Recently within William Shakespeare’s plays I have been paying close attention to the importance of identity (physical appearance affecting that) for his characters and how one’s identity change affects those around them. Twelfth Night was the first play that seriously had me thinking about identity when Orsino could not see Viola until she changed her clothing, he even still called her Cesario after he figured out that he was a she. This theme has spilled over into “Much Ado About Nothing” and I have to wonder how important this idea of identity (mainly physical identity) is for Shakespeare’s characters.
The main focus of the question lies within Act 2 scene one when the masquerade plan takes full affect. The first example that I found against the idea that physical appearance has much importance was when Antonio and Ursula have the small aside. Ursula is 100% certain that she is talking to Signor Antonio but Antonio is desperate to convince her otherwise. She then has the very interesting line “Can virtue hide itself?”(line 104) and as the reader that makes me understand that no matter what mask one could wear they cannot truly hide their true selves. This in itself would go against the idea that was presented in a Twelfth Night when Viola easily hid her “true self”. Also when Don John knows it is Claudio he speaks to, Claudio is sure that he has tricked Don John with just a simple mask. How can masks truly hide someone from who they are? This brings us back to our childhood when we would read the comic books when the superhero would put on a mask and then no one could possibly identify them. Just a simple plastic covering over his/her eyes was able to keep their true identity secrete, but no within “Much Ado about Nothing”. And yet a change in wardrobe and a beard can do the same thing as a plastic mask for a superhero in “Twelfth Night”. These changes in idea about physical appearance and how that can easily change who see’s that person for who he/she really is becomes quite confusing.
Does Shakespeare believe it is so easy to play these switches on his characters? Or more importantly does he think that the people within his time would see this and believe that they could either pretend to be a man if they were a woman or wouldn’t be able to hide behind a mask at the next party?
3 comments:
Great post, I really enjoyed it and decided to comment on it because I have been thinking about the theme of identity as well while reading these plays. I just can't not think how awful it would be for an individual to fall in love with someone who isn't truly them. As we read these plays, I think it is hard to tell what characters are truly themselves because their identities are constantly changing and we are seeing multiple characters pretending to be someone they are not.As we watched the clip in class yesterday, I noticed that changing of identity is a form of disguise and it allows the characers to speak more freely. When an individual wears a mask, it is not you but does this mean that the conversations aren't real as well? I also think that changing one's identity allows the reader to be more suspicious and anxious to what is going to happen next. It makes the play more exciting to read because one never knows what may happen.
I found this post interesting from a theatrical point of view because in the theatre we have something called "suspension of disbelief." This allows Shakespeare to devise crazy plots where characters are believably cross dressing and/or disguising themselves. Because of the fanciful nature of the theatre we, the audience, are able to "suspend our disbelief" and accept the plot even though disguises are usually not very visibly convincing.
Really nice discussion here of Tori's post. I like the connection from *TN* to *Much Ado*, and particularly to the scene we watched in class. It's always good to remember just how much Shakespeare's theater relied on costume. With men and boys playing the roles of women, the theater becomes constantly aware of the importance of disguise--something, I agree, that these plays bring out.
Post a Comment