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

Love and sexual urge in Twelfth Night Shakespeares Twelfth Night examines patterns of wonder and wooing with a twisting of gender roles. In Act 3, moving-picture show 1, Olivia displays the confusion created for both characters and audience as she takes on the traditionally priapic role of wooer in an attempt to win the disguised Viola, or Cesario. Olivia praises Cesarios beauty and then addresses him with the belief that his scorn (3.1.134) only reveals his hidden love. However, Olivias put on interpretation of Cesarios manner is only the surface problem presented by her speech. The mankind 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 patriarchal concept of suit of clothes upside down, or as Olivia says turn night to noon (139). possibly the biggest upset to the traditional structure is the possibility that Olivia may be in love with a woman. Shakespeare allows hi s audience to excuse this by having Olivia be oblivious(predicate) that Cesario is actually female. Yet, Olivias attraction seems to stem exactly from the more feminine characteristics alike Cesarios beautiful scorn and angry lip (136-137). Olivias words allow an audience, peculiarly a modern one, to perhaps read her as suspecting or raze knowing that Cesario is female, yet choosing to love him/her anyway. Olivias description of Cesarios beauty, both here and upon their early encounter, praises typically feminine qualities, but curiously doesnt question Cesarios gender. The comparison of love to guilt tempts the readers mind to wonder if Olivia is guilty about her love for such(prenominal) female attributes. Olivias oath on maidenhood ... ...ess Ltd, 1972. 222-43. Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Ed. Floyd Dell, New York Tudor Publishing Company, 1927. David, R. W., ed. The Arden Shakespeare Loves Labours Lost. capital of the United Kingdom Methuen, 1951. Dusinberr e, Juliet. Shakespeare and the Nature of Women. London Macmillan Press Ltd, 1975. Erasmus, Desiderius. In congratulations 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.