Today, however, Twelfth Night is one of the most popular and beloved of Shakespeare comedies perhaps because of its rebellious portrayal of gender ambiguity. Theater critics argued that cross-dressing was sinful, "wicked," and "monstrous." They argued that it promoted sexual "deviance" and turned women into hermaphrodites. Viola's cross-dressing may be no big moral whoop for audiences today, but, for 16th century Puritans, it was a big no-no. The story line has inspired plenty of remakes and adaptations, including the popular teen flick She's the Man, starring Amanda Bynes.
Twelfth Night is particularly provocative and interesting, since the role of its heroine, Viola, would have been played by a boy actor, who was cross-dressed as a female character, who cross-dresses as a boy. In Elizabethan London, all stage plays were performed by male actors who cross-dressed in order to play the parts of women. Written between 16 (right around the same time Shakespeare wrote Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida), the play is most famous today for being a so-called "Transvestite Comedy" (which just means it's a comedy with one or more cross-dressing characters).
Links in this section are to pages on the websites of the Internet Shakespeare Editions, Digital Renaissance Editions, Queen's Men Editions and Shakespeare in/au Québec. Twelfth Night, Fo(Old-spelling transcription).
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