Women were widely viewed as matriarchs of the domestic household, who were meek and submissive. Men were seen as masculine and powerful. Shakespeare heavily illustrates the sixteenth century stereotypical gender roles throughout his play, Twelfth Night. During Shakespearean times, women were prohibited from performing on stage, instead, men played their roles. In Twelfth Night, the imitation of the opposite gender originates from necessity and fear.
Overall, social status played a key role in the development of the characters, while some tried to increase their ranking in society others took advantage of theirs. Feste is a “licensed fool” and works for spare change, and the other characters seem to treat him like servant. This is ironic because, Feste is one of the smarter and wittier characters in the book, however, he has a low social ranking and is therefore treated like he is stupid. In the play Duke Orsino says, “You can fool no more money out of me at this throw. If you will let your lady know I am here to speak with her, and bring her along with you, it may awake my bounty further.” (5.1.37-40).
Twelfth Night is a story of loss, tragedy, and love that is masquerading as a romantic comedy of sorts a perfect example of Shakespeare’s true talents of expressing deep metaphor in very interesting ways. This is a play about the ocean deep, salty, unpredictable, rough and difficult to navigate but after enough time and understanding, you can see the beauty in the deep blue water. The salty water seems very basic and easy to understand but upon closer inspection, you can see the true depth and complexity of the briny water. The play has a similar effect when first starting it one could come to the conclusion that things are simple and exactly what they seem but within a few lines things get progressively more and more complicated just as the water does. The shape of twelfth night is that of the ocean blue vast, unpredictable and extremely deep but with the right understanding and experience you can navigate it rough waters to reach your destination safe and sound.
In the academic literature on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, one of the key questions is Viola’s own understanding of what love means. Much of the romantic intrigues that Viola becomes entangled in is clearly created by the situation in which she finds herself, necessitating that she disguises herself as a male. The play famously tells the tale of Viola, who loves Duke Orsino, who is in love with Countess Olivia, while Olivia falls in love with Viola, thinking she is a man. However, Viola’s understanding of love is perhaps just as complex as this love triangle along with her own position essentially as between genders. In other words, Viola does not exhibit an understanding of love defined by stereotypes of male love or female love, and her male disguise symbolizes this idea.
Class and agency are arguably some of the most important factors in Shakespeare's plays. For example, because the capulets and the montagues are both noble houses, they are able to have enough interaction with each other that they have a strong hatred. Class and agency influence the characters’ education and actions in shakespeare's romeo and juliet because many of the events would not have happened without class and class affected much of who the person was during the renaissance. Romeo and Juliet would not have even met if they had different classes, let alone get married and die for eachother. For example, in act I scene II in Shakespeare’s romeo and Juliet, a Capulet servant asks Romeo “Perhaps you learned it without book ,but I pray, can you read?”.
In William Shakespeare 's play “Twelfth Night” a few characters had been led by their hearts in the mad moments of their lives. The whole play displays that the heart wants what it heart wants. The ending, however is significant based on the extreme scenarios where love is still love even if the original person did not lie where affectionate feelings had sprouted. The heart is said to be the most powerful resource of your body; some say that the heart should be the place you should your make decisions. In the play, Olivia had been in love with Cesario, who was actually Viola in disguise.
The play, Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, was believed to be written back in the early 1600s. This play was influential for its time due to the fact that theatre-goers of the time had not been exposed to content of this nature. Viola, the main character of this play, uses a disguise to obtain a job that she desperately wanted. Disguising herself as a male named Cesario, she finally obtains the jobs she wants while simultaneously falling in love with her boss, Orsino. A love triangle forms when Olivia, a nobel, falls for Cesario, Viola’s second persona.
Orsino, in turn, is in love with wealthy countess Olivia. Olivia is in love with Cesario, but does not realize she is actually in love with a woman dressed as a man. (Morgan) Likewise, William Shakespeare enjoyed performing bisexual, homosexual factors in his own plays and works of literature, and as a result he often revealed his sexuality in those works. Thus it is reasonable to insist that the sonnets of William Shakespeare also indicates his homosexual
The social expectations, rights, class, and value could not be more different when it came to man versus woman. Throughout the Renaissance period these roles of each gender can often be identified in literary work however at times the characters tend to sway between each role. This sway in the role can be seen in Shakespeare 's As You Like It. The idea of men and women can be identified easily in the Renaissance period but Rosalind possess many traits that are generally associated with men or masculine characters. Rosalind used her masculinity to manipulate Orlando.
“Shakespeare’s presentation of women in his plays demonstrates his feelings about women and their roles in society,” claims author and teacher at Stratford-upon-Avon College, Lee Jamieson. Not only do the women in Shakespeare’s plays represent his feelings toward them, but they reflect society 's view of them in that time period. Back then women were seen as many things, such as deceivers or submissives. Now, as we look back on Shakespeare 's plays it is obvious that women are the main drive behind the plot of his stories. There are two types of women in all of Shakespeare’s plays Hamlet, Othello, MacBeth, and Lear: the first are villainous, and the second are submissives, but both are the driving force behind the plot of each story.