Twelfth Night Group

Question:

sarahmt
sarahmt
Student
College - Sophomore

Why does Viola decide to cut her hair and dress like a man?

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Posted by sarahmt on Wednesday February 28, 2007 at 10:47 AM and tagged with twelfth night, viola.

Answers:


  1. gbeatty Teacher
    College - Freshman

    eNotes Editor

    Viola cuts her hair and disguises herself as Cessario in order to serve Duke Orsinio. She first wanted to serve Olivia (due to how the story of love moved her [Viola]), but entered Orsinio's service to be involved in the love affair somehow.

    Of course, if we look at this from the outside, she dressed like a man in order to set up the comedy that follows (and some women alone in foreign lands have disguised themselves to protect their virtue).

    Greg

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    Posted by gbeatty on Wednesday February 28, 2007 at 11:12 AM


  2. janeyb

    eNotes Editor

    Viola cuts her hair and dresses like a man so that she can work for the Duke. Although the Duke originally dislikes Viola's outfit, he then hires her as a page to woo Olivia. Viola decides to go by the name of Cesario

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/twelfth/34639

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    Posted by janeyb on Wednesday February 28, 2007 at 11:15 AM

  3. antant20
    antant20 Student
    High School - 9th Grade

    So she has a place to stay and a job

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    Posted by antant20 on Saturday March 3, 2007 at 10:53 AM

  4. klair
    klair Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Society was dominated by men and the only position available in the Duke's household was that of a manservant to the Duke. A woman certainly could not have held that position so she was required to pretend to be a man. The irony is that men were playing the roles in Shakespeare's plays so there would have been a man pretending to be a woman who is pretending to be a man. "She" would have been trying to exist in a male-dominated world much like that of England in the 16th and 17th centuries where women were merely trophies and ordered to do things by fathers, husbands, or the royals. Women were not expected to provide for themselves. Viola then has to cut her hair to fit into the male world to survive.

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    Posted by klair on Sunday March 18, 2007 at 3:31 PM