Viola’s Gender Roles in Twelfth Night

The fluidity and ambiguity with which genus genus genus genus genus Viola presents chargeual urge is central to the sport of Twelfth Night. But to what accomplishment atomic number 18 Violas gender roles essential to the harlequinade of the play? The arrivals of Viola and Sebastian in Illyria serve as the catalysts for drama in Twelfth Night. The presence of twins of different sexes yet identical in appearance is a dramaturgical device crucial to the comedian resolution, whilst world nearlywhat farcical.It is the mis beneathstandings which Violas cross-dressing inevitably causes which shop her inverted gender roles so essential to the comedy of the play. Through her disguise, she assumes typically male roles such as of the fool, and the comic value of her double identity is heightened by the questioning of the gender conventions of Shakespeargonan theatre.Yet, Violas disguise brings with it a strain of melancholy, lessening her assumed gender roles comic impact on the pl ay. Violas cross-dressing subverts normality in the respect that she abruptly assumes typically male roles such as that of the Fool. Her first meeting with Olivia as a messenger of Orsinos applaud is marked by her different admission to courtship.She launches into a preprep atomic number 18d speech of compliments with a poetic apostrophe most effulgent, smashing and unmatchable beauty, only to break into prose to check that she is thus speechmaking to Olivia. Violas repeatedly her speech as conventionally courtly, as it is excellently well penned and tis poetical yet, these comments essentially refer to its artificiality.In point, juxtaposed to the go-ahead of the play, this whole meeting is a parody of Orsinos clich approach and indeed the conventions of courtly love. Viola deflates the ro gentlemans gentlemantic pretensions of Orsinos embassy, and such ridicule of the male archetype by a charwoman is highly comical for its prisonbreak of the accepted inferiority of wom en in society.Yet, pretty more than absurd is the fact she has also unintentionally assumed his positions of Olivias courtier and indeed of a caseful of great power and superiority, as her actions free both Orsino and Olivia of their rigidity. Furthermore, it is such witty manipulations of others that prove her to be a kind of fool.Act Three Scene wholeness is marked by Viola and Festes repartee of attempts to surpass distributively others wit Violas reply to Festes comment Now Jove in his next commodity send thee a whiskers is I am almost sick for one, constant of gravitationgh I would non have it grow on my chin. Both comments argon pointed references to gender and are thus dramatic ironyFestes razz of Cesarios lack of virility whitethorn also serve as a comical meta-theatrical reference to the boy actor playing Viola. However, thither is a degree of pathos to Violas admission, as the beard she propensitys if not her own is surely that of Orsino thereby, she emphasises the complications of her disguise in pursuing her love interest.Yet, most prominent is Violas parallel to Feste as a Fool. They have a mutual appreciation of each others wit, as Feste comments I think I saw your wisdom there, whilst Viola appreciates the intelligence behind his foolery for folly that he wisely shows is fit She realises the irrationality around her and employs it to her advantage in choosing to cross-dress. Certainly, the whole constitution of her disguise itself questions the gaps of carry outming, being and knowing, of which the Fool typically explores. Such challenges to male roles make her gender ambiguity amplify the comedy of the play.Viola was played by a boy actor under the conventions of Shakespearean theatre, and this physical fact adds a level of confusion heightening the comedy of her gender roles. Such malposition is denounced by Olivias remark in Act One you are now out of your text / but we will draw the drapery and show you the picture and certain ly by the repeated allusions to Cesarios femininity, such as Orsinos remark on her appearance all is semblative a womans part.Olivias unveiling is a opposite moment as it represents the end of the mourning for her dead brother and essentially allows the comedy to commence for the earreach. It is an ironic act to a character hide herself, and meta-theatrical reference of curtain indicates the misplacement of the actor of Viola as oftentimes as the character.For as much as her disguise is her own ploy, it is Shakespeares dramatic device. Orsino taunts Cesario for his lack of virility, yet he may also be commenting on the male actors credibility for the part of a woman. No matter how convincing the boy actor was playing Viola, the audience is continually aware that there is a male body under the disguise of a woman and thus a double sex reversal is taking place in Violas disguise.Yet, the curtain could be symbolic of the uncovering of much more radical approaches than the con hold ities of Elizabethan theatre. Much of the plays comedy comes from Shakespeares trifling with queerity. In Elizabethan England, the idea of such relationships would have been unusual and considerably more absurd than a modern audience may appreciate.The misunderstandings caused byViolas cross-dressing are the root of what audiences of the day would have elaten as comic ambiguity. The audience knows Olivia unwittingly desires a woman when she is drawn to the young servant, and we see the relationship between Orsino and Cesario develop throughout the course of the play indeed, or so modern productions show the bond between them in overtly homosexual terms to heighten the comedy. In keeping with the conventions of Elizabethan comedy as a whole, the play resolves in heterosexual marriage yet, despite references to Viola in female clothing, this never actually happens.Orsinos parting lines are Cesario, come / For so shall you be while you are a man. Distinct references to her male ali as yet none of her feminine form still denote a comic male to male relationship. For, whilst the fact the use of a male actor for Viola is humorous in itself, it is the radical implications of this role which make Violas character so vital to the comedy of Twelfth Night. However, despite the obvious comic implications of her disguise, from Violas double identity arises sexual conflict and the potential for tragedy.In her digression at the end of Act 2 Scene 2, she sympathises with Olivia, remarking poor lady, she were burst love a dream, emphasising that as an object of Olivias desire she is unattainable. She understands because as Cesario her love for Orsino cannot be reciprocated. He insinuates her gender ambiguity in the previous act For they shall yet belie thy happy years, / That say thou art a man. For whilst the disguise grants her access to both parties, the wrong she pays is the loss of any gender identity, as she cannot be a woman to Orsino or a man to Olivia .She freque ntly alludes to her gender disparity, such as when Olivia confesses her love in Act Three Scene One, as Violas reply is I am not what I am. Her response is dramatic irony at its most explicit and effectively summarises the extent of her travesty in inciting Olivias affections. However, this statement is typical of her expression throughout the play such evasions and wordplay are because she cannot speak of her real self.To the audience, it is somewhat striking that her real name is not pronounced until the very remainder scene, when Sebastian greets her Thrice welcome, drowned Viola. The plays resolution aligns with the conventions of comedy in remittal misunderstandings and proving a happy ending there is no sense of Violas individual identity until the reunion with her brother, when correct gender roles are asserted.However, the tragedy of hercharacter is heightened further by the fact Orsino does not tied(p) mention her real name in his parting line. Overall, while some critic s argue Viola is the most developed of the characters in Twelfth Night, for she is not constrained to a stock character, this inevitably adds an oblique side.Her gender roles may heighten the comedy, but the emotional toll of the disguise which she calls a sine should not be ignored, and detract her from the role as a wide-eyed asset in the plays comedy.To conclude, the inversion of her gender roles is radiant of the carnival spirit so prevalent in Twelfth Night. We see that the plays comedy is very much enhanced by Violas cross-dressing, in as much the gender conventions her disguise breaks as the inevitable misunderstandings.However, we see also that cross-dressing has certain tragic implications, confessedly to the nature of comedy harbouring a dark underside. Thus, her gender roles are to a limited extent essential to the comedy of the play.