For instance, at times, Olivia seems to be attracted to Cesario because "he" is such a womanly-looking man, while Orsino at the end of the play seems as attracted to Cesario as he is to Viola. Twelfth Night also shows how gender-switches make the characters' sexual identities unstable. Even more radically than this, however, it also suggests that gender is something you can influence, based on how you act, rather than something that you are, based on the sexual organs you were born with. The play features many pranks, disguises, and mistaken identities as it tells the tale of the separated and shipwrecked twins Viola and. The play stresses the potential ambiguity of gender: there are many instances in which characters refer to Cesario as an effeminate man. Twelfth Night is a five-act comedy by William Shakespeare. Orsino thinks he wants Olivia, until he falls in love with Viola (dressed as Cesario. Several characters begin the play believing they want one thing, only to have love teach them they actually want something else. On a more serious note, however, Viola's transformation into Cesario, and Olivia's impossible love for him/her, also imply that, maybe, distinctions between male/female and heterosexual/homosexual are not as absolutely firm as you might think. Twelfth Night is a play about desire’s power to override conventions of class, religion, and even gender. That Viola has disguised herself as a man, and that her disguise fools Olivia into falling in love with her, is genuinely funny. In connection with the themes of deception, disguise, and performance, Twelfth Night raises questions about the nature of gender and sexual identity.
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