A Study Of Cross-dressing In William Shakespeare's Plays

The period from the 16th century to the 17th Century, a transitional time of British society witnessed unprecedented changes in politics, economy, culture and other aspects. As its social relationships were correspondingly reconstructing, the gender relationships were not excluded from such adjustments. As one of the most important playwrights in the Renaissance, Shakespeare created a lot of social allegorical dramas, and was honored "Soul of the Age" by Ben Jonson, another great playwright of his time.Drama, an act of reconstruction reflects social reality of its time. It is not only an art of performance; it also expresses social cultures and provides guidance to practice. Therefore, it is inevitably mutual referential with social history. This paper select some of Sakespeare's plays as "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", "The Merchant of Venice" "As You Like It", "Twelfth Night" and "Cymbeline" which involve cross-dressing. Thus this paper based on Judith Butler's gender performance theory and Michel Foucault's power discourse theory, discuss the deep meaning of the phenomenon of cross-dressing. Based on gender and class, gender and space and chastity view three latitude of text analysis, reveal the women behind the rebellion and compromise. On this basis, further discuss the deep meaning of cross-dressing and then further explore how cross-dressing in drama of the Renaissance implies the gender "performance" in daily life.Through the study to drag in Shakespeare's plays, reveals the complexity of gender relations, moreover cross-dressing practice makes us realize the sex, lust, power construction and mutual checks and balances between the relationship. In the process, involving the class system, space, cross-border marriage, identity, love, social psychological factors, such as analysis, and sex is just like a knot, connecting all the core of the problem. As you can see, through the analysis of the cross-dressing of Shakespeare's gender is not only a political question, and it is a cultural issue.