Essay: Examining Gender in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Judith Butler’s Gender Performativity Theory

Shakespeare’s comedies have largely used the cross-dressing troupe as a means to induce laughter in the audiences, largely of the Elizabethan age, however, with the evolution of ideas around femininity, female dignity and even gender itself, this cross-dressing has been seen in a new light. This paper shall discuss the cross-dressing of Viola as Cesario in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night or What You Will (1602) in the light of Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, exploring the idea of gender being “socially constructed through commonplace speech acts and nonverbal communication that are performative, in that they serve to define and maintain identities.” (Gender Trouble)
Viola/Cesario’s speech to Orsino about how “[she is] all the daughter of my house, and all the brothers too, yet [she] know not” (Twelfth Night, 75), under a gender lens seems a confession itself from Shakespeare that though sex be determined and fixed, gender has a fluidity intrinsic to itself. Viola’s dressing as a man to fulfil her intent of wooing her love, or finding better occupational opportunities, or simply surviving in the patriarchal Elizabethan world really makes one ponder on the fluidity and non-rigidness of gender and makes one wonder on the subject matter of Judith’s theory that gender really is something formed as a result of ‘stylized repetition of acts’ that we have always considered to be the outcome of gender itself.
Performativity in gender is mostly explored on stage with Shakespeare’s plays with, historically, an all-male cast performing the plays at the Globe. The Globe’s predominant audience was male as well, insinuating the fact that women had no place in the theatre on either side of the curtain. The Twelfth Night has predominantly been played by males, with the young boys playing the women as was the norm of the Elizabethan theatre. Hence the idea of gender performance could be reinforced by the fact that men have continued to play women’s role on stage in the theatre.
The discussion of gender and love in Act 2, Scene 4 of the Twelfth Night is noteworthy in its ironic nature as Orsino says to Viola: There is no woman’s sides/ Can bide the beating of so strong a passion/ As love doth give my heart; no woman’s heart/ So big, to hold so much. They lack retention. / Alas, their love may be called appetite (TN, 73) Viola’s whole farce is predominantly to pursue and woe the duke, so the duke’s comment falls flat on the ears of the audience aware of Viola’s disguise. Seen under the gender lens, if the play is performed by an all-female cast, the performance of the gender would be a fascinating one -with a woman dressed as a man telling a woman dressed as a woman yet pretending to be man and dressed as one, about a woman’s heart lacking retention. It would change the perspective in which the play is perceived, and defy the notion of the male critique being the correct perspective on things, thus countering the ever-practiced idea of ‘mansplaining’ things to women.
Ambiguity around gender and cross-dressing troupe in Twelfth Night also raises the social question of the need for one to do so. In Viola’s case, while her affection for the duke can be one reason, there is no denying that dressing up as a man helps her financially and socially as well. This troupe has been followed in many of the later cross-dressing production of the pop-culture of the 20th and the 21st century. Gender performance and taking up male roles to fulfil one’s dreams or support one’s family have been pivotal point sin the plots of many international productions. The internationally famous examples being the film She’s the Man and the animation Breadwinner. Considering the troupe to be followed throughout the course of the entertainment history, it can be a comment on Shakespeare’s foresight and prowess as a playwright or it could be seen just as the modern interpretation of the Bard’s 17th century works.
In the post-modern discourse, the idea of gender fluidity was greatly discussed and thus shifted the focus from the misogyny in the play to a homophobic interpretation of the interactions between the duke and his eunuch. The scenes between Orsino and Cesario/Viola have been in many productions, sensual and sexually suggestive and hence Butler’s idea of a fixed gender being non-existent comes in. While for the Elizabethan audience, the validation was that Cesario actually was a woman, Butler posed a question of whether that foreknowledge is necessary in condoning the attraction between Orsino and Cesario. Under the gender lens, following Butler’s theory the segregation of the idea of a man’ love and a woman’s love being different; a man’s love fickle and short-lived : “[their] fancies [being] more giddy and unfirm,/ sooner lost and worn” while a woman’s love “lack[ing] retention” and only an appetite ; “No motion of the liver, but the palate” would fall flat in its argument as Butler’s theory fundamentally denies the existence of rigid genders, attributing gender to being an outcome of practiced social acts.
If we analyze the text of the play itself it is also a clue to the gender performance within the play. As discussed earlier, Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed by a male cast, so the illusion of femininity was to be created through the young boys performing the role of women. The case of Viola is somewhat distinct for here is created a sense of double identity, a duplicated self. The actor, both historically and in modern productions would have to maintain both a sense of dramatic masculinity alongside the subtle femininity which leads to the dramatic irony observed in expressions like “A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of a man.” (TN, 3, 4. 22) Also, the descriptions of Cesario according to Malvolio and Orsino remind the audience consistently of the underlying femininity of Viola. Thy small pipe/ Is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound, / And all is semblative a woman’s part. (Act 1, Scene 4) as said by Orsino is reminds the audience that Viola is in fact, a woman and that it is all a performance.
Viola’s performance of the male gender is accompanied, largely by the female sensibility. It is this feminine temperament that Olivia relates with and hence, mistakes it for a romantic affection for Cesario, while it is a woman that she is actually falling for. It takes one to the recent studies in gender around temperament. Research has found that one out of ten women tend to have a masculine temperament and same is the case with men. Jordan B Peterson, a clinical psychologist thus hypothesized that gender as a fixed construct is a farcical notion in terms of human beings with diverse temperaments. However, Peterson being a conservative and traditionalist, has not failed to make the distinction between gender and sex, reinforcing that sex must not be played with to conform with gender as the latter does not evidently conform with the sex.
While gender performativity and cross-dressing are vivid with Viola’s character, there is also the character of Malvolio who falls to cross-dressing however, the resolution of the play sees him facing a harsh end in the form of a punishment inflicted upon him by the noble class. Malvolio, being fooled by Sir Toby and company, dresses up in gay clothes, donning a skirt and an overall feminine countenance. He meets his end helpless, beaten up and driven to believe that he is mad. Although the punishment of Malvolio is perceived to be a result of his overreaching his bounds as the servant, his greed, and his usurping of social order, through a gender lens, one can vividly see it as a result of the patriarchal predisposition of the Elizabethan age.
Malvolio’s punishment; his being bound in a prison-like skirt frame, and being pronounced mad is reflective of the predominantly patriarchal decision-making in society. The same noblemen who pulled the prank on Malvolio were the ones inflicting a humiliating punishment on him. It just shows that the gender roles and even the performativity of gender is essentially decided upon by the men in the society; in Illyria’s case, Sir Toby and his company -the same men who were donning skirts a few scenes before the punishment scene to conceal their identity. This whole scenario is a tell-tale expression of the hold of men over gender and gender roles determination in the Elizabethan society.
It raises a question that if gender and the acts performed by a certain gender are decided upon by men, what a world would it be where women would not be made to conform to certain roles forced upon them and would be allowed to tap into their potential? This question, in a way reinforces Butler’s gender theory, because if gender is a paradigm made by society, principally by men, then it is essentially not a natural construct and hence malleable with a shift in society and its norms. The only prerequisite is the need to change perceptions and break stereotypes about gender, through a sensitizing education imparted to the society as a whole, and men particularly. A gender study of Twelfth Night may serve to identify the predicament surrounding gender and gender roles, leading ultimately to find solutions for the formation of a gender-equal contemporary society.