Shakespeare’s Women under Mask: A Feminist Study

Abstract

The use of disguise is an old technique used in literature even from the time of Homer. It has been prominently used by Elizabethans during Renaissance. One among such Elizabethans, who has skilfully handled this technique in his plays, is William Shakespeare. Of his thirty- seven surviving plays, about one fourth involves cross-dressing. Shakespeare makes the disguises of his characters for several reasons.  All the disguises, Shakespeare used, do not have the aim of hiding gender identity. Many of his male characters guise themselves as some other male characters. For example, The Duke comes in the guise of a Friar in Measure for Measure. Only two of his male characters like clown Falstaff come in women robes only to entertain the audience. But the method of disguise becomes more reasonable and vital when his heroines like Rosalind, Portia, Viola, Imogen and other women characters hide their gender identity by disguising.  This paper is to view their disguises with feminist spectacles and to question the necessity of their male masks.