A comparison between Rosalind and Viola respectively in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ and ‘Twelfth Night’

The expectations of women in the Elizabethan era were totally different from those in the 21^st century. As the protestant leader John Knox expressed so brilliantly, they believed that “[w]oman in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man.” Their role in society was limited to being a worthy housewife and a caring mother. The common Elizabethan woman did not have access to any formal type of education, nor could she vote or inherit her father’s possessions. She was dependent on her male relatives: before her marriage she was expected to obey her father and as soon as she married she was subdued to the will of her husband. (Before the dissolution of the monasteries, women who did not marry could become a nun, but in Shakespeare’s time the only possibility for these exceptional women was domestic service –or, less probable, to become Queen.

One of the main reasons that theatre was so popular is the fact that it provided an alternative world which was totally different from everyday life. For the spectators, theatre was a short escape from their colourless lives with plenty of rules. At the theatre, things happened that were totally unimaginable for Elizabethan women: to be disobedient to her father’s will or even worse, to dress like a man. In this essay, I will discuss the cross-dressing of Viola and Rosalind, two heroines that respectively perform in Shakespeare’s two masterpiece-comedies Twelfth Night and As You Like It. After a short situation of both the plays, I will explain the relevance of dressing themselves as men, and throw light on to what extent their dressing up dramatically changed the actions in the play.

In Elizabethan times cross-dressing was heavily criticized by the patriarchal society. It was inextricably associated with sexual misdemeanours: women with secret affairs would secretly dress like a man to cut and run from their husbands and illegal prostitutes on the street would disguise as a man to prevent getting caught. Cross-dressing was surrounded by an atmosphere of scandal, and so was theatre.

The first character I will discuss will be Rosalind, a most delightful heroine from As You Like It. Rosalind is the daughter of Duke Senior, who is banished from the court by his younger brother Frederick. Frederick’s daughter, Celia, is Rosalind’s best friend and both still live at his court. Rosalind falls in love with a young man called Orlando, but even before this romance can be further developed, she is banished from the court by her cruel uncle Frederick who threatens to kill her if she ever comes near the court again. Rosalind decides to disguise herself as a boy called Ganymede and flees to the Forest of Arden. Celia alias Aliena and Touchstone, the court’s jester, keep her company. But they are not alone: also Orlando, attended by his servant, fled to the forest to escape from the tyranny of his elder brother. Orlando confidentially tells Rosalind that he’s madly in love. Rosalind, as Ganymede, promises to help Orlando over his ‘problem’ if he agrees to act as if Ganymede were Rosalind. When Orlando accepts the deal and Phoebe, a young shepherdess, falls in love with Ganymede, the absolute confusion can begin...

The main reason for Rosalind to disguise herself as a man is to ensure that their escape from the court runs safely without anybody noticing them:

Rosalind: Were it not better,  115  

Because that I am more than common tall,   

That I did suit me all points like a man?

A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh,   

A boar-spear in my hand; and--in my heart   

Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will--  120  

We'll have a swashing and a martial outside,   

As many other mannish cowards have   

That do outface it with their semblances. Act I Scene II

Once in the forest the danger of being discovered by her evil uncle is less persistent. Nevertheless, Rosalind opts for remaining disguised as Ganymede. This dressing up enables her to manipulate the actions more easily throughout the play: after all, who would ever accept a woman as a love tutor? As Ganymede she is able to give her beloved Orlando instructions to be a better lover, something that would never be accepted of a woman, let alone that the woman who actually loved him would be able to offer him this love lessons. She also dares to reprimand Silvius for his irrational worshipping of Phoebe, the shepherdess. At the end of the play, Rosalind –as Ganymede- firmly takes the lead in resolving the chaos. She brings the various couples-to-be together before Duke Senior and his entourage: her niece Celia and Oliver, Phoebe and Silvius, Touchstone and Audrey (a goatherd he would love to marry) and finally Orlando. She makes the duke promise that he would give Orlando his conscent to marry his daughter if she would be there and, most interesting of all, makes Phoebe promise that she will marry Silvius if she might refuse to marry Ganymede for some reason. When Rosalind and Celia –still dressed like the shepherdess Aliena- withdraw but come back as their real selves, the wedding ceremony can begin. Hymen, the god of matrimony weds the four couples and the first quadruple happy ending is established. However, her cross-dressing also causes problems during the play. A striking example is Phoebe falling madly in love with the young and handsome Ganymede. At the same time, these misunderstandings are one of the main sources of humour in the play, which is a comedy after all.

The second cross-dressing female heroine in this essay is Viola in Twelfth Night. Viola and her brother Sebastian are an aristocratic twin from Messaline. They are shipwrecked near the shore of Illyria. Viola is drifted ashore alone, thinking that her brother has died in the shipwreck. Searching an income, she wants to work in the household of Lady Olivia. This is a problem though, as the lady is mourning the death of her father and does not wish to speak to any stranger. Therefore Viola decides to disguise herself as a man. She calls herself Cesario and starts working in the household of Duke Orsino, who is madly in love with the mourning Olivia. The duke gets along very well with Viola –dressed like Orsino- and already makes her his page on the third day of her stay. Viola finds herself in an impossible situation: she is falling in love with the Duke, which is impossible as he thinks Viola is a man. When Cesario has to bring a message to the fair Olivia, the chaos is complete as she falls for the beautiful Cesario. Viola finds herself trapped in her ingenious disguise, but luckily Sebastian arrives at the climax of confusion taking over the male role Viola has been playing the whole time. This finally enables Viola to be herself again.

In Elizabethan times, single women always were looked upon with suspicion, and even more intensively if there were no male relatives to attend her. Thus, Viola is practically obliged to take a male disguise to survive and ensure that she, totally alone, will be able to make her own way in Illyria. This is in great contrast to Rosalind in As You Like It: Rosalind shows off in her male role and finds pleasure in playing Ganymede. She takes the lead in the action during the whole play, whereas Viola not really manipulates the events: she is just trying to keep her head above water. Viola’s main concern is not to be caught and unmasked, for she would lose her post at Orsino’s household and worse, not be able to see him anymore. Another great difference is that Viola is alone in her actions: nobody else knows that there is another –female- person behind Cesario. This explains her numerous wordplays on her womanhood, destined to the public such as ‘I am not that I play’ (Act I Sc V line 176), ‘I am all the daughters of my father’s house’ (Act 2 Sc IV lines 120-121) or ‘I am not what I am’ (act III Sc I line 139). These lines must also have been a source of humour for Shakespeare’s public by the constant shifting of forms: the female roles were played by boy actors, playing a woman who pretends to be a man. Viola curses the state she is in, saying “Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness” (Act II, sc I, line 26). Rosalind, on the other hand, has Celia as her partner in crime to share jokes with and to reaffirm her femininity, which enlightens the weight of having to be someone else drastically.

Both women willingly take up their expected female role again at the end of the plays. After them challenging the boundaries of the gender system in the Elizabethan era, it is essential to keep in mind that they freely take up the ideal role for a woman in Shakespeare’s time: to get married. Even though the order is established again at the end of the play, Shakespeare’s texts could be considered as being quite open-minded for his times.

To conclude, we might say that the cross-dressing of both the heroines is the main drive that propels both the plays, and the main source of chaos and the humour that that implies.

Bibliography

Alexander, Michael: A History of English Literature. Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, 2000.

Howard, Jean: Cross-dressing, The Theater, and Gender Struggle in Early Modern England. Shakespeare Quarterly 39, 1988.

Shakespeare, William: As You Like It. London: J. M. Dent & sons LTD, 1935.

Shakespeare, William: Twelfth Night. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

http://shakespeare-online.com

http://www.elizabethi.org/us/women/

http://www.wikipedia.org