Shakespeare's 12th Night - Term Paper Example

Shakespeare also brings to the fore the problem of metaphysics by dealing with the problems of appearance and reality in a world full of illusions. The equations of gender in the real world are also brought to the fore, since the actor playing the role of Viola, who cross-dresses, would have actually been a boy actor, since women were not allowed to act on the stage in Elizabethan times. This paper shall seek to address these issues through the instances of cross-dressing that the play Twelfth Night offers.

The importance of appearance in determining the love that a person feels for the other is articulated through the trope of cross-dressing in the comedy, Twelfth Night. Lady Olivia’s love for Cesario that is quickly changed to a love for Viola’s twin brother Sebastian represents a change of feelings that depends only on the appearance of the lover, since it is the similarity of countenance that attracts lady Olivia to Viola’s brother. The similarity of appearance is remarked when the siblings reveal themselves and the comment on the illusory quality of appearance is complete. . Cesario’s (Viola’s) feelings for Orsino are too, in part, derived from the appearance of Orsino; however, in this relationship, Shakespeare shows how it is possible for a person, even though appearances are against the fulfillment of a love, to love another person.

The trope of cross-dressing thus serves to reveal the arbitrary nature of love that transcends the material considerations of the society that one lives in. the Viola-Orsino relationship is held up, thus, as the model for love that is the most desirable as it unites considerations of love and materiality. This is possible only through a change in the dynamics of the one-sided Lady Olivia-Orsino relationship. The trope of cross-dressing enables this. The metaphysical nature of appearance and illusions is also commented upon by Shakespeare through the trope of cross-dressing since every appearance that the characters in the play have regarding appearance is subverted through the trope of cross-dressing as the world that they envision is based upon a strict divide between the two sexes.

A destabilization of these relations of gender is also the effect of the cross-dressing Viola flitting through different identities based on her gender. She is however, able to transcend material realities by her love, that is based less on considerations of the society than on her personal emotions. The presence of the passionate relationship that Antonio shares with Sebastian borders on the sexual and this enhances the subversion that is sought to be effected upon gender relations in the heteronormative Elizabethan society that invested heavily in the binaries of heterosexuality.

The trope of cross-dressing also brings to the fore the issue of the limitations of the theatre in portraying women