Decorum: Defined as the dignified propriety of conduct,
manners, or appearance, decorum is by extension a social practice, part of the
customs and observations of a polite society.
(http://www.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/female_tatler/decorum.html)
Bianca, in “The Taming of the Shrew”
represents the decorum, the virtue, innocence and mildness a woman should show
at the time. She learns latin and music, she obeys her father, she is waiting
to get married and she behaves in the way she was expected to. In Shakespeare
plays characters speak and behave according to who they are and she is the
sister of the “Shrew”, her function is to emphasize her sister bad
behaviour by acting just in the opposite way. Although at the end of the play
Bianca suffers an important change in her attitude, she is no more docile nor
obedient, her sweet and soft manners were just the image she wanted to show in
order to achieve a husband because she knew that was what she was expected to
be. Her beauty and her submissive
attitude are the main features which makes her attractive for men and also her
decorum and good manners.
Rosalind ( woman in disguise)
“Rosalind, the heroine of As You Like It, has more lines than
any of Shakespeare's female characters. Cleopatra comes in second with 670
lines and third place belongs to Imogen (Cymbeline),
with 591 lines.”
(“Which female Shakespearean character has the most lines?”
From Amanda Mabillard,
http://shakespeare.about.com/od/studentresources/f/femalelines.htm)
Regarding
the importance of identity confusion and costumes in Shakespeare’s plays
we can speak about Rosalind, in “As You Like It”.
Rosalind is
the daughter of the exiled Duke Senior who has been banished and has gone to
the Forest
of Arden.
She and her cousin Celia escape from the Court
to the forest and Rosalind adopts a male disguise as a measure of
security for her journey. She adopts the name ''Ganymede," this name in
Greek mythology, belongs to an androgynous youth raped by Zeus.( The name carries strong homosexual connotations).
When she
arrives in Arden, Rosalind keeps her male disguise even though she is now safe and has
no reason to do so. So Rosalind is a woman who pretends to be a boy.
(As You Like It |
Rosalind ,Character Analysis,http://www.enotes.com/ayli/36272)
If we
imagine the performance at the time this character was double disguised, the
actor was a young boy who had to interpret a female character, but at the same
time this female character is disguised as a man in the plot of the play.
Rosalind
enters the Forest
of Arden
in search of freedom but the costume also gives her another kind of freedom
because at the time it was a patriarchal society in which women were under male
control so becoming a boy gives her a kind of freedom she had never felt
before. In her boy's disguise, she escapes (for a time) the limitations of
being a woman.
Her
duplicity produces confusion in the play, for instance Orlando, who loves Rosalind, doesn’t recognize her and treats
Ganymedes as a male confidant and talks to him about his love for Rosalind. She
teaches him how to woo Rosalind so it’s a funny situation. The disguise
is very obvious to the audience but is unnoticed by the characters in the play,
and at the same time, seeing a woman dressed as a man would be extremely comic
at the time.
Rosalind’s
male disguise also produces another confusion , Phoebe, a female character,
falls in love with Ganymedes thinking “he” is a boy.
(http://absoluteshakespeare.com/plays/as_you_like_it/as_you_like_it.htm)
Homoeroticism
“Homoheroticism ocurrs in some
Shakespearian plays in a rather subversive way, masked with enough ambiguity to
escape censure, like the relationship between Antonio and Bassanio in The
Merchant of Venice.”
(Bruce
R. Smith,Pride, Politics and Prejudice, http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/plays/articles.aspx?&id=163
Even though Orlando is supposed to be in love with Rosalind, he seems to
enjoy the idea of acting out his romance with the beautiful, young boy
Ganymede, almost as if a boy who looks like the woman he loves is even more
appealing than the woman herself. Phoebe,
too, is more attracted to the feminine Ganymede than to the real male, Silvius (the real boy who is in love with her).
As You Like It is influenced by the
pastoral tradition, which typically contains elements of same-sex love. In the Forest of Ardenne, homoerotic relationships are possible.
As
You Like It explores different kinds of love between members of the same
sex. Celia and Rosalind, for instance, are extremely close friends, they are
cousins, and the profound intimacy of their relationship seems at times more
intense than that of ordinary friends. Indeed, Celia’s words in Act I,
scenes ii and iii echo the protestations of lovers. But we can’t assume
that Celia or Rosalind possesses a sexual identity as clearly defined as our
modern understandings of heterosexual or homosexual.
(http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/asyoulikeit/terms/theme_5.html )
As You Like It,
contains comic situations in which a woman poses as a man, a device that exploits
the fact that in Shakespeare's day women's roles were played by boys. While the
situations thus presented are heterosexual
in terms of the story, the stage image of same-sex wooing and kissing may well
have been titillating to those of a homosexual orientation, and while other
dramatists occasionally used the same device, Shakespeare seems to have had an
exceptional preference for it, using it in five of his plays.
(http://www.shaksper.net/archives/1995/0038.html)
Women Rivalry
Bianca Vs Catherine; They are sisters and their relationship couldn’t
be worst. Since the
beginning Bianca is seen like the favourite daughter, and her sister is placed
second in her father’s affection and despised by all others .But Bianca, apparently gentle
in her behaviour, is an unkind sister. She fosters her father’s attitude
of favouritism for herself and dislike for Catherine by playing the part of a
noble victim. Their attitudes are totally opposed, while Catherine is the
“shrew” Bianca is the “angel” and at the end, when
Catherine has been tamed, Bianca shows her real bad manners.
(http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-the-taming-of-the-shrew.htm)
Rosalind Vs. Celia; They are cousins and they get on really well but as wit and philosopher Rosalind plays a dominant role while Celia is a flat character in comparison. Celia and
Rosalind both show indomitable tongues when mocking Le Beau and confusing him
when asking him the colour of his sport, and though Rosalind takes over the
action when they reach Arden, Celia shares the stage at Court
with her in equal degree, acting as a sister. Even in Arden Celia has quite
strong parts Celia ends up as being less vibrant than Rosalind.
(As You Like It - Rosalind & Stock Dramatic
Types Written by Kenneth Wee, 1A01B, September 1995. http://web.singnet.com/~yisheng/notes/ayli/flatchar.htm)
Academic year 2006/2007
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Latorre Arnedo, Isabel
usuario@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de Valčncia Press