Essay on Love and Gender in Twelfth Night -- Twelfth Night essays

Love and Gender in Twelfth darkness Shakespeares Twelfth darkness examines patterns of love and courtship through a twisting of gender roles. In Act 3, scene 1, Olivia displays the confusion created for both(prenominal) characters and audience as she takes on the traditionally male role of wooer in an attempt to get on the disguised Viola, or Cesario. Olivia praises Cesarios beauty and then addresses him with the belief that his scorn (3.1.134) scarcely reveals his hidden love. However, Olivias mistaken interpretation of Cesarios manner is only the surface riddle presented by her speech. The reality of Cesarios gender, the active role Olivia takes in pursuing him/her, and the duality of word meanings in this passage threaten to turn the traditional time-honored concept of courtship upside down, or as Olivia says turn shadow to noon (139). Perhaps the biggest upset to the traditional structure is the possibility that Olivia whitethorn be in love with a woman. Shakespeare allows his audience to excuse this by having Olivia be unaware that Cesario is actually female. Yet, Olivias attraction seems to stem exactly from the to a greater extent feminine characteristics like Cesarios beautiful scorn and angry lip (136-137). Olivias manner of speaking allow an audience, particularly a modern one, to perhaps read her as suspecting or even knowing that Cesario is female, yet choosing to love him/her anyway. Olivias description of Cesarios beauty, both here and upon their first encounter, praises typically feminine qualities, but curiously doesnt irresolution Cesarios gender. The comparison of love to guilt tempts the readers mind to wonder if Olivia is guilty some her love for such female attributes. Olivias oath on maidenhood ... ...ess Ltd, 1972. 222-43. Burton, Robert. The name of Melancholy. Ed. Floyd Dell, New York Tudor Publishing Company, 1927. David, R. W., ed. The Arden Shakespeare Loves Labours Lost. London Methuen, 1951. Dusinberre, Juliet. Shakespeare and the Nature of Women. London Macmillan public press Ltd, 1975. Erasmus, Desiderius. In Praise of Folly. Trans. Hoyt Hopewell Hudson, Princeton, New Jersey Princeton University Press, 1970. Hotson, Leslie. Shakespeares Motley. New York Oxford University Press, 1952. Potter, Lois. Twelfth Night Text & Performance. London Macmillan, 1985. Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Edited Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York W. W. Norton & Company, 1997. Zijderveld, Anton J. Reality in a Looking-Glass Rationality through an Analysis of Traditional Folly. London Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982.