Twelfth Night Essay: The Necessity of Cross-dressing -- Twelfth Night

The Necessity of Cross-dressing Twelfth Night The action of Twelfth Night begins unaw atomic number 18s after a damaging tempest shipwrecks the heroine, casting her upon foreign shores. Upon arriver in this strange seaport, genus Viola--like the Princess Leonide--dons potent disguise which facilitates both employment and prison term enough to orient herself in this unfamiliar territory. Violas transvestism functions as emblematic of the antic nature of Illyrian society. As contemporary feminist and Shakespearean scholars are quick to point out, cross-dressing foregrounds not only the concept of role play and thus the constructed or performative nature of gender but also the machinations of power. Viola can only make her way in this alien body politic if she assumes the trappings--and with these garments the--privileges of masculinity. Her doublet and hose act as her passport and provide her with a livelihood, a love interest, and friendship (just as Leonides breeches allow her passage into Hermocrates garden). Violas male masquerade also calls attention to the more general theme of masking. As Cesario, Viola suggests that things are not always as they seem, that identities are protean, that self-deceit rivals self-knowledge and that only Time can untie complicated knots. Coppelia Kahn points out that the cross-dressing in Twelfth... ... scathing Interpretations, ed. Harold Bloom (New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1987) 43. For further discussion on reincarnation gender performance and identity politics among Shakespeares cross-dressed heroines, see Michael Shapiros Gender in Play on the Shakespearean Stage Boy Heroines and Female Pages (Ann arbor The University of MIchigan Press, 1994). 6- Elliot Krieger, Malvolio and Class Ideology in Twelfth Night, Modern Critical Interpretation, ed. Harold Bloom (New York Chelsea HousePublishers, 1987) 24. 7- J.M. Lothian and T.W. Craik, In troduction, The Arden Shakespeare Twelfth Night , ed. Lothian and Craik (New York Routledge, 1991) lvi.