Gender Identity In Shakespeare's As You Like It

William Shakespeare, often thought of as the King of Elizabethan theater and a man with an entire structure of poetry named after him, has had his works closely studied for many years. There are many different people who have looked at his works though many different lenses and looked for many different things, but one thing that keeps popping up in many of his works is a fascination with sexuality and gender. Once people started noticing these themes in his works, it attracted a new kind of Literary Criticism; this one based in the study of Gender and Queer theories. One particular play, As You Like It, uses the confusion of gender identity and how it translates homosexual desire as main themes. As You Like It is a pastoral comedy …show more content…
For example, many people believed women were weak, meek, and mild while men were witty, opinionated, and brave. Rosalind possess many traits considered masculine, and Ganymede allows them to make use of those traits and be themself more freely. This manifests itself in Rosalind’s (and Ganymede’s for that matter) witty, brave, and outspoken personality. In addition to those, they are not at all weak emotionally, as was believed of women of the time, and they are stubborn and prideful. When Celia suggests they disguise themselves as ugly, dirt maids to travel through the woods, Rosalind says “Were it not better because I am more than common tall, That I did suit me all points like a man” suggesting not only how resourceful they are but a certain bravery in …show more content…
Ganymede promises to “cure” Orlando of his love by behaving as though they were Orlando’s Rosalind. This is where Ganymede and Orlando’s homoerotic relationship starts. A desperate man meets a man who claims to be able to cure him of his love for a seemingly unreachable woman, and while this may start as the actions of a desperate man, their relationship evolves from that fairly quickly, to the point where their relationship means so much to Orlando that he doesn’t just send word to Ganymede about what happened the second time they arrange to meet, he sends the man he saved as well as a bloody rag to prove what happened. Ganymede is a Rosalind stand-in at first, however the feelings Orlando harbors for Rosalind slowly transfer to Ganymede. Ganymede does not dress like a woman in any part of the play, especially not to please Orlando. Despite the clearly male personality and appearance of Ganymede Orlando has no trouble calling them Rosalind. This is both a result of and indicative of that transfer of