The Male Vs the Female: A Study of Viola’s Disguise in Twelfth Night

Shakespeare

The Male Vs the Female: a study of Viola’s disguise in Twelfth Night

Introduction: Disguise in Shakespeare’s plays

In seven of Shakespeare’s plays, there are female protagonists who appear dressed as men. Among these, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night and As You Like It make cross dressing an important part of the unfolding and the complication of plot. If Portia in Merchant of Venice and Rosalind in As You Like It broke the conventions of the time, Viola as Cesario outranked them both making Twelfth Night the perfect transvestite comedy.

It is necessary to know about the background of the time to understand why disguise of girls as boys was so remarkable in Shakespeare’s plays. The Renaissance was a time of contradictions, and the society in general was patriarchal. Women were submissive and answerable to men, and still followed the doctrine of “he for God only, and she for God in him” as would be enunciated later in Milton’s Paradise Lost. A righteous woman was “closed off, chaste, silent and immured within the home” (Howard, 424)

In the light of this status of woman, cross- dressing was considered a questioning of the authority of the all powerful man. If a woman pretended to be a man, she was assuming more rights than she was entitled to. It is this context that gives Twelfth Night its feminist perspective, that a woman takes destiny into her own hands. Viola, Twelfth Night's gender-bending heroine is one of Shakespeare’s most memorable characters for her disguise as Cesario. Shakespeare’s characters, be they men or women, were all played by men. Hence, Viola’s part would be played by a man, pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man. The play took the English theatre to greater heights.

How Cesario came to be: the Background

Viola’s introduction in the play comes after Orsino’s, and the reader is informed of a shipwreck which Viola believes has killed her brother. On being informed that she is now in Illyria, Viola wishes to serve under Orsino, having heard about him from the Captain, and long back from her father as a virtuous and noble man. She takes the captain into confidence that she will serve under Orsino as a page, Cesario. A male identity would no doubt help her mingle better with the crowds and seek any information about Sebastian, her brother. Viola however not only takes on the role of Cesario, the page but also Cesario, the messenger and Cesario, the subject of Lady Olivia’s affections, which lead to the many complications in the story.

Viola Vs Cesario:

Physical differences

 Viola as Cesario is dressed as a man physically, and yet biologically, she is a woman, and retains the characteristics of a woman. Interestingly, it is seen that the first physical description of Viola is made only when she becomes Cesario. However, the various descriptions are shrouded in ambiguity, none of the describers can place a finger on how exactly Cesario looks. According to Orsino,

“…Diana’s lip

Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe

Is as the maiden’s organ..” (Act 1, Scene IV)

This is the closest description we have of Viola as a girl, since Cesario cannot hide Viola’s voice (and actually uses it as a eunuch to entertain) and her physical attributes. Perhaps Orsino’s intimacy with Cesario makes him notice these attributes. This intimacy arises only because Viola is to him male, and this physical semblance makes Cesario the person to whom the Duke has “unclasp’d/ ..the book even of (his) secret soul”(Act 1, Scene 4)

On the other hand, the description of Cesario, as a stranger might describe him at first glance, comes from Malvolio, Olivia’s servant when Cesario arrives there to woo her on Orsino’s behalf. “Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy…One would think his mother’s milk were scarce out of him.”(Act 1, Scene V). Here lies the success of Viola’s disguise- a stranger cannot easily see through his outer appearance. Further proof of this convincing appearance as a man comes from the fact that Olivia falls in love with him and thinks that his appearance and his speech give him “five-fold blazon” or armorial bearings. Sebastian’s description of Viola confirms her beauty when he says she resembled him, and was considered very beautiful by many. Again, that Viola’s face might resemble a man’s is insisted upon, that indicates that the guise worked.

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