A Note on Gender, Religion, and Politics in Twelfth Night
In Shakespeare’s time, a young male actor would have played the female Viola, later disguised as male Cesario: Much analysis of the play deals with gender, disguises, social constructs.
Some of it considers Elizabeth I, Shakespeare’s monarch, in a role usually reserved for men. The fifth pageant for her coronation portrayed Deborah, a prophetess of Hebrew scriptures who led Israel as judge [1], contrary to Christian assumptions that kept women from female authority roles. Some scholars and historians note that Elizabeth had a reputation for swearing, not so much sexual profanity as religious, like Hamlet’s “swounds” (by Christ’s wounds) or “sblood” (by God’s blood). Elizabeth’s favorite was “by God’s death,” which listeners assumed was for shock value, by a woman in a man’s world, striving to maintain attention and control [2]
Like Portia disguised as Balthazar in the courtroom scene of The Merchant of Venice, Viola’s disguise echoes gender dynamics of Elizabeth’s (alleged) speech addressing troops at Tilbury:
“I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but … the heart and stomach of a king…” [3].
In Shakespeare, scheming, vengeful, violent men are often the cause of trouble. The word “gentle” (or “gentleman-men-women”) occurs often, 33 times in this play, and in The Merchant of Venice it is a pun, contrasting gentle (or not so gentle) Gentile-Christians with a vengeful Jew.
In Twelfth Night, Olivia, a gentle woman who does not wish to be conquered, possessed, or ruled by men, is contrasted with ungentle men who drink, duel, fight, hold grudges, seek revenge, or persist in striving to dominate her.
When Olivia meets Sebastian (mistaking him as his twin sister, Viola disguised as Cesario), she asks: “Would thou ’dst be ruled by me!”
He replies, “Madam, I will” [4].
Hamlet might paraphrase: “Let be” [5] – like Mary to the Angel Gabriel: “Be it unto me according to thy word” [6].
Men like Sebastian submitting to women need not foreshadow Mr. and Mrs. Macbeth…
The play ends with “mending,” with Olivia and Orsino marrying Sebastian and Viola, refugees from an enemy country, embodying love of enemies. Some are even sent to “mend” with vengeance-minded Malvolio.
A gentle, “Christian” (humanist) ending after all?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-note-on-gender-religion-and-politics.html
#twelfthnight #shakespeare #religion #drama #theatre #theater #literature #history #gender #disguise
INDEX for posts in this series on the TWELVE DAYS of CHRISTMAS in Shakespeare’s time (and possible influences on the plays):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/12/twelve-days-of-christmas-in-churches-of.html
NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu
[1] See Aidan Norrie on Elizabeth I and the Old Testament, April 12, 2024:
…the final pageant of Elizabeth’s coronation procession featured a depiction of Deborah the judge.
…(I’ve always loved how matter-of-factly Judges 4:4 just says,
‘Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time’),
and as far as I’m aware, this …is the only one out of all the coronation processions to represent a scene from the Bible and use it to impart a didactic message. Certainly, biblical figures had appeared before, but the scene of ‘Debora with her estates, consulting for the good government of Israel’ is unique.
I also liked that comparing Elizabeth to male biblical figures showed that the idea we have built up that female kingship was treated as an aberration, an inconvenience that had to be begrudgingly endured, is wrong….
https://www.arc-humanities.org/blog/2024/04/12/aidan-norrie-on-elizabeth-i-and-the-old-testament/
[2] See Lucy Munro, “‘Sblood!’ Hamlet’s Oaths and the Editing of Shakespeare’s Plays,”
in Shakespeare Survey 70, Cambridge U. Press, 2017, p.230-231.
[3] The text of the speech exists in a variety of debated forms, but this is one from
The W h 0 r e of Babylon: The Legacy of Tilbury
Shannon Osborne Ford https://digitalrenaissance.uvic.ca/doc/WoB_Tilbury/index.html#:~:text=Indeed%2C%20there%20are%20moments%20in%20the%20play,Titania%20who%20appears%20in%20armor%2C%20but%20Truth.
[4] Twelfth Night, 4.1.67-68.
“Be ruled by me” occurs ten times in Shakespeare,
in nine plays and one poem,
seven of those spoken by men, three by women:
Tamora (Titus Andronicus, 1.1);
Olivia (above); and
Venus in the poem, “Venus and Adonis,” line 674.
[5] Hamlet, 5.2.238.
[6] Luke 1:38, Geneva trans.
IMAGE: This image is undoubtedly not historical, but it achieved the effect the filmmaker desired. Few sources claim Elizabeth wore armor at Tilbury, though more claim she wore some kind of military atire. The image of Elizabeth at Tilbury has been fashioned and refashioned to suit the interests and needs of a variety of writers, painters, and filmmakers. Screen shot from Youtube,
Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I of England, from the film,
Elizabeth: The Golden Age,
directed by Shekhar Kapur,
Universal Pictures and Working Title Films, 2007.
Fair use via https://youtu.be/Y1HQERppmQ0?si=FkIckMjbfniq03UE
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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