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In Short, Female Characters That Pass For Men Pose More Of A Threat To ...

Shakespearean comedies, more frequently than tragedies or histories, made special use of the figure of the unruly woman for the fact that the context in which cross-dressing transpired was jovial, if not simply trivial. As seen in the cases of female protagonists across the three comedies, the women are not cross-dressing to forge permanent, new identities; cross-dressing is a means of empowering the women to attain their ends. In this sense, there is a significant social transgression, as the Elizabethan patriarchy relegated women as mentally fragile creatures in need of constant male domination and control. Common traits of the Elizabethan female include those of children: sexual innocence, general naïveté, and helplessness were the preferred norm of the Shakespearean woman.

However, this is not to preclude the sexual or socially unruly women of Shakespearean literature; instead, it is to identify what a typical Shakespearean audience in the Elizabethan Era expected to see as a resolution to a play. An unruly woman was fully expected to be tamed or brought under control. The progression of the uncontrollable woman, initially defiant and in direct opposition of the patriarchy in which she existed, progresses through a plot in three distinct phases: 1) the female is introduced as a stereotypical wild woman and threat, deemed to be so per her sexual chastity, refusal to marry, or escape from male-dominated society; 2) the female is challenged by or attracts the attention of a male counterpart, whose mission is to sexually conquer or marry her; and 3) the female is subdued through marriage or conflict resolution in which she succumbs to the will of the man. The convention of these three stages is very much akin to the modern-day happy ending, which is why the significance of the transgressions is called into question. If each play follows the path outlined in the three aforementioned phrases, is there any threat at all? Or is Shakespeare simply using the image of a wild woman to conjure conflict to keep his audience in suspense?

Chapter One: As You Like It

Rosalind is perhaps the most multi-dimensional character in Shakespeare's cross-dressing plays. Like Shakespeare's other works, As You Like It parallels Orlando and Rosalind circumstantially long before their love affair begins. Prior to their interaction, Rosalind and Orlando have much in common: both are exiles, Orlando by his brother and Rosalind by her kinsman. Both lose their fathers prior to the onset of the play, with Orlando excluded despite the primogeniture rights bestowed upon him as his father's oldest son.

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