, they felt that they had the right to choose abortion or not. Any and every woman should have the ability to choose when to have a child in their lives. Many women feel that if they did not have the right to choose an abortion, they would have passed by many opportunities to create a better life for themselves. Some people might not agree with their decisions, but in the ends it is theirs.

    Read More

  • The Taming of the Shrew - Feminism and Shakespeare

    491 Words  | 1 Pages

    Some have made the claim that Shakespeare was pro-feminist and did all he could to illuminate the wrong done to women of his time by creating some overwhelmingly misogynistic characters. This was his way of showing men the errors of their ways and shaming them into showing women more respect.  This is an interesting hypothesis for a number of reasons.  First of all, there are no signs that it worked, if Shakespeare did indeed intend to reform men.  Could the Bard, supposing that he was trying to shame men into changing, influence men in this manner?  Can we blame him if he failed?  Secondly, and by far more interesting to me, is that, in some cases, feminists seem to be more interested in martyring the Bard than in promoting feminist agendas What proof do we have that Shakespeare was really that enlightened?

    Read More

  • Theatrical Tradition of Transvestitism in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Elizabethan Era is considered to be golden age in English poetry, music, and literature. William Shakespeare uses the theater as a place to display the latest styles in clothing, poetry and music. Clothing plays an important part in Shakespeare’s plays. Clothing helped the audience understand the character and components of clothing are mentioned literally and metaphorically in several of his plays, often used as a plot device, and used in appearance versus reality.

    Read More

  • Anti-Feminism In Hamlet

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Shakespeare’s dramatic works there is no room for the heroic or the strong woman, and therefore many of his plays can be perceived as being antifeminist. Often he portrays women as weak, mad, sexual, and as even witches. Hamlet is no exception. The only women in the play, Ophelia and Queen Gertrude, are given confined and limited roles. These roles are from a male-dominated viewpoint and only add focus to the male characters instead of incorporating the insight and the impact of the women as well.

    Read More

More about William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as a Feminist Play

Open Document