Masculinity In Venus And Adonis

In Venus and Adonis and Antony and Cleopatra, William Shakespeare tells the tale of frustrated lovers who long to be desired by the person they love. Although a common plot in many of Shakespeare’s works, these accounts instead forefront the reversal of gender identities. Masculinity is questioned through vulnerable male figures; alternatively, this masculine role is appropriated by the female counterparts, which results in the male figures’ uncertainty and loss of identity. Venus and Adonis comprises an evident shift in gender through the untraditional aggressive female and submissive male, while Antony and Cleopatra requires an understanding of gender that “refuses both the primacy of one sex and the sufficiency of two” (Baker 107). Loss of identity is a prominent theme in Antony and Cleopatra. In fact, Cynthia Marshall suggests identification issues centers around this play (Marshall 405). Shakespeare attempted to broaden the scope of gender and identity from what was expected and as a
The “Rose-cheeked Adonis” is beautiful, but his beauty is continually described in female terms and epithets throughout the poem (l 3). Unlike Adonis who merely has feminine characteristics, Antony embodies his female identity while dressing in Cleopatra’s clothing (2.5.22). Cleopatra personifies masculinity when she attains Antony’s sword, which Michael Payne suggests symbolizes his manhood and ultimately certifies Cleopatra as a “destroyer of men and their masculinity” (Payne 273, 271). Although this episode of cross-dressing may emasculate Adonis, J. Robert Baker advices this “movement into the experience and guise of the other sex becomes the condition of a fuller life for both Antony and Cleopatra” (Baker 107). Antony is able to put aside his duties as a military leader, and symbolically give them to Cleopatra while she is the occupier of his