twelfth night

Twelfth Night Essay While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night examines patterns of love and courtship through a twisting of gender roles. The play centers on the lead female role and protagonist, Viola, who disguises herself as a made-up young man, Cesario. In Trevor Nunn’s film version of Twelfth Night, Viola is portrayed by a female actress. On the other hand, in the Globe Theatre’s more modern production of Twelfth Night, the entire cast is played by male actors. As you can see there isn’t a black and white, wrong or right, approach to the portrayal of this renowned production. One must consider the vast differences on the societal views of sexuality and gender roles of today’s culture versus the 1600’s when this play was written. As James C. Bulman notes, “By 1999, the idea that gender is performative rather than innate had circulated widely” (75). In Shakespearean days it wasn’t uncommon for men or young boys to play all roles required in a play, even those which involved love affairs. However, today the majority of people would be uncomfortable and almost unsettled to see young men kiss on stage or vice versa. When reading the play I automatically created my own mental movie, as most readers and audience members do, which involved all female roles being played by female actresses and all male roles being played by men. Although I have not seen the Globe’s production of Twelfth Night, I believe that I would personally favor Nunn’s