Romeo And Juliet Gender Roles

William Shakespeare’s As You Like It is a pastoral comedy featuring characters who flee to the Forest of Arden in order to take refuge from the societal constraints of city life. The leading female characters, Rosalind and Celia, flee to Arden after Duke Frederick, Celia’s father, banishes Rosalind from the kingdom; like Rosalind’s father, Duke Senior, Rosalind is condemned to live in banishment. Rosalind and Celia decide to disguise themselves as Ganymede and Aliena, a gentleman and a feeble woman, concealing their true gender and class identities. Jean Howard, a literary critic, indicates that female crossdressing threatens the sex-gender system as well as the social order; she views crossdressing as a symptom of an unstable society and contends
According to Howard, women “probably led a loose life” (421) if they were crossdressers and wore male clothing. It could even be argued that Rosalind was driven to prostitution after being banished from the kingdom, because in Arden she promotes and sells herself to Orlando. She plays both pimp and prostitute because of her crossdressing from Rosalind to Ganymede and vice versa. Besides the use of stereotypical male and female ideals, Shakespeare uses clothing and costume to distinguish the differences between men and women. Rosalind experiments with gender by dressing up as Ganymede and taking the lead in many situations and relationships. She diverges from the typical role her gender expects. Celia dresses up and plays a role as well; although she does not disguise herself as another gender, her roleplaying indicates that the dramatized feminine role she plays is an inaccurate telling of her true female identity. Rosalind does not passively wait to be wooed by Orlando, but instead uses her male disguise as Ganymede to woo
Rosalind dresses as a male, but she acquires the attributes and roles of both men and women. Compared to the beginning of the play, Rosalind goes from a silent and submissive lady to an assertive woman who freely expresses herself with Orlando. Shakespeare uses crossdressing and gendered discourse to demonstrate the need for a cure in society. Before Rosalind and Celia flee from Arden, the court is disastrous; Duke Senior has been usurped by his brother and banished to the Forest of Arden and Orlando flees to Arden after learning that his older brother, Oliver, plans to have Orlando killed. It is only after Rosalind and Celia transform into Ganymede and Aliena that society can finally be cured and everyone is able to return to the