Homoeroticism Within Shakepeare's Text

When Rosalind decides to cross dress as the shepherd Ganymede in Act I, scene 3 of As You Like It, she highlights the conceptions of gender as a central theme of the play. While As You Like It presents common Elizabethan notions of what it means to be male and female, it also makes an important point about the intelligence and capability of women by portraying clever and powerful girls who are capable of holding their own in a man's world.

By giving these women power and intelligence, Shakespeare reminds us that although his contemporaries (and many of our contemporaries as well) assume that men and women fulfill certain stereotypes, both genders are more than capable of superseding those limitations in order to attain their goals. But even with all the power that Shakespeare may give to the females playing male roles

As might have drawn one to a longer voyage)…

The rather by these arguments of fear,

Butler illustrates the concept that the desire to desire eventually consumes itself once the desire is achieved. “This desire for desire is exploited in the process of social regulation, for if the terms by which we gain social recognition for ourselves are those by which we are regulated and gain social existence, then to affirm one’s existence is to capitulate to one’s subordination” (Butler 79). This exploitation of social recognition and order can be seen in the relationship between Orsino and Cesario.

In the Psychic Life of Power, Judith Butler discusses the idea that this desire for homosexuality is suppressed and that repression creates a foundation to a certain heterosexual version of the subject. According to Butler’s discussions of Freud and Nietzsche the desire for homosexuality is on the opposite end of heterosexuality. In this theory homosexuality is a threat to heterosexuality but because it is repressed it strengthens the societal convention of normality.

The other kind of homoeroticism within the play arises from Rosalind's cross-dressing. Everybody, male and female, seems to love Ganymede, the beautiful boy who looks like a woman because he is really Rosalind in disguise. Rosalind's choice of alternative identities is significant. Ganymede is the cupbearer and beloved of Jove and is a standard symbol of homosexual love. In the context of the play, her choice of an alter ego contributes to a continuum of sexual possibilities. Even though Orlando is supposed to be in love with Rosalind, he seems to enjoy the idea of acting out his romance with the beautiful young boy Ganymede—almost as if a boy who looks like the woman he loves is even more appealing than the woman herself. Phoebe, too, is more attracted to the feminine Ganymede than to the real male, Silvius.

Some topics in this essay:
Celia Rosalind, Twelfth Night, Night Shakespeare, Ganymede Act, Act III, Olivia Cesario, Cesario Viola, Orsino Cesario, Cesario Freud, Forest Arden, desire desire, guise cesario, orsino cesario, twelfth night, boy looks woman, celia rosalind, gain social, sexual possibilities, scene 4, homoerotic themes, scene 3, act iii scene, act ii scene, viola guise cesario,