Literature Master Class

Shakespeare’s Gender Bending

The enlightened 20th and 21st century could be viewed as embracing the idea that presenting gender as polarised binary oppositions is too simplistic and does not reflect the way things actually are.Maybe put some images here or have them on a gallery as they come in?

But is this modern thinking anything new?

Shakespeare’s Renaissance plays seem to suggest that he had more than a little pre-occupation with the concept.

Let’s explore…

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Gender Bending: a modern and/or Renaissance pre-occupation?

Renaissance concepts of gender Modern concepts of genderBinary oppositions, structuralism and

literatureShakespeare’s theatricalityTwelfth Night: Viola/CesarioThe implications of Shakespeare’s gender

bendingOther Shakespearean women who challenge

gender

To explore:

Gender is the range of characteristics, attributes, behaviours and roles pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity Depending on the context, these characteristics may include:

biological sex sex-based social structures gender identity

What is Gender?

the physical state of being male, female or intersex

Biological sex

include gender roles and other social roles

(i.e. the patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions if the individuals)

Sex-based social structures

a person's private sense and subjective experience of their own gender. This is generally described as one's private sense of being a man or a woman, consisting primarily of the acceptance of membership into a category of people: male or female

Gender identity

What is it to be feminine in your eyes as a 21st century teenager? Roles? Attributes? Characteristics? Behaviours?

Would other contemporary groups of people or individuals consider the same?

Are these attributes innate or socially constructed?

Do the social structures/constructions determine the concept of femininity or vice versa?

Cultural Constructions of Femininityin the 21st Century

What is it to be masculine in your eyes as a 21st century teenager? Roles? Attributes? Characteristics? Behaviours?

Would other contemporary groups of people or individuals consider the same?

Are these attributes innate or socially constructed?

Do the social structures/constructions determine the concept of masculinity or vice versa?

Cultural Constructions of Masculinity in the 21st Century

Eurovision Song Contest1980s – Boy GeorgeMarilynBowieMarc BolanMargaret ThatcherTinky Winky

Is gender bending a modern concept?

The Renaissance literally “rebirth” - a revival of learning

through exploration of culture, classical texts and art rather than the medieval focus on scholastic, logic and religious dogma

a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life from the 14 to the 17th centuries

What about the Renaissance and Shakespeare?

seen as a transition from medieval to early modern thinking

began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe by the 16th century (when Shakespeare was creating his earlier plays)

The Renaissance and Shakespeare’s World

its influence was felt in literature, philosophy, art, music, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry.

paved the way for thinkers /writers to challenge the accepted norms of the world

Hello Shakespeare

In this cultural climate, Shakespeare seems to have been raising questions about: the standard images of males and femaleswhat the characteristics of each gender arewhat is defined as masculine and femininehow each gender possesses both masculine and

feminine qualities and behavioursthe nature and power of a hegemonic

patriarchythe roles women and men should play in acting

out the stories of their lives

Shakespeare, the Renaissance and Gender

He wasn’t alone, Queen Elizabeth I herself played with gender boundaries. In her famous speech to the troops at Tilbury who had gathered for the landing of the Spanish Armada, Elizabeth played both the female and the male role: 'I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too ... I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field."

Queen Elizabeth I

Gender

What Is Binary Opposition?A light switch is either on or off; in a

sports match, a team either wins or loses; water is either hot or cold; something in relation to something else can be left or right, up or down, or in or out. These are opposites - concepts that can't exist together.

Binary opposition is a key concept in structuralism

Binary Oppositions

Structuralism is a theory of sociology, anthropology, and linguistics that states that all elements of human culture can only be understood in relation to one another and how they function within a larger system or the overall environment.

Structuralism

“We often encounter binary oppositions in cultural studies when exploring the relationships between different groups of people, for instance: upper-class and lower-class, White and Negro or disabled and non-disabled. On the surface, these seem like mere identifying labels, but what makes them binary opposites is the notion that they cannot coexist”

Francesca M. Marinaro, PhD in English, the University of Florida 

Cultural Studies and Binary Oppositions

The problem with a system of binary opposites is that it creates boundaries between groups of people and leads to prejudice and discrimination.

One group may fear or consider a threat the 'opposite' group, referred to as the other.

Problems with Binary Oppositions

The use of binary opposition in literature is a system that authors use to explore differences between groups of individuals, such as cultural, class, or gender differences: muggles and wizards, Jekyll and Hyde

Authors may explore the grey area between the two groups and what can result from those perceived differences.

Binary oppositions in Literature

In Shakespeare's Renaissance world, women were meant to be mothers and wives, as the feminine representing the following: obedience silence chastity– morally/sexually pure (sex only within marriage) piety–devoutly religious sub-servience constancy – fidelity patience they were expected to be found INSIDE the house of their father or

husband passive weaker than men (physically, emotionally, intellectually, morally)All of these “virtues”, significantly, have their meaning in relationship to the male

Stereotypical Female Characteristics: Renaissance

In Shakespeare’s world, males were expected to:to engage in public affairs (as soldiers, politicians,

leaders)to be talkersmake decisionsmove events forwardthey led lives which were duty-bound (mostly to the

state)be aggressivebe self-satisfyingBoth these male and female characteristics were viewed as being part of “human nature”.

Stereotypical Male Characteristics: Renaissance

An interesting dimension of Shakespeare’s plays are the levels of gender bending:

Females were not allowed to act so all young female characters were played by young boys , probably teenagers just before their voices had broken. Older females were played by older male actors.

So as a theatre goer, the audience had already entered an unwritten, unspoken agreement to accept that men could be women: it’s possible to cross the boundaries

The complexities are manifold: in Twelfth night, you have a boy actor playing a girl (Viola) pretending to be a boy (Cesario). Along with questions about gender, Shakespeare’s audience, then and now, are also left with interesting observations about sexuality ( Orsino and Olivia’s feelings for Cesario)

Shakespeare’s Theatricality

How does Shakespeare explore “the grey area” between the two genders in Twelfth Night?

What does he seem to be suggesting?

Considering a Shakespeare Story: Twelfth Night

Viola and her twin brother Sebastian have been shipwrecked off the coast of Illyria. Each believes that the other has been drowned. Viola disguises herself as a boy and, under the name of Cesario, enters the service of the duke Orsino as his page. The duke sends Cesario to woo the lady Olivia on his behalf, but Olivia falls in love with the lovely 'boy'. Viola/Cesario, meanwhile, has fallen in love with Orsino. Sebastian is saved by the sea captain Antonio and he too arrives in Illyria. Malvolio, Olivia's steward, disapproves of the other members of her household – her kinsman Sir Toby Belch, his friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek and the jester Feste. Led by the ingenuity of Maria, Olivia's waiting-woman, these three plot Malvolio's downfall. Olivia meets Sebastian and, mistaking him for Cesario, arranges for them to be secretly married. Further confusion follows upon mistakes as to the identity of the twins. Orsino is furious at the apparent falseness of his page, but, with the eventual meeting of the twins, true identities are revealed and Orsino recognises his love for Viola and asks her to marry him. Maria and Sir Toby also marry and Malvolio leaves them all to celebrate.

Synopsis

Twelfth Night raises questions about the nature of gender and sexual identity.

I am all the daughters of my father's houseAnd all the brothers too. (119-120): Act 2, scene 4 Viola (Cesario)

Too well what love women to men may owe.In faith, they are as true of heart as we.My father had a daughter loved a manAs it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,I should your lordship. Act 2, scene 4 Viola (Cesario)

Some Food for Thought: Twelfth Night

The play stresses the potential ambiguity of gender: there are many instances in which characters refer to Cesario as an effeminate man.

Thy small pipeIs as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound,And all is semblative a woman's part. (32-34): Act 1, scene 4 Orsino

He is very well-favoured and he speaks very shrewishly; one would think his mother's milk were scarce out of him. (149-151) Act 1, scene 5,  Malvolio

Ambiguity 0f Gender

Viola’s  disguise as a man, which genuinely fools the other characters, to the extent that Olivia falls in love with her, is comical.

Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit,Do give thee fivefold blazon. Not too fast! Soft, soft!Unless the master were the man. How now?Even so quickly may one catch the plague?Methinks I feel this youth’s perfectionsWith an invisible and subtle stealthTo creep in at mine eyes.  Act 1, Scene 5, Olivia

 

Interestingly, on a further level, Olivia seems to be attracted to Cesario because "he" is such a womanly-looking man!

Male and female distinctions are not so firm

Viola: My father had a daughter loved a man,As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,I should your lordship.Orsino: And what's her history?Viola: A blank, my lord. She never told her love,But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,And with a green and yellow melancholyShe sat like patience on a monument,Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed? (105-114) Act 2, scene 4,  Orsino, Viola (Cesario)

Characters suggest stereotypes which the plot challenges

The indeterminacy of Viola/Cesario's gender would show that maleness and femaleness were just aspects of a role, qualities that are learned, not immutable physical trait

Gender as a Social Construct

Shakespeare's presentations of gender were politically radical:

They challenged hegemonic patriarchy by showing that females could behave as males, that they could possess “male” qualities” and attributes. And vice versa. There are no binary oppositions.

In other words, that definitions/concepts of male and female were social constructs, not human nature, not based on the sexual organs you were born with.

Male and female qualities are learned and, therefore, can be influenced and changed.

What are the implications of Shakespeare’s gender bending

in Twelfth Night?

Feminist criticism today focuses on many of these same issues. We can consider such critical inquiry by asking straightforward questions of and about Shakespeare's stories. So how can we use Shakespeare’s stories to pursue a critical enquiry of gender assumptions as well as confronting contemporary society’s own generalisations about gender?And can we consider Shakespeare to be a feminist?

Shakespeare, Gender and Feminism

RosalindPortia Juliet Lady Macbeth

More (not so obvious) Shakespearean Gender Bending Characters

Rosalind – another “loose woman” (fatherless)

is able to look after herselffool everyone that she is a man through

disguise take charge of action and events all with

intelligence and moral integrity

But all on the outskirts of the court and the male world…saturnalia – forest

Rosalind from As you Like It

Portia – chooses her own husbanddisguises herself as a lawyer Puts herself in the public sphere : the

intellectual, professional world of the man brings about the downfall of Shylock with a

finely tuned balance of justice and mercy

Portia from Merchant of Venice

Juliet – a feisty teenage rebel – she defies what’s expected of her as a submissive daughter, wife to be by defying her father and suggesting marriage to Romeo

Juliet from Romeo and Juliet

Lady Macbeth – often described as the “one who wears the trousers” in her relationship with the brave soldier Macbeth: Her shocking plea to the spirits: “ ...........................unsex me here,And fill me from the crown to the toe topfulOf direst cruelty”

is her vivid way of asking to be stripped of feminine wekaness and filled with masculine resolve.

Lady Macbeth from Macbeth

Well he certainly seems to be suggesting, in a radical way, challenging the constructs of society, that females can adapt their behaviour, attributes, characters to conform to the masculine constructs of our expectations

Indeed- the very nature of theatre necessitates that males can pull it off as females

So all good- Shakespeare was a proto-feminist?

Can Shakespeare be considered a feminist?

Maybe – maybe not.Let’s look at the structure of his comedies.

Comedies - endings – married off – defined by their man.

In the tragedies, Lady Macbeth goes mad and dies, Juliet kills herself

Structure of his plays

Is it conformist –is he tying up the knots in a safe way in the conventions both theatrically and socially?

Or is he celebrating the differences while suggesting things could change?

Or is he saying – look at how it could be but this is what it is – even more subversive?

What do you think?A liberated thinker, restricted by the social

constraints/idealogy of his time?

Possible Interpretations

As You Like ItThe Merchant of VeniceTwelfth NightRomeo and JulietMacbethhttp://www.christinehoffkraemer.com/merchant.html

on Portia Lisa JardineJardine, Lisa. Still Harping on

Daughters. New Jersey: Barnes & Noble, 1983. Catherine Belsy: The Subject of Tragedy: Identity

and Difference in Renaissance Drama, 1987

Further Reading

http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/victorian-sexualities

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/old-WILLA/fall96/gerlach.html Revisiting Shakespeare and Gender

Research Useful Resources