How did Shakespeare’s life and time period in which he lived influence the play, and how were these “taboo” topics viewed at that time? This is not the first time that Shakespeare created a female character that disguised herself as a man. Two female characters in his work Merchant of Venice also passed themselves off as the other sex. Is there some significance to this—is it because it was a safe/subtle way to present the possibility of same sex attraction in his writing or was it to demonstrate what women were capable of but not able to since they had less rights than men? What are your thoughts? Can you back it up?
In Shakespeare’s time women were looked at as weak. Twelfth Night shows that women were a lot stronger than they looked and were capable of doing many things. I'm almost positive a woman disguising herself as a man wasn’t something that happened very often, and if it did it was most definitely frowned upon. I think Shakespeare, through his work, may have been trying to inspire women to break out and take a stand. I also believe he may have been trying to turn society’s attention to the world’s social problems, and one social problem may have been about the amount of rights men had over women.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare was a master of controversy. Multiple lovers, insect, mixed race marriages, homosexual tendencies and women disguised as men are just a few of his scandalous plot lines. The last of the list, Women disguised as men, is explored fully in Twelfth night. Viola’s choice to cloak herself as a male and join Orsino’s court has much underlying significance. On one hand, Viola is a cunning and intelligent woman. She recognizes the need to make a name for herself and understands that this will be difficult as a woman. Then, she manages to deceive the people of Illyria, proving herself as a strong female character. On the other hand, Viola becomes involved in a complicated love triangle, one with strong homoerotic tendencies because of her disguised sex. Olivia pines for Cesario (the name of the disguise Viola takes on), Cesario falls in love with Duke Orsino and Orsino becomes confused about his feelings for Olivia, as he maybe begins to feel something for Cesario. The moment Duke Orsino discovers that Cesario is in fact Viola- making him weddable- he agrees to marry her. He had obviously had feelings for Cesario for some time prior to his unmasking, or else he would not agree to marry so quickly. But why did Shakespeare develop such relationships? Through such confusion of genders, same sex attraction could be safely presented in a comedic way. Watching Olivia fall all over Cesario and seeing Cesario almost shudder at while trying to carefully dissuade her feelings is certainly funny. Seeing Violas futile and nearly pitiful attempts to hide her love for Orsino, too, are hilarious. The gender confusion adds to the amusement. Dramatic Irony- when the audience knows something the characters do not- is comedy at its finest. So while Olivia pouts and vows to win Cesario’s heart, the audience laughs because we know Cesario is Viola, and so her efforts are in vain. Shakespeare loved comedy, and what better way to produce a laugh than through confusion and unrequited love?
ReplyDeleteDuring the 16th century, topics such as homosexuality and gender equality were rarely discussed amongst the public. Know this, Shakespeare intentionally incorporated these touchy subjects into many of his works, such as "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Twelfth Night". In "Twelfth Night", Viola decided to mourn her brother’s disappearance by impersonating a man named Cesario. This action depicts a woman capable of deciding her own fate, a nearly impossible occurrence during Shakespeare’s time period. As the play progresses, Violet disguised as Cesario falls in love with Duke Orsino, and Orsino remains confused about his feelings toward Cesario, even as he is courting Olivia. Once Cesario’s true gender is uncovered, Orsino is finally able to be certain that he loves Viola and the two wed. Although the play ends with a heterosexual relationship and a humbly wed Viola, the fact that Shakespeare lightly mentions female independence and homosexual affairs demonstrates his high tolerance for these taboo topics without causing public outcry.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare was probably one of the few authors who willingly wrote about controversial topics openly. His play with both woman's equality to men and homosexuality hints were in every scene of "Twelfth Night". In Shakespeare's life, women were seen as less than men were. They didn't have many rights, if any at all. In this play, Shakespeare portrays women as equal to men, in fact, they may be held above men. The fact that Viola was able to trick every single character into believing that she is a man shows her intelligence. Shakespeare clearly believed that men and women were equal despite what the public thought. The idea of a woman outsmarting a man was unheard of in the 1600s. Indeed this was looked down on. Women were quickly put back in their place if they got the idea that they were higher than men. If gender equality was put blatantly in the play, Shakespeare may not have been as popular as he is. For this author, playing around with homosexuality and gender equality in hiding was certainly a better way to explore these ideas indirectly. The public did not shun him. In fact, they seemed to only want more of his plays to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Shakespeare, the man, the myth, the legend; who really knew what he was thinking, not many. However, after overanalyzing and tearing apart his plays for hidden messages it has become apparent that Shakespeare was a comical genius. Not only did he come up with elaborate, slightly confusing plots, he also hinted at homosexuality and the power of a woman. Although disguising women as men could have been used to prove that women were just as capable as men, I feel as if Shakespeare’s real purpose in doing this was to hint at homosexuality. In Twelfth Night, Viola dresses up as a boy, Cesario. He does this in order to get close to Olivia since they are both mourning the death of their brothers. However, along the way Olivia falls for Cesario, well really Viola. Nobody in the play knowing that Cesario is really a girl, this attraction seems perfectly acceptable. Although it’s not directly homosexuality because Olivia thinks he truly is a boy, it still is counted. The real homosexuality comes in when Duke tries to kiss Cesario, full knowing that he is a boy, however he is really a girl, so in reality that wouldn’t be considered homosexuality, but it is. However, in the play it is just sort of nonchalant and it isn’t overdone which shows that Shakespeare was well ahead of his time by putting all sorts of love and attraction into his plays.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Shakespeare subtly hints at the ideas of same sex attraction and women's equality through his plays. By using the characters he creates, he is able to portray his ideas and beliefs to his audience without them seeing it so shockingly. For example, in Twelfth Night, Viola attempts to woo Olivia for Count Orsino's love. Eventually a love triangle is created as Olivia falls in love with the disguised Viola/Cesario, Viola falls for the Count, and the Count begins to love Viola/Cesario (without the knowledge of Cesario actually being a woman). This humorous plot was Shakespeare subtle way to the audience to address ideas of same sex attraction. Women's equality is also seen in Twelfth Night as Viola disguises herself as a man named Cesario. Because she takes on the job of a man, Shakespeare sends out the idea that a woman can indeed do a man's job. The Count also relies on Cesario a lot for his work and therefore, appreciates the great job he has been doing. Shakespeare uses his characters and humor in order to subtly hint at these ideas that were ignored by most people during this time period.
ReplyDeleteHonestly Shakespeare does a lot of questionable things in his plays. The whole anti-semitic thing in this play has me thinking that Shakespeare would also believe that women are weaker than men. There's also all of the lovely lines like "Frailty thy name is woman," that make me realize that he definitely didn't think women were capable of much, if anything. So I wouldn't necessarily say that he believed women were only not doing these things because they did not have the right to. Obviously the time period he lived in had a huge amount of influence on this opinion about women. If Shakespeare was alive now he would see a thousand times over that women can obviously be just as successful and more successful in some cases than men.
ReplyDeleteSo about this whole homosexuality thing... this could totally just be me and my weird ideas but I think Shakespeare easily could have been gay. Who knows, I mean maybe his plays and the way he portrays homosexuality were his way of quietly revealing his fascination with the idea. Antonio is definitely a little too into Sebastian; it is way beyond a bromance for him. Then there's the scene where the Duke and "Cesario" almost start making out. Shakespeare definitely had some sort of fascination with it, and because of the times he lived in he couldn't exactly come right out and say "he was in love with him, more than just as a friend." Overall though, who knows why Shakespeare would have female characters dress as males? Guess we'll have to find some psychic to contact him and ask.
William Shakespeare lived in a time where nothing beyond the usual was ever accepted. Therefore, I believee that he disguised women as men in order to show their capability without actually declaring so. He not only portrayed women as the opposite sex, like Viola, but he portrayed them as men with a high-standing position, like "Cesario" who was the Duke Orsino's right hand man. Men knew, even in this time, that women had potential. It's not like women randomly started to actually think for themselves at a certain point, there was always this capability that wasn't able to be expressed. Shakespeare used this different sex disguise in order to show a flicker of women's capability yet since women had no rights, it wasn't a subject that would change anything. Shakespeare knew what he was doing and he knew the women had potential, he just didn't want to be the first one to come out and say it.
ReplyDeleteTo be quite honest, the manner in which Shakespeare presents the ideals of homosexuality is actually quite moderate for the times. We have to consider the time period in which he was writing in, during the golden age of Egnland. At this point in time we have to remember that the people themselvs were strict to their religions, and to bring up such a tough subect as a homosexuality could spark a very violent reaction in the crowd. But yet we should also consider that the early theaters utilized men to play the part of women, now was this an act of homosexuality, or of soicial implication that women should be restricted from specific aspects of public preformence? Maybe, Shakespeare did this concept of a woman impersonating a man, to add to the contraversy or possibly to increase the publicity of his play, to make it stand out. People will remember a radical topic, even when it comes to entertainment, and the topic of homosexuality is still in contaversy to this day, especially in popular media. Indeed it is probably most possible that Shakespeare was trying to make a point about women's positin in the theater, about showing their capability as actresses and their essentialness to the overall facade that the play sets up. In turn of drawing on this concept, he adds to the lasting impact onthe audience, maybe as an advertising technique for the futrue for publicity.
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ReplyDeleteShakespeare’s story develops around these “taboo” topics because that was what people wanted to see at the time. There is no deeper explanation. When you see a comedy, you want to see a well-balanced combination of what you have seen before, and what you haven’t seen before. This has been the formula for comedy since, well, Shakespeare? Shakespeare’s plot in “Twelfth Night”, when broken down as far as possible, is such: girl is in trouble, falls in love, falls into conflict, and finally expresses her love. Stick a mustache on the girl and present us with a homosexual encounter, and... BAM! Comedy. Therefore, I disagree with both approaches. Shakespeare is not trying to subtly present homosexuality, nor is he trying to demonstrate that women had less rights than men. It was a fact at the time that women had less rights and viewed as less capable than men; he was not making an effort to throw that in everyone’s face. Nor does it seem that he is trying to present this possibility of same sex attraction. A comedy has to grasp attention, and the homosexual encounter scenes between Viola and Olivia, and Viola and Orsino, keep the audience on the tips of their seats. I do not believe there is any deeper meaning here. When Shakespeare was writing his “best” comedy, I can’t believe that when he was thinking, “while she pretends to be a man, she can almost kiss another man…teehee…” he was truly on a sting operation trying to slip homosexuality out into the world.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, Elizabethan England wasn't exactly the time or place to be openly gay or openly feminist. Most of society either frowned upon or entirely disregarded the possibility of either phenomenon. It is the task of the comedian to turn public attention toward the proverbial elephant in the room, exposing the truths that most are too modest to acknowledge. It is my opinion that, in works like Twelfth Night and Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare sought to do just that. By including female characters masquerading as men for social gain and subsequently alluding to homosexual attractions, he surely managed to elicit shock from his audience. The taboo themes explored by Shakespeare kept him on the cutting edge of entertainment. It is likely that his aim was not necessarily to combat social injustice but rather to keep viewers coming back for more. After all, what's more entertaining than a good scandal?
ReplyDeleteShakespeare was a creative and daring man not only in his style of writing, with his use of iambic pentameter and creating new words, but in his topics he chose to write about. From teenage love, insane parents and partners,and much more, Shakespeare was always pushing the limits on the ordinary topics of plays. So why wouldn't a man already know for his differences not go further as to push the boundaries of what was acceptable? I believe Shakespeare dabbled in the homosexual world cautiously. Instead of having clearly gay couples, Shakespeare creates the illusion of homosexuality. In "Twelfth Night" he creates a female character who chose to disguise herself as a man for uncontroversial reasons. Viola wanted to hid and mourn for her brother. Dressed as a man, a women falls in love with 'him' and she falls in love with another man. This way, Shakespeare was able to capture both relationships between two men and women without it really being so. Shakespeare in every play exposes the nature of humans; through foolishness, love, lust and it would have seemed a bit uncharacteristic for Shakespeare to not deplore this controversial topic.
ReplyDeleteDuring Shakespeare’s time women were not very respected, and they were not even allowed to act in plays. Women and men had a traditional dominate v. submissive relationship. The legal and social status of this time makes Viola’s actions as Cesario not only taboo, but adds to the power and boldness of her character. I can imagine viewing this play during Shakespeare’s time would have been hilarious, but perhaps also confusing especially because Viola would have been played by a man playing a woman that was playing a man. It could have gotten lost in translation with a situation like this. The sexual subtext between Orsino and Cesario probably would have flown below the radar of the audience, being as the majority of Shakespeare’s audience in the Elizabethan era were poor and uneducated. I think there is more than one point being made by Shakespeare’s gender disguises in Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice. I believe it could be to explore the mystery of same sex attraction, as well as stand up for the rights of women by proving that they are capable of accomplishing the same things as men. The evidence of the latter lies in various plays that present very strong and passionate female roles such as Gertrude, Lady Macbeth, Titania, Cleopatra, and etcetera. Same sex relationships in Shakespeare are always simply hinted at, not made fact, other than Olivia being attracted to Viola, however at the time she believed she was Cesario. Duke Orsino’s attraction to Cesario lies within the subtext of Twelfth Night.
ReplyDeleteViola and Orsino's relationship is proof that Shakespeare was focused more on showing what women can do if they were allowed to have the rights. If Shakespeare really wanted to show the dual sexuality of the character Orsino, he would have written Orsino kissing Viola while she was dressed as a man. Shakespeare wanted to convey the idea that Viola could have been a very important person in her career, if only men weren't opressing her.
ReplyDeleteBeing that we'll never really know what was the thought process behind Shakespeare's works, we'll have to assume. Which, as you know, leaves room for being completely and utterly mistaken, but let's give it a go. Sure, Shakespeare could have been slowly introducing society to the idea of homosexuality, but...let's see...
ReplyDeleteSame sex relationships weren't unheard of before the 1500s/1600s. In ancient Greece older men "mentored" younger men, providing them with important life relationship lessons (Thanks a bunch AP World). So maybe instead of being 'for' same sex relationships, Shakespeare was all about women's rights and social issues. So he wrote of women disguising themselves as men to achieve equality. And this was his way of writing a social commentary.
While writing his plays for the masses, it is possible that Shakespeare added an element of "social commentary" to his work. Maybe he wanted to address women's rights and same sex relationships, but only hinted at them for fear of being rejected for it. As we’ve read in Twelfth Night, it’s fairly easy for Shakespeare to infuse his work with ideas of women’s rights and same-sex relationships. Some readers don’t catch on to the subtle hints, and believe that the mistaken identities and confused roles are just there for the hilarity factor. Seeing Duke Orsino struggle with his feelings towards Cesario/Viola would have an Elizabethan crowd in uproar: “A man? who loves another man? who is really a woman?...oh ho, jolly good, excellent, Shakespeare my good man.” There’s even the woman doing a “man’s job”. Viola disguises herself and successfully completes tasks that only men thought they could handle. That one might take a jab at the big, strong Englishmen in Shakespeare’s original audience. But, as said before, we’ll never really know.
Shakespeare, a literary radical of his time, spoke out about many topics that were considered risqué. The time period which he lived in was not particularly forgiving about opposing views, especially ones that delved into ideas of feminism or homosexuality. Twelfth Night is a classic example of one of Shakespeare’s pieces opening readers up to these “taboo” topics in ways that would not outright offend the sensibilities of an Elizabethan citizen. The dialogue between Orsino and Cesario suggests a romantic undertone, the likes of which had never been heard of at the time. Homosexual behavior was frowned upon and two male characters being romantically linked would have made the piece quite scandalous. But by veiling that relationship, Shakespeare conversed about it without detriment to his career or reputation. The feebleness of women was a commonly respected belief held by people in England during this time, as pictured in the famous quote “frailty, thy name is woman.” Sexism ran rampant in a society where men were pictured as the ultimate providers, with women at their side as subservient beings. Viola, however, proves that a woman can do any man’s job when she disguises herself as Cesario and joins the ranks of Duke Orsino’s men. She did her tasks properly, and in certain cases, better, than a man in her position would have been able to do. She outright defies the thought that women should be left at home, and proves herself as a worthy adversary, both in strength and in wit.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare was a man ahead of his own time period. He was able to subtly hint at homosexuality and equality of women through his plays. Because of the time period, homosexuality wasn’t known and even thought of nor was a woman having rights that were equal to that of a man’s. In Twelfth Night, Viola deceives the others in the play and dresses up as Cesario, who is a male. While Viola attempts at courting Olivia for the Count, Olivia ends up falling in love with who she thought to be Cesario. Throughout the play the plot thickens with a more complex love circle, and this happens within many of Shakespeare’s plays because on the first sight it provides as comic relief but looking further into it, there is more than watch reaches the eye. The Count in the end of the play realizes his true love for Viola right after she relieves herself as being Cesario. He is able to portray a society in which equality may be possible and that homosexuality would be recognized, which makes one begin to think if Shakespeare himself was perhaps gay or was it more for just entertainment purposes. I believe that it may have been more than just entertainment purposes because his subtle hints and clues were just overlooked by his audiences without any thought being given into them.
ReplyDeleteThe time period in which Shakespeare wrote his plays was not a very accepting one. Gays were not readily accepted and women were not seen to be equals to men. There is a theory that Shakespeare himself was gay, and his plays/ works may very well have been an outlet for him to express his own desires/ feelings. By doing so in this way, he hoped that they would not have been ridiculed and that they would not appal the general public. He made these themes comedic and showed that they may not be so far out of the norm. That women may be as capable as men at specific tasks, but that they are not given the chance. By bringing these touchy subjects to light in a comedic way, i think Shakespeare was trying to make the audience comfortable with these "scandalous" ideas.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Shakespeare lived during the 16th century, a time when homosexuality and equality of genders were not openly discussed or accepted. Therefore, Shakespeare intentionally incorporated these topics in his works, like the “Twelfth Night”. Viola desired a way to mourn her brother and escape from society, she accomplished thisby impersonating a man named Cesario. By disguising herself as a man she has the ability to climb up in the social ladder and make a future for herself, which is not possible as a women during the 16th century. Cesario or Viola falls in love with a man called Duke Orsino, the Duke is trying to catch the attention of a wealthy women, Olivia. However, Duke Orsino has disorientated feelings about Cesario, it was not until Cesario admitted to being Viola that Duke Orsino admitted his lustful feelings toward her. The fact that Shakespeare portrayed Viola of having the ability to trick every character into believing she was a man shows off intelligence of women, and almost hints that Shakespeare agreed on equality of genders. Also, Shakespeare ends the play with Duke Orsino marrying Viola which once again hints at his tolerance of homosexual couples. Shakespeare accomplished incorporating these “taboos” by using comedy to lighten the mood of the true meaning; after all it was Elizabethan England.
ReplyDeleteArtists draw ideas form the world around them, and Shakespeare was no different. The ideas and practices of 16th Century Europe were much different than what we are accustomed to today. Of course this had an effect on the content and subject matter of Shakespeare’s writing. Women, who were not even able to play female parts on stage, weren’t considered to be mans equal. By disguising women as men Shakespeare may very well have been trying to portray how strong and independent women were without directly challenging views held by the general population. Or maybe he was trying to touch on homosexuality in an indirect way, as to not upset people with his “taboo topics”. Nevertheless it seems that he was at least partially able to look past the stigmas of these topics and include them in his plays. Since, unfortunately, Shakespeare didn’t live to some odd 400 years old, we can’t ask him ourselves and must speculate about his true motives.
ReplyDeleteMany of the norms of today would likely have been seen as taboo in Shakespeare’s time. It’s not as though he didn’t live in a predominantly patriarchal society, and anything contradicting that belief would be nothing short of heresy. To get more specific to The Twelfth Night and Merchant of Venice, anything with even the slightest leaning towards same-sex relationships put forth in any other manner would likely have given the gallows some more show. All in all, had it been anyone but Shakespeare, or had he introduced these themes in a political arena, shouts of blasphemy and slander would have risen to the skies. What happens instead is that, much like the various jesters across his many writings, Shakespeare poses deep, almost philosophical idea under the guise of comedy and entertainment. That isn’t to say that Shakespeare assumed when writing those works the grand scale they would eventually reach, or that he did it for the sake of political reform. No, what’s more likely is that he implanted these taboos as a sort of marketing ploy; if he kept the plays stagnant, his popularity would quickly diminish. By introducing these forbidden topics, Shakespeare brought enough shock and excitement to keep the crowds coming, but not enough for anyone to begin questioning society in the aftermath.
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