by Shannon Plackis (Circle 7)
One of the most interesting aspects of Twelfth Night thus far, is the blatant inversion of power within gender roles. When mulling over the characters after class, I was rather surprised to realize that nearly all of the male characters we have been properly introduced to are quite foolish and/or gullible characters that are easily being hoodwinked by the women in the play. The women, surprisingly enough, seem to hold all the power. This of course is playing with the inversions that take place during the Twelfth Night celebrations and it can be inferred that this is one of the main disorders that will need to be solved by the end of the comedy.
In this examination, I will focus on the male and female characters that have been given a decent amount of attention in the first two acts (Sebastian and Antonio shall not be discussed due to the limited information the reader has received on their characters). Viola is a noblewoman who disguises as a man for her own safety/convenience who somehow manages to fool everyone, in particular, Orsino. Orsino is a Duke who is dead-set on wooing a woman who clearly wants nothing to do with him. He can’t even go to her court himself, he instead sends his page, Viola, who he still hasn’t figured out is a woman. He doesn’t even become suspicious when Viola says things that clearly hint at the truth: “I am all the daughters of my father’s house, and all the brothers too […]” (2.4. 119-120). Olivia is also a noblewoman who is now in charge of her household after her father and brother have passed. She is hesitant to marry and lose her power. Sir Toby, her kinsman, is a drunk. Sir Andrew is a rather dim man who is easily outwitted by Maria, a lady in Olivia’s household, upon their first meeting:
MARIA: Now sir, thought is free. I pray you, bring your hand to the’ buttery-bar, and let it drink.
SIR ANDREW: Wherefore, sweetheart? What’s your metaphor?
MARIA: It’s dry, sir.
SIR ANDREW: Why, I think so. I am not such an ass but I can keep my hand dry. But what’s your jest?
MARIA: A dry jest, sir. (1.3. 58-64).
Maria again proves herself to be clever when she later is able to devise a letter to
fool Malvolio, Olivia’s puffed up steward, into thinking Olivia is in love with him. Although Sir Toby and Sir Andrew are involved in the trick, it is Maria who is able to write the convincing letter. Immediately it is clear the characters of Orsino, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Malvolio seem to be dopey characters while the ladies are holding the power, whether the men are aware or not. Viola and Maria in particular succeed in fooling Orsino and Malvolio respectively.
It is not odd for women to find power through trickery in older works of text. In fact, it seems to be the only outlet for agency within previous literature. Characters such as Duessa in The Faerie Queene, Morgan le Fay in the King Arthur legends, and even Goneril and Regan in Shakespeare’s own King Lear are prime examples of mischievous women who find power in their deceptions and manipulations. However, what does seem to be unique in Twelfth Night is that Maria and Viola aren’t attempting to fool people out of wickedness. Maria’s trick is rather a silly joke she is taking part in with Sir Toby and Sir Andrew. It is unclear why exactly Viola is fooling the Duke but whether it be for safety or convenience or some other reason, it is certain she isn’t trying to be cruel. These women aren’t being portrayed as evil, badly behaved women but instead are sympathetic and admired. Sir Toby even praises Maria for her skills, “I could marry this wench for this device” (2.5. 158). It seems her cleverness isn’t threatening but instead, attractive.
The general gist of gender roles thus far in the play seem to be that the women are the rational characters who are able to fool the men, establishing their power of them. Cleverness in a woman is also seen as positive rather than wicked. It will be interesting to see how the play will end and whether these attitudes/power dynamics will change in order to resolve this certain social disorder.
“The general gist of gender roles thus far in the play seem to be that the women are the rational characters who are able to fool the men, establishing their power of them.”
I really like this observation! It looks like that in the “superficial”/accepted social realm of the time, the men are always in the position of authority. But indeed the exploits of the women prove them to be quite clever and easily supplanting the men. Knowing this, can we say that this idea of the women holding the real power in the play demonstrates the fickle nature of their accepted social norms?
“It will be interesting to see how the play will end and whether these attitudes/power dynamics will change in order to resolve this certain social disorder.”
Yes! Consider also how the women in A Midsummer Night’s Dream were the catalysts for social change in their worlds too. Helena and Hermia both caused a stir and change, but as we discussed in class, it was interesting to see their roles in the very last scene — both as quiet attendants to their husbands’ company. They indeed caused a social stir earlier in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but you could look at it as if they only disrupted the gender hierarchy not to take themselves out of it, but to put themselves back in another place within it. Could we say the same about Viola’s actions in Twelfth Night? I think since the play ends with her content in marrying Orsino, I’d say so.
I think the most interesting thing about your blog post is the observation that Maria and Viola are praised for their cleverness. Orsino and Olivia both admire Viola because of the disguise she has chosen and Maria is able to impress the men with her letter. Shakespeare is ahead of his time in the way that female characters in his plays, such as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth or Gertrude in Hamlet, seem to understand their place in society and attempt to keep their positions or climb the social ladder. Similar to lady Olivia, who is also clever for wanting to retain her freedom, Gertrude more than likely married Claudius because she wanted to keep her position as queen.
I really like the attention that you paid to the power relationships in this play, as it’s very clear that women have a, if not the, governing role of the action in Twelfth Night. In fact, the majority of the action in the work seems to revolve around women and their ability to navigate the different kinds of social barriers that they come across. Maria is a lady-in-waiting yet she mingles so easily with Sir Andrew and Sir Toby that she transcends her position of servitude due to her intelligence and poise. She does this so well that she actually takes the commanding role in duping Malvolio, which tickles both Toby and Andrew’s fancies respectively. Similarly, Viola is more or less the centerpiece of the entire play, as she commands the attention of Orsino and Olivia and similarly guides both of them to happiness at the end of the work.
Shannon,
“The women, surprisingly enough, seem to hold all the power,” what an interesting way to see the women of this play. I really enjoyed reading what you had to say about how they hold all the power and the way they use it to their advantage (in a positive way). I also liked how you pointed it that they aren’t trying to fool, or deceive people in a cruel of malicious way, because you are right there are plenty of characters in other works of literature that deceive people for either game, or out of the coldness of their heart.
I do pose this question for you though; do you still feel that the women of this play dominate over the men in the end? Is it possible that they still have a sense of power?
Shannon,
I really liked your post because it made me think about points I hadn’t before! It’s so interesting to me how power has shifted to the females in this play from how the males seemed to take their power in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, I’m definitely going to be more conscious of gender roles and their power in the future Shakespeare plays we read out of curiosity. I think that the females in power make a lot of them men in the play look foolish, it to me is what makes the play comical, such as your point about Orsino being blind to Viola even with her huge hint dropped about being both the “daughters” and “brothers” of her father’s house. I think that Maria is a very underrated character and the different points you bring up about her clever tricks prove it further. She really is the mastermind behind the letter because it would have never worked without her, and in continuation, Malvolio would have never been fooled without that letter. As you mentioned, the women’s power in the play doesn’t seem to be used for wickedness, however, they do hold a lot of control over the male characters throughout the play.
Really interesting points!
Hi Shannon,
I really loved the lens of this post: looking at the women and men of this play in terms of cleverness. When I was first reading the dialogue you included between Maria and Sir Andrew, I was delighted by Maria’s cleverness and sass, and obvious mental authority over the man she’s speaking to. I agree that the trickery and cleverness of the women is presented to us in a positive light, and loved the quote you brought up: Sir Toby saying “I could marry this wench for this device.”
I’d prefer to take this for what it appears to be: Shakespeare allowing women to be clever, and well-liked because of it.
But I also questioned what other students above me have questioned: maybe Shakespeare is presenting cleverness in these women merely as a way to add to the comedy, and to the tone of topsy-turvyness of the play.
Shannon–
I really appreciate your observations about the cleverness of the female characters in Twelfth Night because it had me consider the play in a way I hadn’t before reading your post. Not only does Shakespeare play with the ideas of gender through the pun of Viola/Cesario, but Shakespeare takes it even further by flipping the roles most audiences during Elizabethan England would expect either gender to have. A you mention, the females are clever and take control of the series of events, while the male characters are foolish and succumb to the women’s actions, such as Malvolio to Maria’s impersonation of Olivia and Orsino falling in love with Cesario by the fifth act. I believe through his reversing of hegemonic gender role in this particular play, Shakespeare is attempting to make a statement about the transparency of gender roles through the ironic circumstances presented to the audience. Shakespeare depicts a usually ignored version of reality that women and men, in terms of society-generated gender roles, are really one in the same.
Shannon,
I really liked reading your post! To be completely honest, the idea that the females had more power than the males in this story was something that I hadn’t even really considered before reading this. Yes, we discussed the fact that Olivia has the most power, due to the situation that she was placed in once her father and brother passed away. It did not necessarily occur to me, however, that some of the other females are in the same position as her, making them more powerful than the men. Given their positions, it is rather easy to forget that both Viola and Maria are in the same social position as Olivia. While Duke Orisino may have high social power, he still can not seem to make things go his way, which almost places him at a lower standing than them. One then realizes that the other men in the play, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, are mostly just comedic characters, and are also somewhat inferior to Olivia, Viola, and Maria. This was really interesting to think about!
Your post brings up such interesting points about the competence and role of women in comparison to men in the play. Your first paragraph in particular made me think of the theatrical form Commedia Dell’arte, which had begun developing in the 16th century in Italy. It relies heavily on archetypal stock characters, and the subversion of the norm. Typically in commedia, the rich or upper class characters talk themselves up, but are really just full of hot air; however, the servants are the witty ones in the know. In Twelfth Night we have Feste, who could be seen as an Arlecchino character. Arlecchino is one of the servants, known for his wit, resourcefulness, and his literally ‘slap-stick’ which aids his mischief. Feste jumps between the storylines and helps cause some mischief, while engaging in some witty banter here and there. Maria, while she is at the same status as Olivia, could be a Columbina-type, she’s the most intelligent of the bunch that’s she’s with, and she orchestrates the deception of Malvolio. Malvolio himself is similar to Pantalone, a man who values intelligence, money, and power, over all else, and who is usually in pursuit of a woman. In this case Olivia. I’m not saying that this is definitely the case, but I think it’s also interesting to think about, as Shakespeare may have been aware of this tradition, given that English critics, including Ben Jonson, had begun writing about it by the 1570s.
This is an interesting argument, and brings up a lot of questions for me about the differences between cruelty and silliness (is Maria’s prank against Malvolio really harmless, for example?) However, I would point out a potential counter-argument to that claim, which is that the women of this play may not (probably would not) have been perceived the same way had they not been deceptive–in this way, one might say that their deception is a means of survival or social advancement that would not have been open to them otherwise.