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INTRODUCTION

 

William Shakespeare has become, through all his works, a great master of the ambiguity and misleading identities. One of the most common ambiguities found in his plays is that of sexual nature. There are numberless papers dealing with Shakespeare’s own sexual ambiguity. One of the main reasons supporting this idea of Shakespeare’s sexual tendencies may be the addressee of part of his sonnets. Anyway, whether the themes of his plays were directly influenced by his life or not, the fact is that many of the characters he created were somewhat confusing and did not follow one single line of behavior.

 

In order to create such misleading characters he made use of several techniques. It is quite common to find characters disguised as someone else (usually changing their gender) and masquerade scenes where all the characters hide their identity from others and thus, change their demeanour and act differently from the way they usually do. In “Twelfth Night” we find Viola dressed up like Cesario in the same way we have Rosalina disguised as Ganimede in “As you like it”. Regarding “Much ado about nothing” what we get is a masquerade or a revelling, where all the characters hide behind a mask, and also, Hero’s comeback at the end of the play wearing a mask and pretending to be her non-existent cousin. This paper aims to find out what the motivation for such scenes is and with what purpose Shakespeare made use of them. I will also analyze the importance within these three plays of the hiding mechanisms used and the way they connect with the story line. Finally I will like to compare them in order to detect to what point they parallel one another and to what extent they differ from each other.

 

 

 

“Twelfth Night”: Cesario and the woman inside.

 

As mentioned before, this is one of the many Shakesperian comedies dealing with mistaken identities. Viola, after the shipwreck of the boat in which she was travelling with her twin brother, reaches the shore of Illyria. She then realizes her brother, Sebastian, is no longer beside her and thinks he has died in the accident. She does not know the country she has arrived in but she gets some information about it from the captain of the boat who “was bred and born not three hours’ travel from this very place.” (Twelfth Nigth, I:II, 23) She then requests for more information about the ruler of the country. That is how she gets to know about Duke Orsino, whom she had heard her father talked about. Now comes the moment in the play when Viola decides to become Cesario. The reason motivating her change of appearance is that, being in a foreign country with no acquaintances, she is determined to be cautious and prefers to conceal her identity and reveal her real “estate” at the appropriate time: “O, that I served that lady, and might not be deliver’d to the world, till I had made mine own occasion mellow, what my estate is!”(TN, I: II; 42-45) Besides, we should bear in mind the fact that women at that time were considered weaker than men and so they were more likely to be socially neglected. Since she had lost all her properties and found herself alone in the world, it was safer for her to be a man. However, why did Shakespeare chose this technique of gender-shifting among many others which could have protected Viola from being discovered? The answer is that the function within the play of Viola’s change into Cesario is not only to conceal Viola but also to create Cesario. We can take both of them as different characters. Cesario is essential within the play not only to provide Viola with a way of hiding herself and, at the same time, taking place in the action, but also for other characters to develop. Just because she is a man, many events take place in the play, which have to do with the relationship held between him and the rest of the characters.

 

Cesario has a key role within the story line as the intermediary between Olivia and Orsino. Olivia, believing Viola to be a man, falls in love with the handsome and eloquent page. Meanwhile, Viola has fallen in love with Orsino. This bipolarity found in the character of Viola-Cesario makes it possible for the love stories of the play to develop. Obviously, this could not be so if Viola did not have a twin brother. In this way, we may say that Viola and Cesario develop two different story lines. On the one hand we have the love story between the Duke and Viola, which will end up a happy ending when she discloses her real identity. On the other hand, there is the courtship taking place between Olivia and Cesario. This second story will end well due to the fact that Viola can unfold herself into two different persons, that is, herself and Sebastian. 

 

This confusing technique of polar characters and gender-shifting provides the play with a comical tone and a happy ending. Once the order is restored, and we have Viola back into her real identity (though still dressed up like a man), we learn that Orsino has loved her/him all this long. The play ends in a declaration of marriage although we do not get to see it.

 

“As you like it”: cross-dressing and its consequences.

 

In “As you like it” again a woman, in this case Rosalind, disguises herself as a man. The reason to do this is very similar to that of Viola, though this time, the text makes it more evident. When Rosalind is got out from the court by his uncle Frederick, who usurped her father’s dominions, she and her cousin Celia decide to run away together and look for Rosalind’s father, the duke living in banishment. They head towards the wood but realize that, dressed up like ladies from the court, they will draw the wrongdoers’ attention. Then, they both agree to change their appearance to pretend being humble in origin.

“Rosalind: Alas, what danger will it be to us,

maids as we are, to travel forth so far!

Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.

Celia: I’ll put myself in poor and mean attire”

(TN, I:III; 106-109)

However, a few lines later, Rosalind decides to dress up like a man:

“Were it not better,

because that I am more than common tall,

that I did suit me all points like a man?”

(TN, I:III; 112-114)

 

Again, we come across the idea that it was safer to be a man than a woman. However, this disguise will serve the purpose of protecting the ladies, but will also help Rosalind to confuse many of the characters and, in the end, fix everything up by displaying her real identity. Orlando is in love with Rosalind and meets her for the second time when she is already dressed up like Ganymede. At the same time, Phebe falls in love with Ganymede, rejecting Silvius’ love. Let us remark that Phebe is in fact in love with a woman (Rosalind), in the same way that Olivia was actually in love with Viola, another woman, in Twelfth Night.

 

It is worth noting that sexual attraction between people belonging to the same gender was a common topic in Shakespeare’s plays, which was either presented as a veiled topic or as an evident one. “Like many of Shakespeare’s plays and poems, As You Like It explores different kinds of love between members of the same sex (…) another kind of homoeroticism within the play arises from Rosalind’s cross-dressing. Everybody, male and female, seems to love Ganymede, the beautiful boy who looks like a woman because he is really Rosalind in disguise.” (www.sparknotes.com)

                                                      

Furthermore, this Rosalind in drag serves the purpose of showing how relative and changeable attraction can be. We cannot help it but wonder whether Phebe feels attracted to Ganymede because he is more feminine, instead of falling in love with the masculine Silvius. In the same way, Orlando seems to be delighted to play the game of faking that this handsome Ganymede is his actual love, Rosalind.  And, of course, we should not forget about the connotations attached to the name Rosalind chooses for her alter ego, Ganymede. “The name Ganymede, traditionally belonged to a beautiful boy who became one of Jove’s lovers, and the name carries strong homosexual connotations.” (www.sparknotes.com)

 

“In drawing on the motif of homoeroticism, As You Like It is influenced by the pastoral tradition, which typically contains elements of same-sex love. In the Forest of Ardenne, as in pastoral literature, homoerotic relationships are not necessarily antithetical to heterosexual couplings, as modern readers tend to assume. Instead, homosexual and heterosexual love exist on a continuum across which, as the title of the play suggests, one can move as one likes.” (www.sparknotes.com)

 

The disguise technique apparently seems to confuse the characters of the play about their feelings and about the person they address them to. However, it does just the contrary.  Its function is to achieve the recognition of the lovers’ true identity. Shakespeare presents us here with a fictional character who develops fictional story lines between her and the rest of the characters. But this duality between the real and the unreal gets us to see the difference between appearances and reality. The disguise, apart from creating a fictional atmosphere, reinforces the idea of authenticity.

 

“Much ado about nothing”: who is behind the mask?

 

In “Much ado about nothing”, there are two scenes where masks play a main role in the action, each one in a different way. The first one I am interested in is the revelling taking place at the beginning of the play. In this scene (Act II, scene I), men try to obtain some information from women, taking advantage of the masked environment. This is the case of Don Pedro, who will try to find out Hero’s inclination to help his friend Claudio (who is deeply in love with her). Also Balthazar and Antonio will profit from the masquerade and will try to seduce Margaret and Ursula, respectively. The most interesting meeting is that between Beatrice and Benedick. They are both openly enemies, but Benedick and Beatrice hold a conversation during the ball. She does not admit knowing her interlocutor, and thus, tries to take advantage from this. “The prevalence of masks also reinforces the importance of characters noting each others' identities. Thus, in the masked party scene, which relates to the Elizabethan formal masque, Beatrice is able to speak to Benedick as though he were someone else, giving Beatrice a good chance to be insulting to him and leaving Benedick believing that she did not recognize him.” (www.bookrags.com)

 

 This image, the one with Beatrice talking in a friendly way with her arch-enemy, illustrates the fact that things are not always what they seem to be, and they do not always seem to be what they are. The importance of hiding their faces in order to interact with other characters shows that the problem is not only the recognition of others, but also self-recognition. Beatrice considers Benedick as her antagonist figure, however, they are exactly the same. She will understand better her identity, once she gets to know Benedick’s identity. For instance, after hearing about Benedick’s feelings for her, it takes her a second to change her mind about someone who she had hated for so long. Once she knows about his intentions she is able to look inside herself and see the truth. “And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee, taming my wild heart to thy loving hand: if thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee to bind our loves up in a holy band” (“Much ado about nothing”, III: I, 111-114)

 

The second scene is when Hero, after having faked her own death, reappears on stage pretending to be her cousin. She is hidden behind a mask and when she removes it, we witness her rebirth. She has been socially condemned and accused of having sexual intercourse with another man, and though this charge has been refuted, she needs to be presented again to the audience. “One Hero died defiled; but I do live, and surely as I live, I am a maid.” (MAN, V: IV; 64-66). In a way she reconciles herself with Claudio and those who believed she was guilty. The mask symbolizes the deceiving nature of people and things, which are not always what they seem to be. Again, the difference between reality and appearances is highlighted by the masquerading scenes. In the same way she is not her cousin, as everybody thought, she had not been unfaithful to Claudio, as it was believed.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Trough this paper we have seen that using either disguises or masks, Shakespeare seeks to reinforce the difference between what we see and what there is behind. The importance of the looks is also highlighted in the three plays. However, “Twelfth Night” and “As you like it” have more characteristics in common than they have with “Much ado about nothing”. For instance, in both of them a woman is disguised as a man, whereas in “Much ado about nothing” the device use to veil the people and their intentions is a mask. However, Rosalind is more playful than Viola and takes advantage from her new identity to “tutor Orlando in how to be a more attentive and caring lover, counsel Silvius against prostrating himself for the sake of the all-too-human Phoebe, and scold Phoebe for her arrogance in playing the shepherd’s disdainful love object.” (www.sparknotes.com). She enjoys this new reality she is found in, and thus, seems more powerful than poor Viola, who does not control her feelings as a woman, nor the feelings she provokes as a man.

 

It is also remarkable the fact that there are not mistaken identities caused by sexual ambiguities in MAN, while it is a key point in the other two plays.  The three of them share the confusion brought about by either the masquerade or the disguise, but also in the three of them we will see the mess undone and couples ending in marriage, giving the comedy its essential nature. Though the function of the disguise or the mask may vary for each context, all three plays have in common the purpose in using them, that is, to emphasize and stress the opposition between appearances and reality. We could argue that Shakespeare is criticizing, in a veiled way, the great importance given to appearances in Elisabethan times. If there is one connection between these three plays is that they confront reality with fiction, which foregrounds the importance of authenticity, while at the same time, reminds us of the deceiving nature of appearances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

-         “As you like it”. William Shakespeare. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Ed: 1996. Hertfordshire. Wordsworth Editions.

 

-         “Much ado about nothing”. William Shakespeare. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Ed: 1996. Hertfordshire. Wordsworth Editions.

 

-         “Twelfth Night”. William Shakespeare. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Ed: 1996. Hertfordshire. Wordsworth Editions.

 

-         -“As you like it: Study guide. Themes, motifs and symbols.” Sparknotes. Eds Phillips, B. and Stallings, S. Accessed May 16, 2007

           http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/asyoulikeit/themes.html

 

     - “Much ado about nothing: objects and places.” Ed: James Yagmin,
          David Lieberman. Accessed May 18, 2007.

          http://www.bookrags.com/notes/ado/OBJ.htm

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