What Shakespeare plays have cross dressing?
- of 03. Portia from 'The Merchant of Venice' Portia is one of the most impressive women while dressed as a man. ...
- of 03. Rosalind from 'As You Like it' Rosalind is witty, clever and resourceful. ...
- of 03. Viola in 'Twelfth Night'
In three – The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night – cross-dressing is central to both the complication and the resolution of the plot. The heroines also disguise themselves as men in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of Shakespeare's earliest plays, and in Cymbeline, one of his latest.
By dressing as a boy, Viola is able to serve the Duke in his courtship of Olivia, while getting close to him. She realises how much she loves Orsino and beneath the disguise finds the freedom to share her feelings as if she/he is talking about his/her sister.
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Which of these plays by Shakespeare does not use 'cross-dressing' as a device?
| Margaret Laurence | 1. Surfacing |
|---|---|
| Sinclair Ross | 3. Medicine River |
With its heroine's cross-dressing, the play complicates its development with the theatrical disguise and brings forward the comic plots of an entanglement involving Orsino, Olivia, Viola, and Sebastian. Viola, after surviving from a shipwreck, disguises as a male page, Cesario, thereby assuming a male appearance.
How Shakespeare Uses Cross-Dressing. Shakespeare regularly uses this convention in order to afford the female character more freedom in a restrictive society for women. The female character dressed as a man can move more freely, speak more freely and use their wit and intelligence to overcome problems.
The definition of cross dressing is a practice where a person wears clothes that are traditionally thought to be worn only by a person of the opposite sex. An example of cross dressing is a man who wears a dress and high heels. The wearing of clothing designed for the opposite sex.
In Twelfth Night, Viola dresses as the male Cesario in order to gain entry into Orsino's court. In Elizabethan England, women were not allowed to act professionally, and female parts were all performed by men, so Viola would have actually been played by a male actor, dressing as a woman dressing as a man.
From this, we can perhaps see that Twelfth Night is feminist play, as it brings out equilibrium between the genders, bringing out both the males and females weaknesses, and not just one side of the story.
Olivia quickly falls in love with the witty Cesario (Viola's name when she is in disguise) because Cesario is unafraid of saying what he/she is thinking, even though Cesario never says anything nice to Olivia (except, of course, when speaking Orsino's messages).
Who started cross-dressing?
France. As the Hundred Years' War developed in the late Middle Ages, cross dressing was a way for French women to join the cause against England. Joan of Arc was a 15th-century French peasant girl who joined French armies against English forces fighting in France during the latter part of the Hundred Years' War.
Definition of cross-dressing
: the wearing of clothes designed for the opposite sex.
These characters are generally described as heroic, courageous, and virtuous. Craft-Fairchild (1998) argues that the motif of female-to-male cross-dressing symbolizes women's discontent with their relegation to the domestic sphere of society.
Women were not allowed to be on the stage because it was considered "dangerous." Men played male characters as well as female characters! "The Greeks believed that allowing women to perform publicly would be too dangerous and that having men portray them neutralized the danger." (Source) So what about the Romans?
At the heart of Twelfth Night lies an exploration of gender that suggests that it is performative and fluid, rather than preordained and fixed. The audience only hears Viola's name on stage in Act 5 when her twin brother, Sebastian, uses evidence other than her clothes (she is dressed identically to him) to know her.
How does Julia's disguise affect her gender identity? Julia disguises herself in order to visit Proteus in Milan, and by assuming a male sexual persona (embodied by her wearing of a codpiece), gains access to the male world.
This very sentiment is the primary motivation for the cross dressing of Portia and Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice. Portia understands that in order to help her husband's friend Antonio, she must dress like a man in order to escape the strict limitations placed on women at the time (Belsey 639).
In Shakespeare's day, female parts were played by male actors, while more recently, actresses have taken on some of his most famous male roles such as Hamlet and Julius Caesar. Clare McManus explores gender in the history of Shakespeare performance.
Directors were forced to comply with somewhat radical values and even their casting of roles was affected. Female actors did not appear on stage until the mid 1600's because acting was not deemed a credible profession.
Transvestism is the practice of dressing in a manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex.
What do you call a boy who dresses like a girl?
Cross-dresser
This describes a person who wears the clothes usually associated with the "opposite "sex. This is seen as a form of gender expression. The word "transvestite" is not used much these days. And the expression "drag queen" is different, meaning a man who dresses "as a woman" for purposes of entertainment.
| transvestite | trans |
|---|---|
| transgender | transgendered |
| transsexual | transsex |
| transsexed | TG |
Antonio's love for Sebastian becomes so strong, it appears romantic in nature. One possible reason for Antonio's attachment is that he rescued Sebastian and nursed him back to health. As Antonio explains, “His life I gave him and did thereto add / My love, without retention or restraint” (5.1.).
Orsino is in love with the Countess Olivia, and sends Viola to court her for him, but Olivia falls for Viola instead. Sebastian arrives, causing a flood of mistaken identity, and marries Olivia. Viola then reveals she is a girl and marries Orsino.
In William Shakespeare's play “Twelfth Night”, Viola's disguise plays an important role. Although a lady, Viola disguises herself as a gentleman to protect her youth and maidenhood in Illyria. This disguise helps her to get the job of a page at the court of the noble duke, Orsino.
Twelfth Night was written near the end of Queen Elizabeth 's reign in England. The notion of a strong female, such as Elizabeth, choosing to lead a country without the help of a man began to provoke people to consider what truly a woman's role was (Callaghan, 86).
The opening lines of Twelfth Night, in which a moping Orsino, attended by his servants and musicians, says, “If music be the food of love, play on,” establish how love has conquered Orsino (I.i. 1 ).
At the end of the play Olivia marries Viola's twin brother, Sebastian.
So, when she gets fed up with Malvolio's constant criticism, nagging, and judgmental ways, she masterminds a plot to teach him a lesson. Her scheme to humiliate and punish Malvolio is so clever that Toby Belch falls in love with her and the two get hitched (off-stage) by the play's end.
Oscar de la Hoya, Andrej Pejic, and More Famous Cross-Dressers (Photos)
Who was the first male that dress as a woman?
According to Norse mythology, Thor and Loki were two of the earliest crossdressers known to man. Nobody knows the exact year that Icelandic people began telling this story. It wasn't written down until the 11th century CE, but its oral equivalent had likely existed for hundreds–even thousands–of years.
5 THE MEANING OF DEUTERONOMY 22:5
The text originally reads thus: There shall not be an article (keli) of a man upon a woman, and a man shall not put on a wrapper of (simlat) a woman, because everyone doing (who does) these (things) is an abomination of (unto) the Lord your God.
noun. a nontransgender person who dresses in clothing typically worn by members of a different sex: I wish Hollywood would stop protraying straight crossdressers like me as the punchline of a cheap joke.
Viola must fend for herself in a strange land. Therefore, she decides to disguise herself as a man named Cesario and serves as a page to Duke Orsino.
Viola's Role in Twelfth Night
Viola is the catalyst that drives the plot forward. Her arrival in Illyria begins the plot, and the two other main characters falling in love with her opens several plot lines in which her responses to both create more dramatic events. Viola is a dream role for an actor.
Why does Viola want to serve Orsino? Her motive is difficult to analyse, although – like Malvolio, a character utterly unlike her in other ways – we cannot rule out 'social advancement'.
Twelfth Night Summary. Viola, separated from her twin Sebastian, dresses as a boy and works for the Duke Orsino, whom she falls in love with.
