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The “Fake” Mirror and the “Instinct” Gender

2018-01-13周曦

读与写·教育教学版 2018年1期
关键词:朱生豪中圖南昌大学

Abstract:A pair of twins, Sebastian and Viola, played the key roles in the comedy of Twelfth Night. Viola under cross-dressing got exactly the same figure and complexion as her brother, which seemed that one gave the appearance in a mirror of the other. From the perspective of Gender Criticism, also with some analyses on the basis of Cultural Criticism, here Shakespeare, comparing the twins sameness, clarified that not only sex is instinct by nature but also gender is “made of by God so as to emphasize that although gender could be imitated but never changed by nature. In this way, Twelfth Night showed his consideration on gender and tried to gave his consolation to the audiences by telling people that gender is instinct as their sex. The Socio-cultural background restricted Shakespeare's gender/sex ideology and through this comedy, it persuaded people to believe that cross-dressing or any performances that tried to usurp the instinct gender will bring about troubles.

Key words:Twelfth Night; Gender Criticism; Viola; Shakespeare

中圖分类号:H315.9 文献标识码:A 文章编号:1672-1578(2018)01-0001-03

In Twelfth Night, Sebastian and Viola are pigeon twins who have the same appearance, figure and complexion, but the opposite sexes. They are the key roles around whom the whole story was constructed. Shakespeare utilize much metaphor to describe their sameness, while he underlined in between that they are different at all except for their identical appearance and similar cloths. Shakespeare was clarifying his consideration upon sex and gender in the Renaissance of England: Male and Female are not only opposite sexes as they are born that way, but also their gender temperaments are given or “made of” by God, which means genders are somehow instinct by nature. In the viewpoint of Gender Criticism of the 21st century, his idea on gender is so improved, as well as clearly limited, as “the Presumption of a binary gender system implicitly retains the belief in a mimetic relation of gender to sex whereby gender mirrors sex or it otherwise restricted by it. When the constructed status of gender is theorized as radically independent of sex, gender itself becomes a free-floating artfice, with the consequence that man and masculine might just as easily signify a female body as a male one, and woman and feminine a male body as easily as a female one.”(Bulter,1990: 6-7)and“gender is a much contested concept, as slippery as it is, indispensible, but a site of unease rather than agreement.”(Glover and Kaplan,2000:ix) In Bulters opinion,“‘sexwas a culturally constructed as gender, indeed, perhaps it was always already gender, with the consequence that the distinction between sex and gender turns out to be no distinction at all”.(Butler,1990,7)“Gender ought not be conceived merely as the cultural inscription of meaning on a pregiven sex...gender must also designate the very apparatus of production whereby the sexes themselves are established.”endprint

In the Renaissance, there was no idea about social-constructed gender.Gender is a word used to identify peoples characteristics in much earlier Galens medical theories and usually distinguish a male and a female on physiognomics so popular at that time. More often than not, it was just a alternative for not mentioning“sex”. So Gender Criticism, together with material supports from the perspective of Cultural Criticism, provide a good basis to analysis and illustrate why Shakespeare had created this pair of pigeon twins in that way, why he put a“fake” mirror between the twins, why he insist on the “instinct” gender and why those troubles and wickedness made by cross-dressing are needed in his plot.

1 The ‘Fake” Mirror between the Twins

After cross-dressing, Viola obtained a fake body image of her brother. In Scene I, Act II, Sebastian said:“A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled me, was yet of many accounted beautiful: but, though I could not with such estimable wonder overfar believe that, yet thus far I will boldly publish her, she bore a mind that envy could not but call fair.”(P22-23) The twins same image made a fake mirror between them, which mixed masculinity with femininity. Duke Orsino had his words:“One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons; A natural perspective, that is and is not” (P82),then in Antonios words, “How have you made division of yourself? An apple, cleft in two, is not more twin //Than these two creatures...”(P82)So what did the same image shared by the twins look like? Here came Duke Orsinos appreciation, he said Violas lips(though she dressed as a man) is as “smooth and rubious” as Dianas lip, her “small pipe” is like a “maidens organ, shrill and sound, and all is smeblative a womans part”.(P11)Malvolio used described Viola as she/he is“between boy and man”,“very well-facoured” and with a“shrewishly” attitude. In this image, sex and gender, as well as masculinity and femininity, mixed together. But it was a fake mirror, for no matter how masculine Viola was, she had to took off her mans clothes to be acknowledged as“Orsinos mistress and his fancys queen”.(P87)It seems to declare that the society know that Violas sex must be female, but its not enough, they need she dressed as a woman to be a real female, which implied a closer connection between sex and gender should be build and never be cut.

Cross-dressing gave Viola the same“body”with her brother, Sebastian. Gender became something that could be put on as clothes, which is coherent to what Bulters Gender Performance. In face, gender is constructed by the society after a male or female was born, in which the sex/gender ideology exerts its influence. But in the Renaissance, there is no such thing as social-constructed gender. Though much of evidences could prove that gender could be imitated in daily life, people were more willing to believe Gender is linked entirely with sex.endprint

2 The “Instinct” Gender

Shakespeare's ideology of binary gender system was somehow influenced by the socio-cultural backround in the Renaissance of England. So what is his thought on gender in Twelfth Night?This part will be clarified in two parts: Shakespeares understand of the twins femininity and masculinity.

First,the twins' femininity. Femininity was related to some characteristics or feminine temperaments, such as tender, teem, soft and so on. Viola spoke volumes about it, when she said: “How easy is it for the proper-false// In women's waxen hearts to set their forms! Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we!For such as we are made of, such we be...” And here comes a question: what did she mean by saying “for such we are made of”? Gender is constructed by society or is born to be like that? Maybe Sebastians opinion on his femininity could answer.“...Fare ye well at once: my bosom is full of kindness, and I am yet so near the manners of my mother, that upon the least occasion more mine eyes will tell tales of me...” He was easy to shed tears because he was still “so near the manners of ” his “mother”. His femininity was something his mother had left on him because he was born by a woman and he was still young. So gender was just like sex, it was born that way, or“made of”by God.

Second, the twins masculinity. Shakespeare did not speak directly about their differences on masculinity, while it was implied by plotting. When Viola was challenged by Sir Andrew to duel, she showed her fear and said:“[Aside]Pray God defend me!A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of a man.”(P62)These words were telling that although she was cross-dressed as a man, she could never be a real man, for she was made of as a woman by God, and the woman's body might not be changed by cross-dressing. And it was Sebastians reaction to Sir Andrew that highlighted that gender was “instinct”.When Sir Andrew met Sebastian, he expressed his aggressiveness, his masculinity, by drawing his sword to fight. Sebastians reaction was exactly opposite compared with his sister, Viola. He said:“I will be free from thee. [Disengaging himself] What wouldst thou now? If thou darest tempt me further, draw thy sword.”(P67)He was aggresive(gender) for he is a man(sex). Shakespeare wanted to defend that no matter gender could be imitated or not, it had a more solid relationship than people thought with the binary sex system. He tried to instruct people that gender is “instinct” as God had created both sex to be so. So was it necessary to claim that gender is “instinct”at that time?endprint

3 Troubles and Wickedness Made by Cross-dressing

In Twelfth Night, Viola met with many troubles and much wickedness made by cross-dressing, as what she claimed:“...Disguise, I see, thou art a wickedness,//Wherein the pregnant enemy does much...How will this fadge? my master loves her dearly; //And I, poor monster, fond as much on him; //And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.//What will become of this? As I am man, //My state is desperate for my master's love;As I am woman, ——now alas the day!——What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe!O time! thou must untangle this, not I; It is too hard a knot for me to untie!”(p24-25)

It is easy to see that the biggest problem that her cross-dressing brought is homosexuality——Olivia loved Viola, or even worse, Cesario(Viola in disguise) loved Duke Orsino while the clothes gave Viola a mans body and identity, Cesario, which gave both of them the same sex here. In the 16th century, the word“homosexuality” did not exist, people in England used“Buggery”and“Sodomy”as a substitute, and on religion,“buggery”was“for Christians not to be named”, for it is a felony against nature and human. Punishments upon it were written clearly in the law at that time. If cross-dressing allowed a person to change his or her sex and gender that had already set by God by cross-dressing or drag, then it must cause a anxiety among those Christians. Whats worse, “As much as drag creates a unified picture of “woman” (what its critics often oppose), it also reveals the distinctness of those aspects of gendered experience which are falsely naturalized as a unity through the regulatory fiction of heterosexual coherence. In imitating gender, drag implicitly reveals the imitative structure of gender itself——as well as its contingency.”(Butler,1990,137)“Although this process(performance of gender by cross-dressing) is rendered invisible within the context of the cultural“norm” of heterosexuality, subversive sexual practices and bodily performances call it into question by threatening to establish identities outside of the confines of the masculine/feminine paradigm.”And it was what the ideology of the binary gender system would not allow.

In the Renaissance of England,Some of the“homosexuals” acquire the behaviors or gender temperaments of the other sex(in their minds) to imitate the heterosexuals' relationships, but more important, to get a more concrete ego-identity. Alan Bray wrote in his Homosexuals in Renaissance England that it was in the 17th century that those persons with their sex orientation diagnosed as a kind of mental or body disease, first got their ego-identity as a “buggery or “sodomy” and awoken from their homosexual identity disorder. As Italy blew its Renaissance into England, Pietro d'Abanos(1257-1315) Commentary on the Problems of Aristotle recorded(c.1310) many manuscripts of his Latin commentary on the Problems survive, and there were eight editions between 1475 and 1582, all published in Italy except for one in Paris (1520). His opinion is that if the male body's structure is such that receptive anal sex is so enjoyable as to become “second nature” simply through habit, whatever the congenital circumstances, that sexual practice is arguably not “against nature”. So it is easy to understand why those troubles and wickedness was needed in Shakespeares plotting. The heterosexual ideology should be defended in that emerging chaos of social-constructed “second nature” with the homosexual consciousness that every Christian should condemn.endprint

4 Conclusion

The Socio-cultural backround restricted Shakespeare's gender/sex ideology,but Twelfth Night showed his consideration on this matter and tried to gave his consolation to the audiences by telling people that gender is instinct as their sex. Cross-dressing or any performances that tried to usurp the instinct gender will bring about troubles. The ending is a consolidation of the traditional gender system and the ideology of a political body of binary opposition. While sodomy which was believed that it could bring disasters and catastrophe upon humanity as what happened to the Sodom city in the Bible, it was treated as a taboo in the Renaissance of England. There was the necessity to clarify, when people began to realize the social-constructed gender, God would not allow any disorders of sexes or genders to emerge and give a damage to the old social order and peace, just as Shakespeare announced in Twelfth Night that although the “fake” mirror had been put between the twins, the “instinct” gender was still the order managed in the hand of God, no gender troubles would be produced to disturb his people in England.

References:

[1] 威廉·莎士比亚.第十二夜(中英互译)[M].朱生豪,译.南京:译林出版社,2013.

[2] Kenneth Borris. Same-Sex Desires in Renaissance England [M].New York: Routledge,2004.

[3] Bruce R. Smith. Shakespeare and Masculinity[M]. Oxford: Oxford University Press,2008.

[4] Alan Bray. Homosexuality in Renaissance England [M].2nd ed.New York: Columbia University Press,1995.

[5] Terence Hawkes.Alternative Shakespeares Vol.2[C].London and New York: Routledge,2005.

[6] Judith Butler. Gender Trouble[M].London and New York: Routledge,1990.

[7] D. Glover and C. Kaplan. Genders[M].London and New York: Routledge,2000.

作者簡介:周曦(1990-),汉,女,南昌大学在读硕士研究生,英语语言文学专业,研究方向:英美文学。endprint

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