Representation Of Gender Throughout Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

Gender is the term used to explain the state of being male or female in relation to the social and cultural roles that are considered appropriate for men and women. One could argue that gender is culturally constructed so, therefore gender isn’t a casual result of sex, gender is what you view someone as; sex is arguably what you are born with and what makes you scientifically ‘male’ or ‘female’. Gender can be defined by ‘the behavioural, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex’. In the play it demonstrates how gender, a socially constructed identity, can be 'performed' and impersonated with the use of voice, costume, and mannerisms. The aim od this essay is to discuss how gender is explored throughout Twelfth Night.

Sexism/characterisation of Viola 

Shakespeare’s characterisation of Viola is used to highlight sexism in the play. After shipwreck Viola’s survival is dependent on dressing up as a man, Cesario, where she ends up working for the King. This highlights how firstly for Viola to be ‘seen’ in society she has to dress up as a ‘man’. Next, she masks herself as a man through costume in order for her to build a relationship with the King successfully, being a woman was seen as a lower class automatically because of the patriarchal society, sexualised and therefore not respected. Therefore, this proves that only men were worthy of respect during this century. In the play Viola discusses her plan to disguise herself as a man ‘conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise… Ill serve this duke : thou shall present me an eunuch to him… that will allow me my worth his service’. Just as Viola’s male disguise enables her to get close to Lady Olivia, dressing as a man allows Viola to experience a great degree of intimacy with Duke Orsino. Orsino and Cesario (Viola) have candid conversations about love and relationships. Orsino seems to highly value Cesario’s opinions – therefore supporting the argument that you have to be a man to be heard and respected. What may have been viewed as comedy – Viola cross dressing as a man, was actually Shakespeare making a political point of the inequality of woman at the time. Like Shakespeare, a lot of comedy in today’s era is used to approach taboo topics, an example of this is comedian Shazia Mirza who jokes about Islam through very strong right-wing views. Comedy like this causes big reactions from the audience whilst also leaving an aftertaste of the discussed topic. In the article ‘Gender Trouble’, Casey Charles explored how ‘the English renaissance popularity of both the all-male stage companies and plays about gender switching reflects a social and cultural and fascination with this gender ambiguity’. This suggesting the idea that playwrights like Shakespeare were interested in testing boundaries and exploring multi sex roles on stage. Shakespeare, smart in his work added subtle satirical, taboo topics through deeper story lines and characters within his plays.

Homosexual relations 

Perhaps the most obvious references to homoeroticism in Twelfth Night is seen between Sebastian and Antonio. Even though Sebastian never indicated he has romantic feelings for Antonio, Antonio is often seen expresses his admiration and love for Sebastian. The intensity of his feelings seems to imply erotic interest, as when he tells Sebastian “I could not stay behind you. My desire … more sharp than filed steel, did spur me forth.” This would suggest to a modern audience a clear sexual innuendo and underlying sexual tension between the two. However, back in Shakespeare’s era, audience may have read Antonio’s declaration differently, as close male relations weren’t unusual in Elizabethan England. It was more common back then for men to be close, as women were thought to be intellectually and emotionally inferior to men, so a bond between two men would have been a bond between equals. It is questionable if Shakespeare is suggesting that Antonio’s feelings are as sexual desire, or passionate friendship. Regardless, it is clear that Shakespeare uses gender to explore the many versions of love throughout Twelfth Night and suggests that love in all its forms is powerful enough to make Shakespeare’s characters incapable of resisting their inner desires, in all its forms, suggesting to a Shakespearean audience that love is love and acceptable in all forms. In Casey Charles ‘gender trouble’ he argues that ‘twelfth night is centrally concerned with demonstrating the uncategorical temper of sexual attraction’. Which supports the argument that Shakespeare uses twelfth night to explore various relationships and the characters inner conflict.

Masculinity 

In twelfth night, Shakespeare also sparks the argument of ‘what is a man’ and ‘what is considered manly’. We see Viola dress up as a man and adapt male attributes and then we have the ‘actual’ men, ‘Orsino’ and ‘Antonio’ – what makes them comparable? The way Shakespeare depicts masculinity is by portraying men as an access to a successful life – referring back to the idea that Viola had to dress up as a man to succeed. There are many instances in which characters refer to Cesario as an effeminate man. Arguing that there is such thing as a ‘stereotypical man’. Even more radically than this, it also suggests that gender is something you can influence, based on how you act, rather than something that you are, or the sexual organs you were born with. In troubled gender Casey Charles argues that ‘Antonio disrupts normative constructions of gender by enacting his homoerotic passion in a character that is the most traditionally ‘masculine’ in the play. He is aggressive, bold, eloquent, faithful and uncompromising’ this argues that Antonio who is supposedly the manliest captivates more female attributes – arguing against the idea of masculinity and what it means to be a man. Twelfth Night also shows how gender-switches make the characters' sexual identities unstable. For instance, at times, Olivia seems to be attracted to Cesario because 'he' is such a womanly-looking man, while Orsino at the end of the play seems as attracted to Cesario as he is to Viola, suggesting that maybe sex doesn’t matter to these characters but rather the emotions they feel for the other person.

Conclusion

Overall it is very clear that gender is a very important matter within Twelfth Night and Shakespeare explores it very intelligibly as it delves in deep enough for the audience to have an understanding that there is more than meets the eye but not deep enough to cause any radical upset. Arguably maybe a modern audience see it differently now, it could be viewed more as a political statement as it’s a relevant topic concerning gender inequality and sexism but at the time Shakespeare wrote this maybe it was simply comedy.