Twelfth Night By Shakespeares Influence Of Gender Roles...

Gender roles play a major part in interpreting plays and poems. From the Early Modern English period to the 18th century and Enlightenment to present day gender roles and how they are viewed have changed. In the first piece woman were viewed as less than men and had to maneuver around to please men. As time progresses, the second piece shows how gender roles become more equal in life. This changes through time and is shown when you read Twelfth Night by Shakespeare and A Nocturnal Reverie by Anne Finch. In Twelfth Night by Shakespeare was written during the Early Modern Period, this was a time where men were more prominent when it came to being in charge. The play Twelfth Night shows this when one of the main characters, a girl named†¦show more content†¦Twelfth Night is a very feminist play once readers have been reading it. The story’s protagonist is a woman, Viola. Viola displays herself as a rational, strong, witting woman, who has to disguise herself as a man to be able to become a faithful attendant of Orsino. With Viola doing this it creates a big sexual mess as Viola falls in love with Orsino but cannot tell him since he still thinks she is a man. While Olivia, who is the object of Orsino’s affection, falls for Cesario, the disguise for Viola. Once Viola’s true identity is revealed Orsino declares his love for Viola which suggest that he may really just loved the masculinity she possessed. Orsino says to Viola, even after seeing her true identity, â€Å"Cesario, come; For so you shall be, while you are a man; But when in other habits you are seen, Orsinos mistress and his fancys queen† (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night 5.1.2599-26001). After everything has been reveled Orsino still calls Viola by her disguise name†¦her boy name, Cesario. The readers can only wonder is Orsino truly loved Viola for her or if he was in love with the male persona she gave. After reading â€Å"A Nocturnal Reverie† by Anne Finch read ers are able to see the transformation of gender roles through time. â€Å"A Nocturnal Reverie† was written in the 18th century, which was the start to improve the way women would be viewed in society. This was the start to many advances for women fromShow MoreRelated Comparing the Love of Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and the Bible4838 Words   |  20 Pagesenemies. (Matt 5:44) Shakespeares Biblical knowledge is well known and he was certainly familiar with these concepts as he wrote his plays on the subject of love. By looking closely at his works, we can analyze the nature of true love. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare gives an example of true love overcome by tragic fate. His star-crossed lovers are so madly in love with each other that they cannot live without being together. (RJ Prologue, 6) By contrast, in Twelfth Night the characters are soRead More The Roaring Girl Essay3978 Words   |  16 Pagesprimary function is usually plot driven--as a source of humor and a means to effect changes in characters through disguise and deception—cross dressing is also a sociological motif involving gendered play. My earlier essay on the use of the motif in Shakespeares plays pointed out that cross dressing has been discussed as a symptom of a radical discontinuity in the meaning of the family (Belsey 178), as cul-tural anxiety over the destabilization of the social hierarchy (Baker, Howard, Garber), as theRead MoreDuchess Of Malf Open Learn10864 Words   |  44 Pagesout textual analysis recognise some of the historical contexts of the play. Background John Webster (c.1580–c.1634) was Shakespeare’s contemporary, though sixteen years younger. He makes a brief appearance in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love as a boy who tortures mice, spies on Shakespeare’s love-making, and feels inspired to take up the pen himself after seeing Shakespeare’s blood-soaked revenge tragedy, Titus Andronicus. ‘Plenty of blood. That’s the only writing’, he asserts. This affectionateRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesyouve been having a good time. Yesterday you drove several hours into the area and parked in the main parking lot. Then you hiked six hours to your present campsite. The three of you carried all your food, water, sleeping bags, and tents. Last night you discovered that somebody had accidentally cracked the large water container. Now you are stuck with no water. Although there is a stream nearby, you wouldn’t normally drink from a stream, and you remember that your packets of water-sterilization