02. “I, Poor Monster” or “Call Me Rosalind”: Women as Men in Twelfth Night and As You Like It

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We in the twenty-first century typically view the past as sexist, with no path for a woman but marriage to a man who would always treat her as lesser. In Shakespeare’s day, Queen Elizabeth I was the sole monarch of England, never marrying and thereby never surrendering her power. Even with this independent woman in the ultimate position of authority, gender roles with men in a position of power over women increasingly defined daily life in Renaissance England. However, in comedies, social positions could be temporarily flipped through cross-dressing and other explorations that would be considered improper in the real society of the day, as long as the plays ended with social norms being restored. In Shakespeare’s two comedies As You Like It and Twelfth Night, Or What You Will, the female main character dresses as a man for the majority of the play, and her relationship with her eventual male love interest is built up through interactions in which he does not know that she is a woman. The effect of Viola’s and Rosalind’s reversed gender roles on their relationships with their love interests show the shared theme of the importance of social equality when falling in love, while still reinforcing the necessity of opposite-sex marriage in early modern society.