Gender Ambiguity Boys Should Be Girls Will Be Boys ...

â€Å"Boys will be girls will be boys† This statement refers to the theme of gender within Shakespeare’s comedies and it is portrayed significantly in both As You Like It and Twelfth Night. Gender is a major theme in the work of Shakespeare which is an issue which has had a significant impact on the criticism attracted to his work for many of his plays, led by feminists in particular. In each of the two plays there is gender ambiguity, mistaken identities and gender blurring as Shakespeare deals with the important issues of homosexuality and bisexuality. Before dealing with these issues it is important to look at the society of the time and the historical background to some of the issues such as cross dressing. It is also significant to note the motives behind the characters to disguise as men and also the relationships they have with other characters to give us a sense of their true gender identity. In each of the plays the female protagonist disguises herself as man. However they were not acted by females to begin with as it was an all-male acting company on the Renaissance stage in England during this period. However the women in Shakespeare’s plays are given a certain power although it is through the guise of men and that is why some critics may conclude that perhaps Shakespeare had a limited view of women as did the society he lived in. However he was clearly influenced by society in what he wrote about but instead of refraining** women he empowered women in his plays givingShow MoreRelatedEssay about Comparing Shakespeare’s Women in Disguise2920 Words   |  12 Pagescritics to question sexual identity and gender roles in not just his plays, but many other plays as well. For early modern England at this time, cross-dressing was looked at as a dramaturgical motif, a theatrical practice, and a social phenomenon. â€Å"In Shakespeare’s day, a cross-dress ed heroine, like any female character also involved a gender switch in the world of the playhouse, for women’s roles were normally assigned to young male apprentices called play-boys† (Shapiro, 1). In each of Shakespeare’sRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesorganization is sound and the author does a superior job of presenting the structure of arguments. David M. Adams, California State Polytechnic University These examples work quite well. Their diversity, literacy, ethnic sensitivity, and relevancy should attract readers. Stanley Baronett. Jr., University of Nevada Las Vegas Far too many authors of contemporary texts in informal logic – keeping an eye on the sorts of arguments found in books on formal logic – forget, or underplay, how much of