In many of William Shakespeare's plays transvestite cross-dressing appears. There are many female characters who cross-dress within his plays: Rosalind in As You Like It; Viola in Twelfth Night; Portia and Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice; and many more examples. There are also men who cross-dress in Shakespeare’s plays, for example in the first scene of The Taming of the Shrew there is a drunkard who is married to a boy dressed up as a girl as a practical joke. In Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice we see women who cross-dress for their own purposes: one to make it on her own in a society where a lady does not travel without an escort and is without the power to provide for herself; the other to save her husband's friend. In both cases--Portia and Narissa’s, and Viola’s--the characters find freedom not available to them as women. What does this mean? Why does Shakespeare write about these female transvestites? I believe that Shakespeare is showing the blurring of gender.
First of all we must remember that during Shakespeare’s time women did not perform in plays. “. . . [In] medieval theater . . . cross-dressing was [ ] a standard practice, with male actors almost without exception playing all roles, both male and female”(Clark and Sponsler). This in itself shows a blurring of gender. When we have plays such as Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice--where a female character or characters dresses as a man-- we find that here is a deeper blurring of gender. For the actor who is pretending to be a woman, is now a woman pretending to be a man.
Twelfth Night shows us a woman who is shipwrecked in an enemy land, is separated from her twin brother , and who decides to cross-dress. Why does she cross-dress? For one thing she is a lone woman in a strange country. It is safer for a man to travel alone. Also a man has more chances of survival on his ownduring this time. A man can enter easier into someone’s service. Viola decides to enter the Duke Orsino’s service, because she has heard that he is a good man. To do this she needs to be a man. She only wants to disguise herself until she knows what is going on. Thus she gets a job in his service, falls in love with her employer, he confides in her, and she gets to woo the Countess Olivia for him.
Viola’s cross-dressing causes confusion in the play over gender. Olivia falls in love with Viola in her “usurped manhood”. This could be because Olivia is narcissistic and is in love with a mirror of herself. But I think it could also be because she does not look past the surface of things. She sees Viola/Cesario in the clothing of a man, and thus she believes what is shown through clothing. Also this could show us the blurring of gender identity. It suggests that the distinctions between men and women are cultural constructs. Olivia likes the masculinity of Viola. But the Duke Orsino notices that Viola also displays feminine qualities at one point:
. . . Diana’s lip
Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe
Is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound,
And all is semblative a woman’s part.
IV. 4. 31-34
Because of Viola’s disguise we have a woman who is in love with a woman who is dressed as a man who is in love with a man. Also we see that Viola/Cesario is seen to have masculine and feminine traits in her disguise.
Even though Viola has feminine traits, no one thinks that she is anything other then a man. In fact Orsino confides in her about his love for Olivia and he even gives her advice about love:
Duke: Thou dost speak masterly.
My life upon’t, young though thou art, thine eye
Hath stayed upon some favor that it loves.
Hath it not, boy?
Viola: A little, by your favor.
Duke: What kind of woman is’t?
Viola: Of your complexion.
Duke: She is not worth thee then. What years i’ faith?
Viola: About your years, my lord.
Duke: Too old, by heaven. Let still the woman take
An elder than herself; so wears she to him,
So always she level in her husband’s heart;
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing and wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Then women’s are.
II. 4. 23-34
Because of Viola’s disguise “. . .men can be relaxed[], if only superficially,[into] confessional with others of the same sex--the sort of ‘just between us’ collusion that men easily fall into”(Kimbrough, 155). Thus Orsino feels free to tell her things that he would not ordinarily confide in a woman. In Trevor Nun’s film version of this play we see this very plainly in the scene where Orsino is taking a bath and he has Ceasario come talk to him and wash his back. We see the embarrassment of Viola in this situation. Orsino however, has no idea that she is not a boy and calls her over. If Orsino had known she was a woman she would not have known him as well as she did. He would not have confided as he did in her, or have given her the advise about love that he did. Also, she is sufficiently masculine to cause Sir Andrew Aguecheek to become jealous of Cesario, and even to challenge her to a duel. However, we see both of them during the preparations for the duel attempting to back down out of the fight. Sir Andrew is all boasting and no fight. Viola knows she is not very good at fencing and tries to stay out of a situation that could result in her death and in revealing her true sexual identity. Both Viola and Sir Andrew are acting in similar ways in this scene, both are acting fearfully. Orsino, Olivia, Sir Andrew, Sir Toby, Malvolio, and all the others think she is a man.
Then there is her twin, Sebastion. They look very much alike. “A lady, sir, though it was said she much/ resembled me, yet of many accounted beautiful”(II.1.25-26). During the course of the play Viola and Sebastion are mistaken for each other. Antonio thinks that Viola is Sebastion when he comes across Sir Andrew and her poised to fight a duel. When he claims that they are friends Viola is surprised. Antonio is then surprised to hear from Orsino that “three months this youth hath tended upon [Orsino]”(V.1.99). Olivia, Sir Andrew, Feste, and Sir Toby think that Sebastion is Cesario. Feste tells him that Olivia sent for him. Sir Toby and Sir Andrew think he is Cesario and try to continue the interrupted duel. Oliva thinks he is Cesario and marries him. This suggests that Viola and Sebastion are alike in appearance. Perhaps they are also alike in other ways as well.
My bosom is full of
kindness, and yet I am so near the manners of my
mother that, upon the least occasion more,
mine eyes will tell tales of me. . .
II.1.39-42
This suggests that they are alike in that they both show deep emotions. They could be each other. Because they are so similar and they know each other so well, Viola in becoming Cesario is impersonating her brother. The Trevor Nun film emphasizes this in the beginning where the twins are both dressed as women with veils. Then we see the veils pulled away and both have mustaches and both look alike. The twins similarity and Viola’s crossdressing makes us question what a “real man” and a “real woman” are. I think that this shows that gender is really blurred.
In act II scene four, Orsino claims that no woman could love as much as he does. Viola however tells him that this is not so. Here she gives a speech on her “sister,” and how she loved a man.
Duke :And what’s her history?
Viola: A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i’ th’ bud,
Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought;
And, with a green and yellow melancoly,
She sat like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
We men may say more, swear more; but indeed
Our shows are more than will; for still we prove
Much in our vows but little in our love.
Duke: But died thy sister of her love, my boy?
Viola: I am all the daughters of my father’s house,
And all the brothers too, and yet I know not.
II.4.110-122
Basically what is happening here is that we’re being told that men and women both can love as passionately and as loyally as the other. Men don’t have the capacity to love more then women. This does not show a differention of gender; rather it is saying that men and women have the same feelings, they just have different ways of expressing them.
The Merchant of Venice--unlike Twelfth Night--is about a wealthy woman, Portia, who cross-dresses to save the life of her new husband’s friend. She does not cross-dress for survival but to gain the power a man can have by simply being a man. Women didn’t have any right’s in a court of law during this time period. A woman would not have been able to manipulate the outcome unless she were thought to be a man. Thus to become a judge in the trial Portia and her maid Nerissa assume the identity of men. Portia is also lucky to have a cousin who is a judge. In fact, he is the judge who is called on by the Duke of Venice to come and hear the case of Antonio’s forfeiture. She writes to him and he writes a letter to the Duke recommending her--disguised as Balthasar--as “A young and learned doctor” (IV.1.143). And thus she is able to come into the court room as a honorable judge and to be able to manipulate the outcome of the case. The cross-dressing is only confined to a small portion of this play. We hear Portia’s plan at the end of act three, but the actual crossdressing takes place in only act four.
Portia is successful in her disguise just like Viola. No one questions or even suspects that she is a woman. Bassanio--who is supposed to be in love with her--and Gratiano do not recognize their new wives. In fact they both profess that they would give up their wives for Antonio not realizing that they stood before them. Also, in Act five, when Bassanio and Gratiano are confronted by their wives about the rings--given to them-- both swear they gave them to men, the judge and the judge’s clerk. However, Nerissia and Portia torment them by saying they gave their rings to other women. This is true--in part--because the rings were given to the judge and his clerk and they were women. In the end the two distraught husbands are told the truth and almost everyone is happy. No one discovered or guessed that these two were women while they were in their disguises or afterwards. As in Twelfth Night those around them were fooled by the form and did not even look beyond what was on the surface. They trusted what they saw and what they heard.
In cross-dressing Portia is able to “fix things” in Venice where the Duke and others have failed. She is able to wield the law so that Shylock is punished and Antonio is set free. She is able to save the integrity of the written contract in Venice, the laws of Venice, and Antonio’s life all at the same time. Masculinity is power and Portia knows how to gain and use this power. She manipulates the trial to get the desired outcome. She makes Shylock think that she is on his side. She says that the law can’t go against the contract that according to Venetian law it must be upheld. Then she goes on to try and talk him into extending mercy. He refuses. In the end she has him caught in a painful trap. Shylock loses everything because he demands the letter of the law. He wants his pound of flesh, so he loses wealth and identity. In her male disguise Portia is a shrewd and harsh judge. She asks Shylock to show mercy to Antonio, yet she shows no mercy to Shylock.
In both plays we see women who pretend to be men. In both cases this is a temporary measure employed to serve a particular purpose, and to give them the power needed to obtain what they want or need at the moment. Viola needs masculinity to survive in a male dominated world on her own. Portia adopts the male guise in order to “purchase[] the semblance of [her] soul/ From out the state of hellish cruelty”(III.4.20-21). She is saying that he is like her because Antonio is Bassanio’s friend, and those who are friends and/or lovers are like each other, and thus Antonio must be like her. So she wants to save someone who is like her. Portia intends to adopt this guise only to save Antonio and thus we see her return to her female clothing and role not long after. She is only a man for one act. Viola on the other hand is disguised as a man for almost the entire play. However, this is only temporary too--in the end everyone knows she a woman and she is now to be Orsino’s wife. Also in both cases no one questions that they are men. What is it that determines gender? Is it just a social construct? It appears that in these two cases that we find that “the clothes make the man.” They appear to be men and everyone accepts them at face value. This implies that gender is blurred. I believe that what we see here is that gender is a cultural construct. It’s saying that men and women are essentially the same.