Sexual Disguise Seen from the Audience

――in Twelfth Night

Abstract

Shakespeare wrote several comedies in which heroines disguise as men, exclusively in the 1590's. When we think of the theatrical convention of those days, those disguises evoke many conjectures to us about how the stage was like. There were no actresses, so the female parts were played by boy-actors. Though the Elizabethan audience accepted this convention, Shakespeare seemed to treat those disguises unconventionally; as a means of foregrounding the ‘body’ of a boy-actor.

For example, in Twelfth Night, Viola; one of the identical twins, parts from her brother Sebastian due to a shipwreck. She encounters some crises of her identity, because of her male-disguise. These crises thrust the question into the minds of the audience, who really is on stage, is she a woman, or a man? As a result, the audience was forced to think over the body of the boy-actor playing Viola.

Thus we cannot help wondering why Shakespeare made the convention nontransparent. There seemed to be several answers to this question. One of them was the current of homosexualism in Elizabethan England. Another was, most probably, to suffice the desire of the female audience by realizing an ideal woman before their eyes. The boy actor who transcends the boundary of sex was a target of desires of both sexes.

But most of all, we must praise the craftsmanship of Shakespeare, because he kept the illusion on stage. There may have been a kind of interplay between the provocation Shakespeare plotted on stage and the desires of the audience.