Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama - Essay Example

?Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama William Shakespeare wrote masterpieces in the field of English literature which are still un- paralleled in moderntimes. Relationships between sexuality, gender and power were mainly depicted in late 15th century and start of 16th century (Kastan, 2005). Shakespeare used to deploy the concepts of forged identities in the English literature in order to show both the sides of picture in terms of human expressions. The same approach was used at the optimal level in start of 16th century. The name of the literary work was Twelfth Night, in which a girl named Viola survive and accident of a ship, all the ship is wrecked and apparently every one dies except of Viola. The first depiction of human physiology is shown at this point. How the relationship of gender discrimination is shown. Viola thinks that if she will go in public as alone and abandoned female, people will exploit her situation and make her abuse sexually in any forms. She decides to falsify her identity and disguise herself as male and names herself with a new brand named “Cesario”. Her journey starts from the shore of Illyria. (Grosz & Wendler, 2006) The facade of her new identify protects her and she makes her way into the town and gives herself in the service works of Orsino, who is the then duke of Illyria (Ray, 2007). The duke named Orsino falls in love with her, but she is mourning the death (apparent) of her twin brother Sebastian who was with her in the ship which was now wrecked. The domination of male gender is shown at this spot. The Duke makes many advances to exploit her sexually but she refuses every time. At one time when the duke got admittance to her chamber she got over whelmed by passionate infatuation and falls in love with her. The power of the Duke and political caliber also makes a role at this spot because Olivia was in search of a native environment. A great confusion is added to the scene when brother of Olivia, Sebastian arrives in Illyria. She was moved to the core to see her brother. Because they both were twins, now the race starts to hide the disguise and not to be exposed in the public. The main theme here is the power of gender in that time and how one can use the transgressions of sex in an environment (2010). The role of Orsino’s suit shows Olivia the real value of gender power and role of woman in a relationship. In response of the Duke’s exploitation, Instead of the desires she was not able to change the course of relationship into true love rather it was just the fulfillment of desires for some instance and then everything was faded away. But when in the society, among the general masses, she felt more strong and confident when she was in a disguise of Cesario because she felt that she can order and live a life of endowment. The gender discrimination went all along the play, and quest for acquaintance continued for Olivia between hr two versions (Shakespeare & Snodgrass, 2008). The character of Cesario also gave many glimpse of gender differentiation in the society as being a man; Olivia reflected that when she is in disguise of man, she has more respect, impact on the society and as compared to the forged behavior of woman. (Azar, 2007) The disguise also gave her different approaches to evaluate different behavior of people around her and she saw that when she is the mistress in the dukes throne, she did not get chance to have a high impact on political issues because there was no love with her. The falsifying of a female character as a male character gives Olivia, both sides of picture to reflect the serious consequences and implications of being a female in a society. The court room and corridors of Duke’s politics could have been different if Olivia was a male in a sense to effect more on society but this case was different in the present situation depicted by William Sheakspeare, but because of the female gender backdrop, Olivia’s assertiveness is less provocative and more comic. Duke started to give her respect in some forms and this gave an idea to Olivia that even by remaining a female in this society can give her chance to oblige respect for her and other women even if they remain as mistress in the houses. But at the time passed away, she realized that real respect can only be gained if the evil desires of men can gain a proper channel and this respect which is just apparent is not enough to have an impact on society. As Olivia says at one point in the play that beauty let her sustain the house of the duke which was not possible if she did not used her beauty to gain the access to the upper court This shows the reflections in mind she was having about the situation she was going through. She found that there was a serious relationship between sexuality in one’s life and its effects and implications by gender. Olivia uses her beauty to overshadow the shortcomings of being a female. She manipulates the happenings in many forms and uses the power of being the first lady in order to get her chances to survive. For example, at one point she slides her veil from her beautiful face and dominates the situation by making some flirty dialogues. “Is it not well done?” (I, v, 235) say Olivia and occupy the man. At some point she felt that being a young boy and disguising as Cesario is not of that impact in society as compared to being the first lady and rocking the corridors of politics of the Duke. She has somehow some way impact on him because she gave him much with her services and being a female gave her an edge in some sort. Another social dilemma was shown by William Shakespeare when he depicted that how it is difficult for a woman to express her love for who she loves whereas A man can easily do that and take his chances without any fear of the society. She says at one point when she was trying to express her internal feelings so that people ay understand it but at the end she remains unsuccessful in this because there is a specific time when she can have expressed her love, after that time lover goes. Making the two women in charge of the courts proceedings was the main part which depicted an alternative for women empowerment because there has to be some way to solve the problems of women, whether they are in male dress or female. The dynamics of heterosexual courtship is put under scrutiny when such dominance was shown. Shakespeare suggests an alternative to this system in which love no longer is constrained by sexual differences. Transgression can vary from place to place but main theme by many critics say that gender is not just limited to dresses or physical orientation rather it has to do with the basic mindset of the society (Morrow & Messinger, 2006), for example there was a mindset in the society of Illyria that man had a great upper hold than woman that was the main reason why the disguise was used by Olivia. It was lucky point for Viola that we she was exposed at the end of play no harm was done to her may be because her “services” were taken but this thing does not ensure the legal status of female empowerment , Orsino sees her as a social equal, declaring her to be her “master’s mistress” (V.i.326). Artistic depictions on the play showed that after being at the service for the duke, at the end she was declared as a “mistress” of duke of a first lady which eventually moved her status upwards but not necessarily provided her with immediate functions of courtships. The end of the play went good and everyone ends up in pairs getting love and romance except one character. The social status is revealed and extended of Viola but not in very much positive way because she remain a mistress to household of Duke and she cannot marry on her own with whom she love. The consent of marriage or sexual relations is not taken from her rather she has to say yes to what comes from the upper. This shows the relationship between gender and power but these predefined norms were definitely changed by illicit use of sexual power of Viola in the play. The similar synopsis and theme is followed in Ben Jonson’s “Volpone” which is the depiction of a man’s lust for worldly benefits and how a man can abate in order to get the benefits of the world. Acrostic power is used in the form of rhymes by the author to depict and explain the main essence of this play. A miser named Volpone uses the method of falsifying and disguise to such an extent that people think that he is now on his death bed. Volpone exploits this situation and pretends to be mortally ill so that he can get lust and benefits from the people in a contest of getting heirs and successors of Volpone (Jonson & Gifford, 1853). Only Mosca knows the internal scheme of Volpone and sticks until the end with the plan until Volpone's scheme is nearly exposed by two informers. Volpone is recognized as one of Jonson’s major works. It was written a long time ago but if we use analogy of this play in today’s society, all seems to be true and everything that was shown as a part of behaviors and anthropological instincts of men is evident in our society too but only differentiation of characters is present. The legal systems of modern world has somehow changed or drifted the massive magnitude of this nature but basics remain the same in the ideological process. The gender discrimination and lust for desire for women comes into play at this sport. Besides having gifts and other items from would be successors, Volpone find out that wife of one of the would-be successor is very much beautiful. In order to see her, He goes to the house of Corvino who has a very beautiful and young wife, named Celia. The husband of this woman tries to drive away Volpone but he clearly shows interest and his parasite forges a story and says that Volpone needs to sleep with young woman to have his revival before mortality. This scheme works and to utter discrimination and getting the lust of power, woman is used again and Celia is handed over to Volpone so that he can get his revival. In order to ditch the successors who are having hopes of getting all the money after the death of Volpone to prevent their scheme from coming to light. At the end of play, Volpone and Mosca went against each other. While Celia tries her best to avoid any kinds of shame and dishonor, Volpone advances towards her to fulfill his covetousness of inside. This shows how females are exploited and quest for sex is acquired because of this meanness/ Volpone starts off with a seduction speech to get Celia under his control but all goes in vain when Celia says a simple no to him. Then after the acme, Volpone shows his hidden evil instincts and tries to corner her up with the intention of rape. Celia tries to avoid the predictable behavior after the seduction speech in order to stop Volpone from invading the rights of her evil husband. Husband of Celia was trying to gain power in this world by selling of her wife but Celia remained faithful and denied any kind of offer to have power and she avoid exploitation. She has an inner shame that was enough to keep her intact, even this was against the laws made by so called movements working for female empowerment; this is because she refused to give herself up to a man who was not his husband rather his enemy. Strongest statements by her were said during the play, which are still worth to be written by golden words as she said and it is depicted in the text of the play. Many a times Celia tried to convince her husband that he should not sell his wife just for worldly beings, but the desire for power overcame love in this case. The play alluringly delineates the true animal instincts of human being and how one can coup for the massive attainment of lustful desires even in the evil way possible. That Volpone is a powerful moral study of human greed; cunningly wolfish desires and hunger for power and money are the main causes for gender discrimination that are showed in the play (Edmunds, 1920). The play also shows that how a friend of one time can be turned into a foe when the accomplishments are not achieved. When Volpone decides to finally inform the people that He is going to live then he again uses Mosca to carry out this task. He was getting the hallucinations that this act will turn into nightmare because Volpone has gained all that was needed for him to quench his acute and Machiavellian personality revolving around self centered problems. Volpone advises Voltore and says that “they said you were possessed: fall down and seem so" (lines 21-32) (Jonson & Campbell, 2007).The exchange between Mosca and Volpone depicts that Volpone was not aware that the successors of him were not curious after hearing the news that he will live as showed in the fifth act. The relationship between sexuality, power and exploitation of gender are collectively shown in the character of Volpone by Ben Jonson Volpone lacks the commitment to get what he needs in the lawful ways rather he enjoys the animalistic instincts more and more in evil ways like getting feasts, food and plenty of love making whenever he needs it (Hirsh, 1997). This is the same physic nature of men today that they are not ready to “earn” rather they focus on getting all feasts by snatching it. This evil mentality had a big rise after the industrial revolution and this thing was presented in many novels and plays by the gurus of English literature when they say the emerging problem in society. Cold winds, working in banks, labor , and building by hands were not the words in the dictionary of Volpone because he used to exploit the enjoyments but he loves making it in clever, deceitful ways, especially as a means toward food and lovemaking. He depicted the evil creature that is in constant search of different but wrong ways to get what he needed the most just for pleasure and hence using sexuality, gender exploitation as his primary means. This mentality needs to be changed for the good of humanity. (Griffiths, 2003) References Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form (2010). Twelfth night, or What you will, by William Shakespeare. 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(2005). Encyclopedia of British literature. New York, Oxford University Press.p393 MORROW, D. F., & MESSINGER, L. (2006). Sexual orientation and gender expression in social work practice: working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. New York, Columbia University Press.p344 RAY, M. K. (2007). The Atlantic companion to literature in English. New Delhi, Atlantic Publishers & Distributors.p545Top of Form SHAKESPEARE, W., & SNODGRASS, M. E. (2008). Twelfth night. Hoboken, N.J., Wiley. http://www.myilibrary.com?id=173263.p9 Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More