Gender Roles and Sexuality in The Twelfth Night

After reading and performing The Twelfth Night, I was curious about the purpose of the confusing gender roles within Shakespeare’s work.  So, I brought my questions to JSTOR and found a plethora of insights from an article titled, “Gender Trouble in Twelfth Night”.  

            This article stated that historically all male actors would have performed the Twelfth Night in the Elizabethan theaters.  Apparently, the use of only male actors was intentional in order to “avoid a real fear of women’s sexuality” and to show an “nonthreatening version of female erotic power” (Charles 126).  Through involving only make figures, the power of a woman in sexual circumstances is diluted and confused because it is not actually women acting out these roles.  Therefore, any portrayal of female sexuality is fashioned for the play’s purposes and can hardly be compared to a real woman’s actions and power.  As the article I read stated, “Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is arguably about the fashioning of gender” (Charles 124).

            Because of the use of male actors only, the cross-dressing of characters, such as Viola, caused an extra level of confusion on stage than what is shown in the script.  For example, in the script Viola’s character disguises herself as a male figure with the name as Cesario; however, in Elizabethan theater this gender swap was confused even more on stage because the actor was originally a male in the first place.  This complexity clearly blurs the gender of Viola, making the sexual attraction of Olivia toward Viola confusing and subtly homosexual.  What I found interesting about my research was Charles’ perspective on the purpose of these homosexual hints and how homosexuality all relates to Shakespeare’s commentary about love.  Charles claims, “Lovers like Olivia, Orsino, Malvolio, and Antonio construct fantasies that turn the objects of their affection into something more than they are, thereby disrupting the boundaries of compulsory heterosexuality and class-consciousness through the performance of these imaginary fantasies,” (Charles 124).  This insight reveals that perhaps Shakespeare is getting to the idea that love can be fashioned and directed at anyone because the object of one’s love is completely in the eye of the beholder.  Because of his use of cross-dressing and romantic love within sex-same actors and characters, this fashioned and imagined love becomes evident not only in the plot of the play but also through the directional choices behind the scenes. 

            Clearly, gender swaps and hints of homosexuality are the core of Shakespeare’s message.  Through my reading of the play and outside research, it seems as though Shakespeare’s intentions were to challenge the boundaries of sex-based roles and heterosexuality during his era.


 Works Cited:

Charles, Casey. "Gender Trouble in Twelfth Night." Theatre Journal, Vol. 49, No. 2. pp. 121-141. JSTOR. The Johns Hopkins University Press, May 1997. Web. 3 Nov. 2013.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3208678