Comic Situations Brought About by Cross-Dressing in Twelfth Night and Good Night Desdemona

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Comedic Essay
Introduction
Comic Situations Brought About by Cross-Dressing in Twelfth Night and Good Night Desdemona
Twelfth Night is one of the numerous plays that were written by Shakespeare. The protagonist character in Twelfth a night is a female whose dressing style resembles men’s clothing. Twelfth Night is a comedic play and the cross-gender is specifically used to bring out comedy in this play (Suzuki 123). Another play that largely borrows from Shakespeare’s plays Othello and Romeo and Juliet is called Good Night Desdemona that was written by a Canadian lady who is a playwright called Ann-Marie MacDonald. Both Twelfth Night and Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) are comic in their settings (Scott 28). Most importantly to note is that for one to understand Good night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), the person should read all of the three books together for him or her to understand the comedic situations that are highlighted in this play.
This essay examines comedic situations brought about by crossing dressing in Twelfth Night and Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet).
Comic Situation Brought about By Cross-Dressing in Twelfth Night
What normally captures the attention of the most modern audiences of the Twelfth Night is the fact that the protagonist character that is presented as a female by the author is dressed like a man in most parts of the play. It is something the audiences find quite funny and unusual. It was quite funny to see a woman acting like a man and how the change of gender has been used to bring out the comedic part of the play. A woman can act like a man, but she will have to turn to her former self once the play is over. A woman cannot permanently become a man, and therefore, there is not much effect that was brought by the cross-dressing in the play but to make people laugh. In Twelfth Night play, the protagonist by the name Viola is presented as a strong woman, but she has to become a man to protect herself and eventually solve the problem that is in the play. When the ship was wrecked at the shores of Illyria, she assumed that her brother Cesario who was in the ship also died, and therefore she decided to disguise herself as a man to work for the Duke Orsino. The comedic aspect that is presented by Viola dressing like a man is that, she was virtually trying to woo Olivia who is playing the role of a woman just like her in the play. It was quite ironical and funny to see a woman wooing a fellow woman simply because she was dressed like a man; the audiences were left in laughter. In the book of Twelfth Night, cross-dressing has been used to represent a world where the nature had been distorted; a woman falls in love with a fellow woman, and a man falling in love with a fellow man. Other than comedic nature of this play, there are demonstrations of different levels of sexual attraction between different characters and homoerotic relationships. Viola is in love with Olivia who is fellow woman, and Orsino is in love with Cesario and Antonia is in love with Sebastian a representation of homoerotic relationships within the play. It would be important to note that Viola was not supposed to act on her own passion the way she did by falling deeply in love with Orsino. Cross-dressing has been used in most instances to represent comedic nature of the play and as a result as the action is proceeding, the audiences were continuously laughing throughout the play. A case in point is when Viola did not only dress like a man, but she is also disguising herself as a youth, this role allowed most of the characters within the play to intimately interact openly (Suzuki 130).
Continuous cross-dressing by Viola was viewed comedic because before the year 1660, women were not allowed to appear on the stage during Elizabethan period (Suzuki 130). Most important to remember is that, Women’s roles were mostly played with boys or young men, but here is a case where a woman is not only appearing on the stage, but is also playing a man’s role. The audiences were mesmerized with the change of events in this play by Shakespeare. The use of cross-dressing in the Twelfth Night is not only comedic, but also confusing. It was quite laughable to see a woman taking the role of man, and a man taking the role of a woman within the same play, for instance Viola disguising herself as a man and Cessario as a woman. The author used cross-dressing strategically to bring out gender confusion and also to provide a route for the audiences to think about the clasticity of identity. In addition to that, by disguising herself as a man after the presumed death of her brother, Viola was able to serve the Duke Orsino to court Olivia but could not avoid falling in love with Orsino. This was quite significant and comedic for the audiences to understand that it was not easy to successfully transform the natural self of a human being. Viola was a woman and she could not avoid falling in love with the Duke who was a handsome young man. Remember that, Cessario who is the twin brother to Viola had been reported dead, then allover sudden she appears on the scene to bring out the comical part of cross dressing in the play. The audiences were sent into the world of confusion by Shakespeare by the unfolding events and were constantly laughing. Shakespeare was so strategic in the use of the return of Sebastian at the scene to enable Viola to return to her former self of female. Most importantly to note is that, the return of Sebastian enabled the Play’s love theme to take place within the societal boundaries concerning love affair. Viola is now properly in love with Orsino as a man and a woman as required by the conservative societal norm. Another thing that is quite significant to be remembered by the audiences is that the characters that took the parts of Viola and Olivia were actually young adolescent boys. This showed that gender is a fluid category and with proper costumes, wigs and make-ups, men can really perform the part of women with a lot of eloquence. That was actually another aspect of cross-dressing to represent a comic within the play and the dramatic change of events was quite comical and the audiences were literally kept at the edges of their various seats (Suzuki 130).
Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
The book Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) is a twisted comedy that borrows largely from some of Shakespeare’s tragic plays like Romeo and Juliet. The play itself is a tragic comedy because Juliet that would later die for love specifically for Romeo has changed a lover. At the same time, the ghost that was supposed to represent death is in itself comedic. For those who have read or watched Romeo and Juliet would remember that the events that were supposed to be tragic in their outcomes have actually been twisted by the author MacDonald to become comical. The author is struggling to convince the audiences that the two tragic plays that is Romeo and Juliet and Othello were actually comical and not tragic as had been presented by Shakespeare. The protagonist in the play Good Night Desdemona Good morning Juliet is a female character by the name Constance Ledbelly. Constance has been represented as an academician bachelor who is beleaguered and unprecedented heroine. Constance was strategically used by the author to prove that Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Othello were comedies with a happy ending and not tragedies as was presented by Shakespeare. Constance is in need for love the only person who can make her fall in love is a wise fool. Constance is f...