Viola’s Gender Roles in Twelfth Night

The fluidity and ambiguity with which Viola presents sex is interchange to the caper of twelfth Night. But to what extent are Violas sexual practice roles natural to the frivolity of the lam? The arrivals of Viola and Sebastian in Illyria advert as the catalysts for drama in duodecimal Night. The presence of twins of incompatible sexes yet same in appearance is a dramaturgical device crucial to the preposterous resolution, whilst being somewhat farcical.It is the misunderstandings which Violas cross-dressing inevitably causes which make her modify sexual urge roles so essential to the comedy of the play. Through her screen, she assumes typic completelyy manlike roles much(prenominal)(prenominal) as of the fool, and the jocund value of her retroflex identity is heightened through the questioning of the sex conventions of Shakespearean theatre.Yet, Violas disguise brings with it a strain of melancholy, lessening her assumed gender roles comic fix on the play. V iolas cross-dressing subverts normality in the respect that she dead assumes typically antheral roles such as that of the Fool. Her first meeting with Olivia as a messenger of Orsinos love is marked by her different approach path to courtship.She launches into a preprepared speech of compliments with a poetic apostrophe or so radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty, only to break into prose to check that she is thusly speaking 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 give outicular, position to the opening of the play, this unhurt meeting is a parody of Orsinos clich approach and indeed the conventions of courtly love. Viola deflates the romantic pretensions of Orsinos embassy, and such mockery of the phallic archetype by a woman is highly nonsensical for its suspension of the accepted inferiority of women in society.Yet, somewhat mo re sloshed is the fact she has as well as unintentionally assumed his positions of Olivias courtier and indeed of a example of great power and superiority, as her actions free both(prenominal) Orsino and Olivia of their rigidity. Furthermore, it is such witty manipulations of opposites that prove her to be a kind of fool.Act Three sight one is marked by Viola and Festes repartee of attempts to defeat each others wit Violas solution to Festes comment Now Jove in his next commodity range thee a beard is I am almost sick for one, though I would not have it grow on my chin. some(prenominal) comments are pointed references to gender and are thus dramatic ironyFestes taunting of Cesarios lack of virility may also serve as a comical meta-theatrical reference to the boy actor playacting Viola. However, there is a degree of pathos to Violas admission, as the beard she desires if not her stimulate is surely that of Orsino thereby, she emphasises the complications of her disguise in pursue 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 concreteises the irrationality around her and employs it to her advantage in choosing to cross-dress. Certainly, the whole nature of her disguise itself questions the gaps of seeming, being and knowing, of which the Fool typically explores. such(prenominal) 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 misplacement is denounced by Olivias remark in Act One you are now out of your text / but we will exclude the curtain and show you the picture and certainly by the repeated allusions to Cesarios femininity, such as Orsinos remark on her appearance all is semblative a womans part.Olivias unveiling is a pivotal moment as it represents the end of the mourning for her dead chum and essentially allows the comedy to commence for the audience. It is an ironic act to a quotation veiled herself, and meta-theatrical reference of curtain indicates the misplacement of the actor of Viola as much 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 performing Viola, the audience is continually aware that there is a male bole 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 natural approaches than the conformities of Elizabethan theatre. Much o f the plays comedy comes from Shakespeares inert with homosexuality. In Elizabethan England, the idea of such relationships would have been unusual and substantially 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 seen as comic ambiguity. The audience knows Olivia unwittingly desires a woman when she is drawn to the upstart servant, and we see the relationship between Orsino and Cesario develop throughout the course of the play indeed, some 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, notwithstanding references to Viola in female clothing, this never actually happens.Orsinos contribution lines are Cesario, come / For so shall you be tour you are a man. Distinct references to her male alias yet none of her distaff form still denote a comic male to male relationship. For, whilst the fact the use of a male actor for Viola is ridiculous 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 electric potential for tragedy.In her aside at the end of Act 2 Scene 2, she sympathises with Olivia, remarking deplorable lady, she were better 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 maintain thou art a man. For whilst the disguise grants her access to both parties, the price she pays is the loss of any gender identity, as she cannot be a woman to Orsino or a man to Olivia .She frequ ently 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 efficaciously summarises the extent of her travesty in inciting Olivias affections. However, this statement is typical of her aspect 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 rattling last scene, when Sebastian greets her Thrice welcome, drowned Viola. The plays resolution aligns with the conventions of comedy in settling misunderstandings and proving a happy ending there is no smell 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 even mention her real name in his parting line. Overall, while some critics ar gue 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 wickedness should not be ignored, and detract her from the role as a simple 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 heighten by Violas cross-dressing, in as much the gender conventions her masquerade breaks as the inevitable misunderstandings.However, we see also that cross-dressing has certain sad implications, true 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.