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영어

This study on Twelfth Night analyzes a woman disguised as a man who suggests an ideal human type in Shakespearean terms. Shakespeare presents Viola, an androgynous vision of the potential, to achieve unity, wholeness, and harmony within the confines of a human being. Viola, in disguise as a man and under androgynous conditions, tries to solve her problems as a man and a woman that are associated with her social relationship. This process reveals that gender differentiation between female and male is social, psychological, and cultural. In Twelfth Night, Viola acts more like a man than an ordinary man and her masculine potential does not fall behind her twin brother Sebastian's. Viola becomes a perfect man, inwardly and outwardly, combining harmonious feminine merits—wit, care, sympathy for others—with masculine ones including courage and self-confidence. And she finally succeeds in winning Olivia's love. Moreover, in the last act, she solves all the problems by uncovering her disguises and recovers her original gender. Disguise, in this respect, is the means both to develop masculine merits and to reveal ideal feminine personalities not just by imitating man's behaviors. This disguise serves as a sure means to her end to be a better human than she was. With both sexes within herself she can be Viola and Sebastian, or a woman and a man at the same time. In the process, Shakespeare makes it clear that a woman with bisexuality can overcome women's traditional role and have balanced personalities, and that her androgyny is not meant for the physical but for inner qualities.