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Orsino Assures Who He Believes To Be Cesario That Olivia Can Surely Be ...

Orsino assures who he believes to be Cesario that Olivia can surely be persuaded through Cesario's charms and appearances. Orsino dotes on Cesario's lips, which he likens to those surpassing Diana's as more smooth and rubious; Orsino continues in his adulation of Cesario's looks as being semblative a woman's (Act I, Scene iv, lines 30-35). While an actress playing Viola mitigates Orsino's attraction to Cesario, there is a definite aggravation in the homoeroticism of both Orsino and Olivia's love for the youth (Osborne 1996, p. 96). There exists in the love triangle an equality that is unheard of in a patriarchy, one in which suddenly all three Viola/Cesario, Olivia, and Orsino are equally transgressive. If Viola is perceived as a woman, she is less of a transgression than she is if perceived as a man. In either situation, however, it should be noted that Olivia, Orsino, or both pose a significant threat to the Elizabethan patriarchy. Viola is desired by both parties regardless of the gender in which she is perceived, rendering her an unwitting wild woman. Osborne asserts:

An actress playing Viola mitigates Orsino's attraction to Cesario, but at the same time aggravates the homoeroticism in Olivia's love for the youth. Viola/Cesario's femininity is apparent enough to justify Orsino's sudden proposal to his page, then surely it is also apparent in Olivia's relationship with him/her. The appearance of one woman desiring another is further underscored by the impropriety of Viola's masculine dress and its association with the dangers of certain close relationships between women (Osborne 1996, p. 96).

Chapter Three: The Merchant of Venice

As Garber notes, in most Shakespearean comedies, women dressed as men have compelling reasons for remaining in disguise (Garber 1992, p.167). Where Rosalind and Viola had to use their disguises to conform to a patriarchal society and its workings, MOV's Portia uses hers on behalf of a weaker man's gain. The daughter of a nobleman who died before she was able to wed, Portia's first foray into the realm of sexual transgression comes not in the physical act of cross-dressing, but in her selection of a suitor. While Cross-dressing had a variety of function in these plays, some deriving from the material conditions of performance, others found functionality in the conflicted status of gender roles in the culture at large; the uses of cross-dressing varied over time and across class (Rackin 2003, p. 114). Unlike her counterparts in AYLI and TN, Portia's choice of Bassanio is one of questionable virtue. She cares desperately for a man of nobility to a lesser degree than her own, adopting the alias of Balthasarcoincidentally the name of her servantto convince the moneylender Shylock to release Antonio, Bassanio's colleague and friend.

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