... that in Elizabethan times, there would be an all male cast for Twelfth Night, so Viola would be played by a man, even when she is a woman in the play. In Elizabethan times women were seen as the weaker sex, yet Shakespeare portrays both sexes as being equally susceptible to the plights of unrequited love, and typically feminine and passive positions. However, ... this portrayal becomes imbalanced by the end of the play, as it is the male characters that suffer, and the women that marry who they desire. Through the medium of human characteristics, Shakespeare explores how the audience's ...

• Word Count: 2131
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Jonson's Epicoene. Morose and his rage against femininity, art and sound has been duped by the very thing he loathes -Dauphine profits handsomely for this mastery (5.4.190-200) of theatrics and Morose succumbs by the embracing of anti-theatrics. In Shakespear's "Twelfth Night" the politics of gender roles in conversation with anti-theatricality takes a backseat for fantastical, farcical comedic antics ... . Malvolio presents the major figure of anti-theatricality in the play. He is the extreme Puritanical figure of mockery that precedes Jonson's Morose. He ... man so against it. And in...

• Word Count: 852
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... in the plays "The Roaring Girl" and "Twelfth Night". Women would change their physical appearance to the opposite sex to achieve a certain goal. Sumptuary laws were used to tell people of that time who could wear what. For example, royalty were the only ones who could wear the color ... purple because it was expensive to wear and it showed what class you were in. While cross dressing was not breaking any laws, the ... full well what the punishment could be for their actions. Through transcripts and court documents, they tracked cases through the years of 1550 through 1839 and found that...

• Word Count: 892
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School