Gender Role Reversal in Twelfth Night and The Rover

By: Abdullah Mohammed Gharbi

The confusion unleashed ( released )by disguise in comedy creates a space in

which social boundaries are suspended. When identities are obscured, there is an

unparalleled freedom for female characters to test the limits of their power in courtship.

In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare has complicated the gender roles of the relationship

between Viola and Olivia by cloaking Viola as male. Her identity almost throughout is

double-gendered, and romantic frustrations she feels as Viola in longing for Count

Orsino leak into her audiences with Olivia as Cesario. The respect and friendship she

feels for Olivia as a woman fuse with the latent desires of her heart to create in Olivia’s

eyes the irresistible illusion of an admirer. The fact that she plays both a male and a

female part allows Shakespeare to test the limits of the female role in courtship.

The situation of their meeting would not at first seem propitious for an intimacy to form

between Viola and Olivia. Olivia is mourning the loss of her dear brother; Cesario is an

emissary from an unwanted suitor, and is only begrudgingly granted admittance.

“Most radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty-” (I, v, 170) she begins in solemn attention

to her text. This praise is contrived and stilted, unlike the free and conversational tone that

usually distinguishes Viola’s diction. The break signals an abrupt transition into candor,

where she reveals she has “taken great pains to con” praise like that above (I, v, 174). Viola’s sharp wit has quickly revealed itself. She attempts to recite

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the verses that Orsino has entrusted to her, but her embellishments(ornament

,decoration) soon distract Olivia’s attention from any thoughts of Orsino. Olivia has

had too much of the coolly composed love declarations characteristic of the Duke, and

Cesario’s own remarks make a lively departure from Orsino’s verse. Viola continues to

ad-lib ( improvised lines) , with the consequence of undermining Orsino’s suit by

mocking its seriousness. “Alas, I took great pains to study it, and/ ‘tis poetical,” (I, v,

194-5) she says of his text, again associating the reading of it with suffering.

Unknowingly she has touched on how Olivia views Orsino’s advances as oppressive,

and unwittingly presents herself as an alternative.

Cesario is Orsino’s opposite to Olivia’s eyes. He is youth, energy, to his age,

gravity, and pedantry (Scholastic). “Good / beauties, let me sustain no scorn; I am very /

comptible, even to the least sinister usage,” she jests (I, v, 174-6). Cesario’s selfdeprecating manner offers a contrast to the proud nature of Orsino’s suit. In begging the

ladies not to mock her, she acknowledging her place below them, empowering Olivia in

a way that Orsino could not, given his high birth and haughty bearing. The experience of

Orsino’s suit has made Olivia feel strongly the limitations of the female part in courtship.

In response to his advances, she may only consent or attempt rebuff; she may not shape

the course of the relationship. In Cesario, though, she can perceive something feminine

in looks and manner that make her feel that she has the power to dictate the terms of the

acquaintance. By feminizing the male suitor, Shakespeare explores the rich implications

of a woman dominating the relationship. Olivia’s actions in courting Cesario would

subvert the traditional gender framework if Cesario were really a man, but because of the

female gender backdrop, Olivia’s assertiveness is less provocative and more comic.

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There are doubtless few examples of female reversal in courtship as vivid as that

in Twelfth Night. However, a shade of this theme can be found in The Rover. Here also

disguise has a liberating effect on Hellena’s pursuit of Willmore. When the pair first

meets, Hellena is dressed as a gipsy. This does not quite give her the social clout of man

like Viola’s disguise does in Twelfth Night, but it does relieve some of the constraints of

modesty that she would have as a noblewoman. Gipsies are transient and live outside the

conventions of class. Their transgressions are acceptable because they do not threaten the

social hierarchy. Thus the gipsy façade allows her flirtations to be more pointed and

makes the courtship more of a two-way affair. Hellena is at least Willmore’s equal in

wooing. This augmentation of female power in courtship, though derived in this case by

a subversion of social boundaries rather than those of gender, results in a dynamic of

parity similar to the one found in the Viola-Olivia relationship.

“Sister, there’s your Englishman, and with him a handsom proper Fellow—I’ll

to him, and instead of telling him his Fortune, try my own,” Hellena says upon seeing

Willmore for the first time (I, ii, 123-5). She is aware of the social license her garb

provides her, and she is confidently prepared to use it to pursue him. Willmore

acknowledges the greater sexual freedom of the gipsies before the two even meet:

“Gipsies, on my life. –Sure these will prattle if a man cross their hands,” (I, ii, 126-7).

Hellena indeed does prattle, quickly employing her incisive wit to gain hold of the reins

of the conversation. She is not afraid to insult him, noting in him “a certain forward

Impudence, which does not displease me at this time” (I, ii, 135-6). This appraisal could

just as easily apply to her. If he is forward in accosting her, she is equally forthright in

parrying his words with barbs of her own. “Have a care how you venture with me, Sir,

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lest I pick your Pocket, which will more vex your English Humour, than an Italian

Fortune will please you,” she replies to his advances (I, ii, 130-2). Such a threat, though

playful, is a more aggressive response than what would be expected from a woman. Her

directive manner is more akin to the traditionally masculine role in courtship.

From the first, Olivia also seems to assume the more masculine role. Her social

role as head of the household creates a position of power over the youth Cesario, even

though Olivia is a woman. She sustains this dominant role with strong interrogatives that

pepper ( add pepper) the discourse. The staccato( breaks) of her questioning lends the

conversation a playful tone, but it is clear that she is leading the way, much like Hellena.

Before Viola can begin to recite her message, Olivia interjects, “Now, sir, what is your

text?” (I, v, 220). Viola can only respond, and hope to answer satisfactorily. Olivia

immediately puts her on the defensive and successfully prevents her from reciting

Orsino’s message. She also uses her sexuality to her advantage, unveiling her face with

the assured and flirtatious, “Is’t not well done?” (I, v, 235). She knows the power of her

beauty over men, and wields it against Cesario.

As their audience comes to a close, the relationship between Olivia and Viola

moves to a different level with Cesario’s love declaration to Olivia. Though she is

speaking hypothetically, the passion of this speech is without match for much of the play.

This cannot be explained simply regarding it as a particularly well-crafted example of

what a lover might say. Viola is professing these sentiments as a lover, not of Olivia,

but of Orsino. “Make me a willow cabin at your gate, / And call upon my soul

within the house;” (I, v, 268-9) she begins, in a poetic form which is a departure from

the previous bantering tone in prose. Olivia could take the image of Cesario waiting at

her gate as

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meaning that Cesario’s earlier refusal to be moved from the gates was the act of a

stubborn admirer. To Viola, however, it is a bittersweet picture of what she would do

were she a man. Frustrated by her inability as a woman to act on her love for Orsino, she

longs to be able to express her love as a man could, and finds in her disguise an

opportunity to vent her feelings. “Halloo your name to the reverberate hills / And make

the babbling gossip of the air / Cry out ‘Olivia!’ O,” (I, v, 272-4) Viola proclaims in the

heart of the speech. In these lines concerned with the name of a lover, the vowel sounds

always return to the open “O”, reflecting an inner preoccupation with that name rich in

the vowel, Orsino. The fact that her thoughts tend to the object of her secret love gives

her words such passion.

She ends her speech with, “You should not rest / Between the elements of air and

earth, / But you should pity me!” (I, v, 274-276). It is as Viola that she should be pitied,

in love but unloved; it is as Cesario that she is loved. In pronouncing what, as a woman,

she wants most for a lover to be, she imparts to Olivia as a man just what Olivia would

want to hear from a suitor. Viola is in no danger of falling for Olivia because of gender

boundaries, but the disguise affords Olivia no such protection. She ( Olivia) falls in love

with Cesario because of Viola’s passion and wit. Viola has a unique position in comedy,

that of being both the pursuer in love and the pursued, the lover unhappily unrequited

and the one undesirably desired. Paradoxically, it is the sisterly bond as women unhappy

in love between Viola and Olivia that makes this love possible.

No such dire repercussions of disguise separate Hellena and Willmore. In their case,

the removing the disguise is trivial, and only the stubbornness of each keeps them apart.

Accordingly, the love declaration between the two is more lighthearted. “I am

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parlously afraid of being in love, Child, and you have not forgot how severely you have us’d

me,” says Willmore (V, i, 414-6), seemingly unable to be serious, even about love. Helena

continues the mocking tone by promising “to find out all your haunts, and rail at you to all

that love you, till I have made you love me only in your own defense, because nobody else

will love” (V, i, 417-420). The two must depend on joking to communicate because they are

so equally matched, and each is on the defensive. It is significant that in this final scene

Hellena is dressed, not as a gipsy, but as a boy. Because Willmore is aware of Hellena’s true

gender, the effect of this masking is subtler than in Twelfth Night. Hellena is essentially

feminine, but her male garments underscore the frank, almost masculine manner in which

she asserts her will. She plays the male part by proposing to him: “let but old gaffer Hymen

and his priest say amen to’t, and I dare lay my mother’s daughter by as proper a fellow as

your father’s son, without fear or blushing.” (V, i, 441-4). As a woman, she would only end

up poor and used if she took Willmore without getting married, and she consummately

defends against this fate. “What shall I get?” she asks, “ A cradle full of noise and mischief,

with a pack of repentance at my back?” (V, i, 456-7). Aphra Behn’s words seem to speak

from experience, and her female perspective gives Hellena’s struggle an edge. While

Shakespeare is playing with gender for comic effect, but for Behn, an empowered female has

serious implications.

Olivia’s love declaration is completely sincere. “Cesario, by the roses of the spring, /

By maidenhood, honour, truth, and every thing,” she begins (III, i, 149-150). Unlike Cesario’s

declaration in the first act, Olivia’s is in rhyming couplets. This lends a sense of formality to

the lines and suggests that they may be rehearsed. Cesario obviously has often been in

Olivia’s thoughts. She first cites

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supports her cause with the bastions of her virtue. Because she ( Olivia) is being forward

in seeking Cesario out, she must assert that her honor is still intact. This is an indication

that the submissive behavior of women in courtship is an essential marker of their

femininity. She continues, “I love thee so, that maugre all thy pride, / Nor wit nor reason

can my passion hide.” (III, i, 151-2), recognizing before Viola even speaks that she is to

expect a sardonic reply. This is a different Olivia from what has previously been

portrayed. Before, she was proud and eager to spar( dispute , argue) now she is willing to

submit to all of Cesario’s pride for the sake of love. She goes further to anticipate

Cesario’s qualms by directing, “Do not extort thy reasons for this clause, / For that I

woo, thou therefore hast no cause,” (III, i, 153-4). The self-analysis here is acute: she

acknowledges the masculine part she has been playing in the courtship, and even

perceives its social implications. She assumes that her usurpation of the wooing role

would hurt Cesario’s masculinity because the male gender roles of the time depended

greatly on the way they treated women, especially in courtship. She has risked Cesario’s

emasculation by pursuing him, just as she has put her femininity on the line. With so

much in the air, she can only fall on rational reflection to make her case: “But rather

reason thus with reason fetter, / Love sought is good, but given unsought better.” (III, i,

155-6). The emphasis on reason suggests that the gender roles are unreasonable and

arbitrary. The concluding adage( saying= proberb) is a wonderfully pithy assertion of

gender relativism. It paints an inclusive vision of love, in which wooing is not

constrained to one gender, and one-sided love is happily accepted. As she is saying

this, Olivia could have no idea that this is just the kind of world Viola dreams to

inhabit, that she could pursue her love of Orsino.

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Having a couple composed of two women in Twelfth Night tests the audience’s

comfort with having women in charge, either in male dress or female. The whole system

of heterosexual courtship is put under scrutiny when such a major tenet as male

dominance is subverted. Shakespeare suggests an alternative to this system in which

love is unconstrained by gender roles. Though both Viola and Olivia end up in the role

prescribed by their gender as subjects of their husbands in marriage, the implications of

female empowerment suggested by their courtship linger. A similar subversion occurs in

The Rover. Behn has suggested a new type of woman in Hellena. She is not afraid of her

sexuality and uses it to take a dominant role in courtship. This untested mode of

femininity is let loose in a comic space saturated in disguise and frivolity, to hilarious

results. Amid the chaos, a hint of Behn’s message can be discerned: a yearning for

equality between the sexes in courtship. Both author ultimately depict gender

relationships progressive for their time, but shielded from scrutiny by the giddy freedom

of comedy