Twelfth Night, or What You Will Gender Quotes

Viola's high-pitched voice could potentially expose her as a woman when she disguises herself as a boy. The solution? Pretend to be a singing eunuch (a castrated man – if the genitals are removed before puberty, the voice remains high-pitched, which was pleasing to many 16th-century music lovers). What really interests us about this passage, however, is the way the sea captain plays with the idea of bodily mutilation when he says he'll be Viola's "mute" (one who is unable to "blab" if his tongue has been removed). He also implies that his eyes should be put out as punishment if he exposes Viola's secret, which is that she never has been castrated.

Orsino's sensual description of "Cesario's" mouth ("lip") throat ("small pipe"), and voice ("maiden's organ") is made even more provocative because the Duke describes a very attractive and androgynous boy actor, who is playing the role of a young woman, who is cross-dressed as a boy. The passage is also an erotic description of the anatomical features of female genitalia.

In a famous book called Shakespearean Negotiations, Stephen Greenblatt points to this passage as evidence that "Orsino nicely captures the gender confusion in an unintentionally ironic description of his young page." In other words, Orsino isn't exactly aware of it, but his description reveals that "Cesario's" sex appeal is a combination of both masculine and feminine characteristics. The point? Androgyny is attractive.

This is one of our favorite quotes. Here, Malvolio implies that "Cesario" isn't quite ripe enough to be a "man." He compares "him" to a "squash" (an undeveloped peapod) and a "codling" (an unripe apple) in his attempt to explain away "Cesario's" androgynous good looks. Here, Malvolio attributes "Cesario's" seemingly undeveloped body to prepubescent youthfulness.

History Snack: Elizabethans often lumped young boys into the same category as girls and women. In fact, boys wore dresses until "breeching" age, when they were allowed to wear breeches (pants), go to school, and talk shop with their fathers and older boys.

Here, he tells "Cesario" to marry a young woman, because a woman's beauty (like a flower) fades just as quickly as a husband's sexual desire for his wife (especially once he's "deflowered" or, slept with her).

Here, Viola blames Olivia's desire for "Cesario" on women's "frailty." The idea is that women are emotionally and morally "frail" because their soft bodies (what they "are made of") are also "frail."

We don't know about you, but this doesn't seem to square with the play's women characters. Saucy Maria, who comes up with the genius plan to trick Malvolio certainly isn't "frail." Neither is Olivia, who sees what she wants and goes after it. As for Viola, she's sharp, witty, and resourceful.

Throughout the play, Duke Orsino makes several contradictory speeches about the way women love. Here, he claims that women are incapable of "passion." In fact, he implies that women are physically incapable of love – their bodies are too weak to sustain the "beating" of a heart and they are also too small to contain big love.

Critic Gail Kern Paster (the queen of Shakespeare and bodily functions) has shown that women were thought of as "leaky vessels" in the 16th century. (You'll know what that means in a second.) Here, Orsino's use of the term "retention" not only implies that Olivia is incontinent (can't control her bladder) but also suggests that she can't hold or "retain" any passionate feeling because it would seep or spill out of her, like urine. TMI? Sorry. Shakespeare wrote it, not us.

OK, now this is more like it. Here, Viola defends the ladies to Orsino's claim that women are incapable of love and depth of feeling. We also like the crafty way Viola reveals her love to the Duke without him knowing that 1) she's in love with him and 2) she's her "father's daughter." Clever girl. Seems like women are capable of "retention" after all (see discussion of 2.4.16 above).

When Toby tricks Sir Andrew into picking a fight with "Cesario" to impress Olivia, he gives voice to the notion that "manhood" is synonymous with "swaggering" and fighting. (It's so not. Keep reading.)

When "Cesario" (Viola in disguise) prays that she doesn't get pummeled in the duel with Sir Andrew, she makes a joke about what she "lack[s]." Read alone, this passage would seem to suggest that being born with a penis somehow predisposes one to picking and winning a fight. However, given the fact that Sir Andrew was born with a penis and is a total coward, it seems that the play is pointing out that one's sex doesn't necessarily determine whether or not someone will be brave.

As readers we tend to focus on all the ways Viola's behavior challenges notions of gender and what it means to act "like a woman." When Olivia steps into the traditionally male role and proposes marriage to Sebastian, we're reminded of just how bold Olivia is. We might think Olivia is weak at the play's outset (when we learn that she's in seclusion over her brother's death), but by the time Olivia sets out to seduce "Cesario," we understand that Olivia is just as untraditional as Viola. Both women break out of traditional gender roles assigned to Elizabethan women (quiet, submissive, "pure," wearing a dress, etc.).