Twelfth Night Gender Roles Essay
Sophia Reda
Gender and Sexuality
Paper One
February 22, 2012
Twelfth Night is a complex story that touches on the ideas of love, gender roles, and life's tragic and comic experiences. There are numerous layers to the characters' gender roles, as well as to their sexual attractions. The sexual relationships and gender roles in Twelfth Night are multi-layered. For example, Viola, a female character, who was played by a male, is dressed as the male character, Cesario, throughout most of the play. As a male, Viola sways Olivia to fall for Orsino, resulting in Olivia falling in love with Viola-as-Cesario. At the same time, Viola, though dressed as a man, falls in love with Orsino. Everyone is confused about what his or her gender roles are exactly. The relationship between financial dependency and sexual availability shows the play's attitudes towards cross-dressing. Both Viola and Sebastian, are forced to seek dependent positions in households outside the circle of family relations, making Viola/Cesario sexually available to Orsino, and Sebastian …show more content…
Apart from having to deal with the loss of her brother, she also had to find a way to survive in Illyria. Perhaps this is where the resilience in Viola's nature is first shown and instead of breaking down and mourning the death of her loved one, she immediately devises a plan to disguise herself as a male and serve duke Orsino. However being brave and mature for her age, Viola never offered a complaint throughout the play about her emotions and acts went unappreciated. Though she was young, perhaps she was the only character of the play who truly understood how loved worked that it was something rare and beautiful, and something that cannot be forced by one onto another no matter what. This may have been why she never complained or showed excessive sadness when the duke did not seem to reciprocate her
Gender and Sexuality
Paper One
February 22, 2012
Twelfth Night is a complex story that touches on the ideas of love, gender roles, and life's tragic and comic experiences. There are numerous layers to the characters' gender roles, as well as to their sexual attractions. The sexual relationships and gender roles in Twelfth Night are multi-layered. For example, Viola, a female character, who was played by a male, is dressed as the male character, Cesario, throughout most of the play. As a male, Viola sways Olivia to fall for Orsino, resulting in Olivia falling in love with Viola-as-Cesario. At the same time, Viola, though dressed as a man, falls in love with Orsino. Everyone is confused about what his or her gender roles are exactly. The relationship between financial dependency and sexual availability shows the play's attitudes towards cross-dressing. Both Viola and Sebastian, are forced to seek dependent positions in households outside the circle of family relations, making Viola/Cesario sexually available to Orsino, and Sebastian …show more content…
Apart from having to deal with the loss of her brother, she also had to find a way to survive in Illyria. Perhaps this is where the resilience in Viola's nature is first shown and instead of breaking down and mourning the death of her loved one, she immediately devises a plan to disguise herself as a male and serve duke Orsino. However being brave and mature for her age, Viola never offered a complaint throughout the play about her emotions and acts went unappreciated. Though she was young, perhaps she was the only character of the play who truly understood how loved worked that it was something rare and beautiful, and something that cannot be forced by one onto another no matter what. This may have been why she never complained or showed excessive sadness when the duke did not seem to reciprocate her