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Ivan Bošnjak

Shakespeare

Professor Anđelka Raguž

May 26th, 2019

Disguise as a Getaway from Restrictions

Shakespeare uses disguises in his plays to make them more interesting, but in the same

time to confuse characters in the plays, and make the plays more comic. In “Twelfth Night”,

“Measure for Measure”, and “The Merchant of Venice” Shakespeare changed the external

qualities of his characters to make the plots more intriguing for the audience. He combines

disguise and cross-dressing in his plays so that the female characters have more freedom,

because they lived in a society where women did not have as much freedom as men did.

Women were restricted when it came to using intelligence to solve problems, which was

considered to be a job for men, but by cross-dressing and disguise women could show their

intelligence.

In “Twelfth Night” the main character, Viola, is disguised throughout the whole play

as a man called Cesario. She decided to disguise herself mostly for security, because it was

not safe for a woman to walk alone on the streets in those times. Another thing that she gained

by disguising herself as a man was liberty, she was free to go wherever she wants, and to talk

to whoever she wants. Although Viola thought that she is going to be able to look for her

brother without any major problems, she quickly found herself in a big mess; she fell in love
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with Orsino, but could not tell him, and to make things even more worse, she had to woo

Olivia in Orsino’s name: “Once more, Cesario, /Get thee to yon same sovereign cruelty./Tell

her my love, more noble than the world.” (Shakespeare, 2.4) By doing this for Orsino she

somehow managed to get Olivia to fall in love with her, and not with Orsino. Feste, the

clown, is another character who disguises himself. He pretends to be Sir Topas, a clergyman,

so he can visit Malvolio, and try to persuade him into believing that he is mad: “Sir Topas the

curate, who comes to visit Malvolio the lunatic.” (Shakespeare, 4.2) These two characters,

Viola and Feste, are the only characters that use cross-dressing to disguise themselves, other

characters such as Olivia, Orsino, and Malvolio disguise themselves without changing

anything in their appearance; Olivia disguises herself in her mourning for her lost brother,

Orsino pretends to be courtly lover, and Malvolio as a ridiculous lover.

In “Measure for Measure” the Duke is the only character who uses physical disguise,

but there are a few other characters who pretend to be someone else without changing

anything about their appearance. The Duke pretends to be a friar throughout almost the whole

play. He pretends to be a friar, because they had the liberty to walk wherever they want to

preach; this is good for the Duke because in that way nobody is going to suspect anything. He

uses his disguise to see how Angelo is going to lead his state; which the Duke left to him in

order to deal with all the dirty work which he does not want to do because he wants his people

to love him. The Duke borrowed the robe from Friar Thomas, and asked him to show him

how a true friar behaves, so that nobody founds out who he really is: “Therefore I

prithee/Supply me with the habit, and instruct me/How I may formally in person bear/Like a

true friar.” (Shakespeare, 1.3) Angelo presents himself as a highly moral person. He leads his

life by the rules, and punishes anyone who does not do the same. The Duke noticed this, and

thought that Angelo is the perfect replacement for him, but he also noticed that there is

something wrong with Angelo, something that even Angelo had not noticed until his
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conversation with Isabella. Angelo revealed his true face to the audience, but also to himself,

because he was not sure what was going on: “What's this? What’s this? Is this her fault, or

mine?/The tempter or the tempted, who sins most, ha?/Not she: nor doth she tempt; but it is

I.” (Shakespeare, 2.2)

In “The Merchant of Venice” three female characters, Nerissa, Portia, and Jessica,

disguise themselves as men. Jessica had planned how she will escape from her father’s home

and run away with Lorenzo. She disguised herself as Lorenzo’s page: “Fair Jessica shall be

my torchbearer.” (Shakespeare, 2.4), and managed to leave the house. She disguised not only

to escape the house, but also not to get noticed on the streets, because at that times it would be

strange to see a single woman walk with a group of men, which Lorenzo sent to get Jessica.

Portia’s and Nerissa’s disguise is much more important for the whole play. Both of them are

disguised as lawyers so that they can get into courtroom to save Antonio, Bassanio’s friend.

They would not be allowed to get into courtroom if they did not get a disguise, because

women were not allowed to get into courtrooms. Although Portia was rich, and could afford a

good lawyer to save Antonio, she decided to do it herself so she can show that she is as

intelligent as any other man in the courtroom. Shakespeare also did this so that Portia can be

seen as a proper heroine who is responsible for a lot of good things that happen in the play.

It is visible in these three plays how important tool disguise is. It is mostly important

because without it most female characters would not be able to have such a big impact on the

plays as they do have when they are disguised as men. The disguise is not only used to give

female characters liberty that men had, but also to make the plays more comic for the

audience, and in the same time more bewildering for the characters.
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Works Cited:

Shakespeare, William. Measure for Measure. Edited by Brian Gibbons. Cambridge

University Press, 2006, New York.

Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night, or What you Will. Edited by Keir Elam. Bloomsbury

Publishing Plc, 2014.

Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen.

The Modern Library, 2010, New York.