Gender roles are determined by one’s traits, interests, and interactions within society. In the play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare and the movie She’s the Man, gender roles are presented diversely in many male and female characters. Viola’s interests are portrayed differently in both the play and the movie. In the film and the text, Duke Orsino’s attitude is expressed disparately. In Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare and the movie She’s the Man, male and female roles are presented in distinct ways. In the film and the text, women's interests are portrayed dissimilarly. In the film, Viola acts more manly than in the play. When Viola’s mom forces her to attend the beauty pageant, she refuses to participate. This shows Viola’s struggles …show more content…
In the Shakespearean era, women were considered weak and needed the protection of men. They only performed what their roles were considered at the time and both genders had entirely separate roles. Females in the play had assigned tasks, unlike the film. Woman’s objectives are presented differently in the movie than the play. Viola, in the film, hides her identity to gain gender equality. This is shown when Viola makes the Illyria soccer team and is forced to pretend she is her brother, Sebastian, instead of her true identity. However, beating the Cornwall soccer team, she makes a point that women are just as tough as men. Viola’s powerful transformation proves gender equality. In the film, women’s goals are presented distinctively from the play. In the play and the movie, women’s purpose are reflected in diverse ways. Viola, in the play, as a young female, hides her identity to protect herself. Viola disguises her identity because she senses weakness in herself without her brother.“Conceal me what I am, and be my aid / For such disguise as haply shall become / The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke” (1.2.50-53). By disguising herself as a man, Viola feels secure to challenge anything that comes her way. She also feels respected since society, in the shakespearean era, was dominated by men. In the text, Viola’s plan is aimed in a different direction than the
Viola reveals that she was acting as Sabastian while he was away because her soccer team got cut, and she was showing how that girls can be better at soccer than boys. So she revealed that she was a girl by lifting up her shirt and Sabastian revealed that he was a boy by pulling his pants down. But Sabastian did not even know that his sister was acting as him for the whole two weeks while he was away playing in a band. The principle was shocked when Sabastian pulled his pants down and viola lifted her shirt up.
The author does a really good job accomplishing his goal because he put Viola in Sebastian shoes in this meant that I love your face all the difficulties that Sebastian would've faced if he was at school so this shows that Viola is capable of doing anything that a man would be able to do. I honestly really enjoyed watching this film. While watching this film it connected to our world entirely. We connected because in our society there are lots of rules that require only man and females won't be able to take the part in those rolls because we don't think that women can do the same things as men. In the movie the boys soccer team didn't think that Viola is would be able to be as good as them just because she was a girl.
So, she dresses up as her brother Sebastian and goes to the school Illyria to play on the boys soccer team and beat her old school 's team. In the play The Twelfth Night, Violas boat sinks, landing her in Illyria. In order to get a job for the Duke, she must disguise herself as a
Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, focuses on the tumultuous events that surround a regicide. Despite being the shortest of Shakespeare’s plays, in his critical study of the play A. C. Bradley concludes that due to its vehement nature the audience is left with an impression “not of brevity but of speed” . The principal female character of Lady Macbeth is arguably one of his most contentious. Consumed with intense passion, ambition and greed she challenges the subservient role of the traditional Elizabethan woman. She has disturbed, horrified and intrigued both contemporary and modern audiences alike through her powerful diction.
Olivia Lynch Mrs. Butterfield AP Lit 5/1/16 When you are ready to dive into the vast world of Shakespeare, you can begin by using what is known as a critical lens. The lens that may help you understand the background details of one of Shakespeare’s plays would be the Historical lens. Although there are many different lens that you can use to interpret a story, the Historical Lens is a great lens to dive into to find what really influenced the great ideas of William Shakespeare as he wrote Hamlet including the role gender plays, the comparison of Elizabeth Tudor, and the religious incorporation throughout the play. First, we can take the Historical Lens and dive into the idea of how gender roles were highly represented in Hamlet
Both the play Real Women Have Curves by Josefina Lopez and the movie adaptation make an attempt to communicate the message of female empowerment through their respective protagonists, Estela and Ana. Men resolve most of Ana’s problems, whereas Estela relies on herself and other women. The play conveys the theme of female empowerment because it is female-centric, successfully addresses the issues of body image, and focuses on women’s independence and self-validation. Lopez’s play serves as an example of what can happen when women uplift and depend on each other, as opposed to men.
Throughout all of macbeth, gender roles are present in all of the halls of Macbeth's castle. It is extraordinary how William Shakespeare has molded and set examples of the male masculinity struggle and to uphold it, while on the other side how women must be treated as fragile birds. Shakespeare uses gender roles ironically to portray the complexity of the characters he has created. With all of human characters, the witches on their own face gender roles in the way of their appearances.
Viola’s aspirations are not to go against the social order as she is not a real servant but the play allows her to transgress and glide through the class mobility. She epitomizes social fluidity, transgressing the boundaries of specific roles in society. However her flexibility is asserted on her higher social status with which she begins the play. This once again proves that although the boundaries can be broken, only the elite bourgeoisie can truly permeate them completely. Malvolio remains ‘mad’ for admitting his love while Viola moves upwards to gain marriage.
Twelfth Night seems to present gender as a mask to be worn and taken off at will, a fluid concept that changes to suit one’s needs and emotions. By playing Cesario, Viola partly becomes this version of herself, so Olivia, by loving Cesario, has feelings for Viola by extension. When Sebastian makes his reveal, Olivia marries him for two reasons. The first is an external piece of reasoning, being that in Elizabethan comedies such as this, heterosexual pairings must happen for the play to follow the fairly strict expectations of a comedy. The second falls to Sebastian’s demeanor.
Lastly the movie in the play both reacted very weirdly to viola coming out they didn't freak out like was expected in both Twelfth night and She's the Man. The movie and the play are pretty much based off the same thing love, but the movie started off with soccer, where the play was just mainly about love and the shipwreck. Most parts in the movie and play have the same concept. There is a difference between the way they spoke back then versus how they speak right now. The play was written in more Shakespearean text like it was when the play was written and the movie has more modern language more like how people speak now.
There is some speculation of women pretending to be men in these times to play female characters as that was the only way they could be on stage. This, however, can’t be proven. The perception in society was that the theater was better suited for men. The roles of women in English drama were all roles conceived by men, because all the ancient playwrights were men. It is a testament to how great theater of the time was that it became so popular with men speaking love soliloquies to each other.
In today’s world, gender expectations and roles of men and women are a highly debated topic. However, the reconsidering of these expectations is not a new phenomenon. Set in Verona, Italy, the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare explores the reversal and fluidity of characteristics usually assigned to a specific gender. In this play, two young people fall in love and end up tragically taking their lives as a result of their forbidden love. Shakespeare suggests that men are not necessarily masculine, women are not necessarily feminine, and that when people are forced by society to act the way their gender is “supposed” to, problems will arise.
“And though she be but little, she is fierce” -William Shakespeare. In today’s day and age, one of the greatest topics of debate is gender roles. It is evident everywhere, from cyberspace to the streets of home, from online petitions to marches across the country such as the Women’s March. Shakespeare lived in the Elizabethan Era of England, where Queen Elizabeth I, the virgin queen ruled.
In Twelfth Night, Viola and Olivia are the central characters to the play’s plot. Each are young women that take approaches to dealing with the people around them, which are mainly men. There is much trickery that goes on in Twelfth Night, but the ending is for the most part happy. Viola marries Orsino and Olivia marries Sebastian, but the events leading up to this are more or less chaotic. Ultimately, I argue that while Olivia uses her higher social status in order to maintain control of herself and others, Viola resorts to trickery in order to bring about her desires.
Shakespeare uses Viola (Cesario) as an example of a mechanism that can throw internal conflicts into temporary chaos. Viola willingly faces whatever comes in her way. Her love for Duke Orsino seems too constant and true, unlike the other characters in the play. The temporary chaos of the play is when Viola falls in love with Orsino, who falls in love with Olivia, who on the other hand falls in love with Viola’s disguise, Cesario. This love triangle is very complicated as none of them realize that Cesario is a woman, making this an internal conflict for Viola, as she cannot ‘truly’ love whom she wants.