Shakespeare's Women In Men's Attire

This paPer adopts postsmicturalist feminists' theory on gender and sexualityto analyze Shakespeare's crossdressing device in his five plays: The TwoGentlemen of Verona, The Merchant Of Venice, Tweme Nedt, As YOu Like It, andCymbellhe. In these plays the five heroinesdelia, Portia, Viola, Rosalind, andImogeMll don a masculine disgUise, and in disgUise, their gender identity (manor woman) and sexual identity (homosexual or heterosexual) are ambigUous. Asfeminism develops, the problem of gender on Shakespeare's crossdressed heroineshas been discussed by some critics, bllt few of them have touched uPon theproblem of sexuality.The purpose of this paPer is to find oat how crossdressing helPs todeconsmict Renaissance gender stereotypes, the binary opposition of gendef, andcomPulsory heterosexuality; and how crossdressing helPs the heroines to achievecomPlete identityedn individual endowed with both masculine and fendninequalities and a woman married to her beloved man haPpilyThe critical theories adopted inthis paPer are mainly postsmictUralistfeminists Helene Cixous's and Julia Xiisteva's theory on deconstructing thebinary oPPositions, and Judith Butler's theory on gender and sexual pluralism.This paPer holds that crossdressing helPs to testify: (l) gendetaliliedisguiseds constructed; men or women own both masculine and femininequalities, neither is suPerior to the other; (2) free from sex limitations, love is amatter of chance, and homosexual love could be considered on the same basis asheterosexual love; (3) howevef, homosexuality tends to be marginalized due to thenecessity of generational reproduction, and Shakespeare's plays end with haPPymarriages betWeen men and women.The main body of this paPer includes an introduction, four chaPers, and a4conclusion. In the Introduction, the social and theatrical background for Shakespeare's crossdressing device is discussed. Chapter One is a literature review, introducing poststructuralist feminists' theories on gender and sexuality, and various critics' opinions on Shakespeare's crossdressing device. The next three chapters are detailed textual analysis of crossdressing and the heroines' gender, sexuality and identity problems. Chapter Two is on crossdressing and the heroines' gender ambiguity, Chapter Three on crossdressing and the heroines' sexual ambiguity, and Chapter Four on removed crossdressing and the heroines' achieved complete identity. The Conclusion states that crossdressing helps the heroines to experience the men's world and acquire masculine qualities, and it also entangles them into ambiguous sexual relationships; at the happy endings of these five plays when the heroines doff their disguise and get married with their lovers, their gender and sexual identities are clarified, and they become complete women.