Essay: Unveiling Gender Norms: Viola Disguised as a Male to Enter the Palace

It is arduous to be a female in a male-dominant world, where norms are set everywhere ranging from the political scene to the household. Since the establishment of the civilization; males have been outdoors, hunting and finding food for the family while females were bound to stay indoors, taking care of the household, giving birth to and looking after children. Gender roles have been attributed to sexes since females and males first started living together. They kept their presence throughout the Elizabethan era and until today, with major improvements along the way. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night raises questions on the effect, existence, and validity of gender roles in connection with physical disguise, deception and personality traits.
After landing on Illyria with the misery of thinking she’s lost her brother, Viola, one of the main characters in the play, is disguised as a “male eunuch” named Cesario to be under the service of Duke Orsino. The reason why she has chosen the path of disguise is that there was no other way for her to have a place in the palace other than being a man. The greater question here is her will and need to be disguised as a male to be accepted into the palace and to serve someone from a higher level of hierarchy and social status than her. She believes she has no place in the court or next to the Duke as a woman, as norms bound women to stay at home, attributing them roles to take care of the children and do the housework. She begs the captain with such wishes “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid/ For such disguise as haply shall become/ The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke/ Thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him” (1.2.53-56) Viola wishes her true identity and self to be covered and not presented to the society as it would make her come short on opportunities that a man could follow. She wants to conceal her femininity to the best of her abilities, which can only be her physical appearance and attires. However, these are enough to present her to the society and get what she wants. A job in the palace next to the Duke is accessible to Viola via her Cesario identity. If she hadn’t disguised herself as a man, she wouldn’t have any options to work next to or with the Duke. Her only alternative might have been to serve as a maid to another female, as Maria does to Olivia. Thus, to have a place in the palace, to exist and work among other noblemen, she has to become a male; she doesn’t have any other choice. In fact, it was not even her choice in the first place. The fact that the Captain has implemented the idea that Viola cannot serve the Duke in her current female body and attires should be bared in mind. He is the one who first makes Viola remember her role in the society with the words “Because she will admit no kind of suit/ No, not the duke’s” (1.2.45-46) It is reminded to the audience that as a man, the Captain has a better grasp of the society because he is not bound to home, unlike Viola; he’s experienced more of the outside world and knows the norms better than her. Viola is reminded the fact that as a girl, with her feminine clothes and body, she has no place in the palace next to men the moment she steps foot on Illyria. Her only choice to enter the palace and work next to the Duke is by being disguised as a man. Although nothing besides her appearance, clothes and looks change, Cesario as a “he” is now accepted among the men and becomes very close with the Duke in just a few days. Her personality and characteristics, the way she sees the world, beliefs, and opinions stay the same.
The main reason women were and still are bound to the household is the “manly” qualities they’re supposedly and stereotypically lacking, such as courage, strength, sternness, and dominance. The thinking behind this notion is that since women do not possess these qualities, they’re weak and they don’t have a place in the outside world working next to and together with men, who’re more capable and stronger than women. These characteristics were thought to be gender-related and that they could not be present in the opposite gender or even learned. The fact that a woman could carry the “powerful” traits that a man did was absolutely out of the question. However, in this case, although her physical appearance changes, the characteristics of Viola are carried with her to Cesario’s body. Her personality, traits, and qualities do not change nor they can be disguised. Solely, physically appearing as a man is enough to have a place in the society. Shakespeare proves with this scenario that the “reasoning” behind men seeing themselves as superior to women is actually flawed. The fact that the personality and traits of a woman are still present in a man’s body doesn’t alter the society’s perception of Cesario since they’re unaware. Shakespeare here demonstrates to the audience that the attributed or renowned characteristics that arise from gender are not actually related with the sexes at all. They come from within one’s self.
As Viola is in need to disguise herself to a man to be accepted into the palace, other women characters in the play are directly in the palace either because they were born and raised with royal blood or serve another woman. However, they also oppose set gender roles on their own. Olivia, as the Countess of the land, is a powerful and a dominant figure in the play. She has a maid that serves her, a professional fool that is entitled solely to entertain her and her own steward. Aside from having people work for her, she has managed to establish a hierarchy that breaks the gender comparison in terms of power among men and women. Olivia’s dominance and rebellion to societal standards can be seen in her one-to-one relationship with Cesario. During the Elizabethan Era, the ideal woman was thought to be silent, chaste and obedient; however, in this case, Olivia is the one who has dominance over the relationship, by going after Cesario and adding the element of romance and flirtation to their relationship with her outgoingness. She wants Cesario to “plight her the full assurance of his faith” (4.3.26) and marry her, she is the one making the proposal, not the man, as it “should have been” according to the gender roles. She smashes the stereotypical roles and stance of women in the society when she, as a woman, proposes to Sebastian (thinking that he is Cesario) Although Olivia doesn’t need to disguise or deceive anyone, she still breaks the gender roles by her inherited strong traits and firm personality.
On the other hand, another female figure that uses her characteristics and traits to exert power and dominance over men is Maria, Olivia’s maid. Although compared to Olivia, she’s not from a royal class she still preserves her strong stance and authority in the palace among other men. When Malvolio crosses the line according to Olivia and Maria, by hindering their entertainment, Maria plays a game to him, which results in this logical man making a complete fool out of himself. “I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love, wherein, by the colour of his beard, the shape of his leg (…) he shall find him self most feelingly personated/ I can write very like my lady your niece” (2.3.168-174) Maria makes Malvolio believe that Olivia’s in love with him and wants him to smile all the time and wear yellow stockings, which is, in fact, a color the countess detests. Malvolio makes a complete fool out of himself for the sake of Olivia’s love and falls into the trap of a witty woman. An alleged strong and smart man has been overthrown by the cunningness and wittiness of a woman. Once again, Shakespeare reminds the audience that the traits the society attribute to genders are not always valid and the reasoning is not factual.
In his play The Twelfth Night, Shakespeare uses the transcendence of gender to explore the attributed traditional gender roles and norms of the society and makes the audience question their validity and the reasoning behind them. The reader is exposed to different methods female characters use to (intentionally or unintentionally) prove their power in the male-dominant world, ranging from physically disguising oneself as a male and deceiving the people around you to strong empowered women that are born with these traits to exert dominance over men.