Sexual Politics In Twelfth Night English Literature Essay

Queer theory since the 1980s has been changing the way we understand literary and aesthetic expression. Queer theorists like Judith Butler, Adrianne Rich and Alexander Doty have suggested ways that supposedly ‘straight’ culture might be ‘queered’ and seen from the perspective of socio- sexual outsiders. Queer readings involve , for instance, ironic reconstructions of traditional gender roles, reimagining supposedly heterosexual characters in literature as , in fact, closeted gay lovers and revealing the signs of what Adrianne Rich calls ‘compulsory heterosexuality’. Queer theory emerges from post-structural interest in fragmented, de-centered knowledge building. It problematizes the heteronormative categories of sex and gender. Queer theory maintains that sexuality and gender are not fixed and natural but are rather essentialist constructs and thus fluid and subject to change.

Twelfth Night is a play which is vested with problematic issues of gender and sexual identity. This paper which focuses on Twelfth Night would attempt to re-read the text by applying some of the principles of Queer Theory. Firstly, the paper would expose the homoerotic traits which are found in many of the major characters which the play largely tries to conceal. The thesis would then show how these homoerotic currents are subverted in the course of the play to accommodate a normative community based on heterosexual marriage. Moreover, the paper would devote a separate section on Viola’s cross dressing as Cesario which has invoked the interest of many Queer theorists.

The gender imitation of Viola as the page boy Cesario , the ‘performance ‘ of her gender performance , prove that erotic attraction is not an inherently gendered or heterosexual phenomenon. The homoerotic undercurrents that ensue disrupts the boundaries of compulsory heterosexuality. The cross-dressed Viola , with her ambiguous gender identity becomes an object of desire to both Orsino and Olivia. Thus the gender ambiguity of the cross-dressed Viola sets the stage for the representation of a plethora of desires: homoerotic attraction between Orsino and Cesario and lesbian attraction between Viola and Olivia. Thus Viola’s transvestite appearance becomes a fertile site for the exposure of the homoerotic desires in both Orsino and Olivia. Thus Viola’s androgynous performance “exposes the failure of heterosexual regimes ever fully to legislate or contain their own ideals”( Butler 237).

The bonding between Olivia and Cesario

Olivia who had earlier denied the love of Orsino, suddenly finds herself madly in love with Cesario, the page boy who in reality is Viola. However, it becomes quite clear that Olivia finds in Viola  some innate feminine qualities with which she falls in love with . Although the text subverts such possibilities by reminding us that Olivia’s is unaware that Cesario is actually a female but Olivia’s attraction for Viola stems exactly from the more feminine characteristics like Cesario’s beautiful “scorn” and ” anger of his lip!” (3.1.147-148). Olivia’s words allow a modern audience to read her as suspecting or even knowing that Cesario is in fact a female , yet choosing to love him/her nevertheless. Olivia’s description of Cesario’s beauty both in the third act and in their first encounter, praises typically feminine qualities but curiously doesn’t question Cesario’s gender. Olivia’s comparison of love to guilt – ” A murd’rous guilt shows not itself more soon / Than love that would seem hid ” (3.1.149-150) further makes us wonder whether Olivia is guilty about her homoerotic passions. Moreover when Olivia declares that “Nor wit nor reason can my passion hide” (3.1.154) , she might be hinting at same-sex love which in those times were considered to be against all logic. The unorthodoxy of Olivia’s attraction towards Viola causes her to say that she has fallen into “abatement and low price”.

However it is not only Olivia but Viola too who displays homoerotic passions for Olivia.Although this aspect of her character is avoided in most readings of the play, a close analysis of the text can reveal that Viola too exhibits homosexual passions for Olivia. Valerie Traub observes “both the enjoyment with which (Viola) stands in for Orsino in wooing Olivia and the extent to which she elicits Olivia’s desire carry a potent homoerotic charge”(56). In Viola’s role as a self-conscious male mediator between Orsino and Olivia , she becomes a better-a more eloquent , persuasive man than the man (Orsino) whom he/she represents. In fact Viola/Cesario plays the part of Olivia’s wooer so much fervently that it immediately invokes passions of love in Olivia. As Traub states ” a fervor that exceeds her text” (130). Moreover Viola also goes out of her text in their first meeting, taking the liberty of lifting Olivia’s veil, an action totally uncalled for. She is also found passionately praising Olivia’s beauty , ” But, if you were the devil , you are fair” (1.5.255). In a play where the traces of homoerotic passions are found in abundance, it would not be too far fetched to conclude that all these aspects point to the homoerotic side in Viola. 

Bonding between Orsino and Cesario

Although at the beginning of the play, we find Orsino lovesick for Olivia, the object of his affetions soon changes to Cesario, the page boy whom Viola impersonates. The homoerotic overtones of Orsino’s  sudden infatuation for page boy are clear. Even when Orsino is sending Cesario off to profess his love for Olivia, his words make it obvious that in the short span of time he has become emotionally attached to Cesario- he has already ” unclasp’d / To thee ( Cesario) the book even of my secret soul”(1.4 13-14). His reaction when he comes to learn that Cesario has supposedly married Olivia is one of intense shock and sorrow. He is deeply anguished to find that his page has thwarted his love , preferring instead a heterosexual relationship with a woman whom he earlier had loved intensely. Even after he finds that Cesario is a woman (Viola), he says to her , ” Boy thou hast said to me a thousand times / Thou never should’st love woman like to me” (5.1.260-261). He simply refuses to address Viola by her true identity even towards the end of the play, ” Cesario come – /For so you shall be while you are a man ;/But when in other habits  you are seen ,/Orsino’s mistress , and his fancy’s queen “(5.1 372-375). The word queen is very similar to the word ‘quean’ which in Elizabethan times refered to a male homosexual, especially the effeminate partner in a homosexual relationship. Therefore there are enough evidences to support that Orsino’s attraction towards Cesario is homoerotic , but as soon as she reveals herself as Viola, he is ready to marry her. Evidently her gender becomes less important now because Orsino is actually bisexual. As Pequigney observes ” the love for Cesario could not have changed instantaneously with the revelation of his femaleness; if it is erotic then it would have been erotic before ; what does change is that marriage suddenly becomes possible, and hence the immediate proposal”(207).

Bonding between Antonio and Sebastian

The first time we encounter Antonio and Sebastian they are about to be separated. Antonio wants to accompany Sebastiaan to Count Orsino’s court but he cannot because he is wanted on criminal charges in Illyria. However Antonio’s passionate love for Sebastian is greater than his fear of danger and thus he decides to follow him. Antonio’s words “But come what may , I do adore thee so/ That danger shall seem sport, and I will go ” (2.1.45-46) obviously reflects a love which is much more than mere friendship. He is also prepared to give the young man his purse and ready to intercede on his behalf in the midst of a duel. Evidently Orsino loves Sebastian very passionately. Act 3 scene 3 even concludes with the lines , “There you shall have me” which is obviously loaded with homoerotic implications. Joseph Pequigney describing this relationship remarks” Not his words only but also his correlated actions reflect Antonio’s avid devotion to the master-mistress of his passion “(203). Sebastian too seems to entertain homosexual impulses that are fully conscious and indulged. The bonding between them has been described as “the strongest and most direct expression of homoerotic feeling in Shakespeare’s plays” (Smith 67) which is further proved by Sebastian’s outpouring of affection at seeing Antonio again in act 5 “How have the hours racked and tortured me /Since i lost thee!”(5.1 229-230). However at the end of the play Antonio’s love for Sebastian is not celebrated in the heteronormative matrix of the play. In the final scene after Viola and Sebastian both appear on stage , Antonio remains on stage, with no directions to exit , yet he is ignored. Shakespeare instead focuses on the couples , rendering Antonio’s fate unimportant and leaving it unresolved. It becomes evident that Antonio has no place in the heteronormative social matrix which Shakespeare wants to impose upon the readers. Valerie Traub suggests that the “homoerotic energies of Viola,Olivia and Orsino are displaced onto Antonio , whose relation to Sebastian is finally sacrificed for the maintenance of institutionalized heterosexuality and generational continuity” (123).  It most explicitly shows Shakespeare’s and the Elizabethan stage’s fear of homosexuality and perhaps , as Traub suggests “the fear of erotic exclusivity and it’s corollary : non – reproductive sexuality” (123).

The Ending 

Despite the presence of homoerotic elements in most of the characters , the ending of the play settles for a normative community based on heterosexual marriage. The homoerotic elements are not celebrated in the play and as the ending of the play shows the play seems uncomfortable in it’s open representation of the fluid circulation of desire. Shakespeare works out a rather contrived and improbable plot towards the end so as to ensure the normal heteronormative order is restored.

There are various reasons to call the ending of the play contrived , improbable and hasty. Firstly , how can Olivia have satisfied her desire by marrying the enchant Cesario’s seeming copy, Sebastian who is a complete stranger to her. Her sudden change in affection towards Sebastian and her decision to marry him right away just because he physically resembles Viola seems highly improbable. Moreover throughout the play we notice a strong bonding between Sebastian and Antonio with a strong homoerotic charge. At the end of the play Antonio is abandoned by Sebastian who suddenly consents to marry Olivia, a total stranger to him.Even towards the end of the play when Sebastian suddenly finds Antonio, he exclaims ” Antonio! O my dear Antonio,/ How have the hours rack’d and tortur’d me/Since i lost thee!” (5.1 216-218).How can a man who is so passionately in love with a pirate suddenly consent in a marriage with a complete stranger! All these reflect the play’s conservatism in portraying same-sex love.

However , this conservatism in portraying same sex love must be examined in the historical context of homosexuality in Elizabethan England. In 1533 the English Parliament passed the statute which “designated sodomy to be a felony with the punishment of forfeiture of property and death” (Mager 142).This homophobia is reflected even in popular literature which associated homoeroticism with “revulsion,violent hostility ( for) the loathsome and evil thing ” (Bray 60). Thus it is very natural that Shakespeare who was an extremely popular Elizabethan dramatist should have qualms about directly portraying same-sex love. Thus, although the text challenges the normative notions of gender and sexual desire it ultimately fails to overcome the imperatives of ‘compulsory heterosexuality’.

Queering Viola’s cross-dressing

Queer theory proposes that gender roles do not have an essential nature that precedes social discourse. When we are born , we virtually know nothing of gender . It is only in the process of being introduced to language that we are taught that we belong to the category ‘male’ or ‘female’. Beyond the socio-linguistic construction gender roles have no inherent reality. Judith Butler in Gender Trouble argues that ” gender reality is created through sustained social performances” (279). She further argues that the categories of sex and gender are established through a process which she calls “performativity”, the means by which the norms of sex and gender are naturalized and substantiated simply by their continual pronunciation as foundational and ideal – by the sheer weight of their repetition. Thus Queer theory basically argues that gender is nothing but an essentialist construct and it is never permanent or natural.

Twelfth Night in some ways points to the notion of gender as an essentialist rather than a natural construct. Viola’s disguise as a man indirectly parodies the essentialist construction of gender. Butler acknowledges that cross dressing is a performative practice in which the “sign”of gender is parodically reiterated in a potentially subversive way. Cross-dressing “reflects the mundane impersonations by which heterosexually ideal genders are performed” (231). Viola’s successful role playing as a page boy thus points to the constructedness and performative character of gender as held by Judith Butler and other Queer theorists. It proves Butler’s claim that a subject can choose a gendered identity, that the self can “be a woman” or a man (21). Viola brilliantly enacts the role of Cesario and thus demonstrates that gender is never a natural construct but is a conscious and a superficial one.Thus Viola’s performative role playing as Cesario demonstrates the fluid , uncategorical temper of gender which Queer theorists like Judith Butler stress on and also disrupts the heterosexual norms of ideal gender and sexuality.