PSYCHOLOGY OF INFATUATION

As a professional Product Owner with an English Lit background, literature has always been my passion and I can’t stand writing. And needless to say, I have been always in love with Shakespeare and his wit. Other than professional writings, I also wanted share one of my critics on Shakespeare’s delightful play “Twelfth Night” after seeing the play at Harbiye Cemil Topuzlu recently. Hope you enjoy reading.

My ultimate purpose in this post is to draw your attention to the fact that how disguises in the Twelfth Night operate as a means of revelation of unconscious mind and how Sigmund Freud’s theory regarding the period of sexual latency perfectly provides a base for Shakespeare’s play with gender roles through cross-gender disguises.

It is a known fact that Shakespeare is always playing with gender roles by disguising his characters. To me, the most obvious example to that situation is Twelfth Night. Characters, more specifically Olivia and Orsino are taken in by physical appearances and reveal their unconscious about their gender performances. I would like to start with Viola’s first encounter with Olivia in the disguise of Cesario, a male. This scene is crucial to our understanding of their revelation of unconscious. Even though s/he is sent to Olivia by Orsino to owe Orsino’s love for Olivia, s/he rarely speaks for Orsino and when we have a close glance at the speech given by Viola we can sense that speech is about Viola’s perception of Olivia and Viola’s emotions. To illustrate, her first speech goes like: “Most radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty, — I pray you, tell me if this be the lady of the house, for I never saw her: I would be loath to cast away my speech, for besides that it is excellently well penned, I have taken great pains to con it. Good beauties, let me sustain no scorn; I am very comptible, even to the least sinister usage” (1.5.181–188). What has attracted my attention is Viola’s addressing to Olivia as “Most radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty” because s/he is speaking for herself even if s/he is in disguise of a male. Other thing that is worth to note is Viola’s deviation from her goal. Later in the same scene, Viola does not even talk about Orsino. For instance, Viola says that “Good madam, let me see your face” (1.5.247). In return Olivia says that “Have you any commission from your lord to negotiate with my face? You are now out of your text: but we will draw the curtain and show you the picture. Look you, sir, such a one I was this present: is’t not well done?” (1.5.248–52). Afterward, Viola claims that “Excellently done, if God did all” (1.5.253). To me, it is very weird way to vow for love in the name of someone else. Here, Viola is supposed to declare Orsino’s love for Olivia; however, it is obvious that s/he is becoming off topic and shows her own astonishment in the presence of Olivia’s beauty. It is obvious that Viola as a female finds a kind of freedom to express her admiration and emotion for another female in a sexual context, which is out of socially ascribed gender roles.

Having said that, I would like to touch upon Sigmund Freud’s theory about sexuality to be able to interpret the fact that their unconscious as a way to experience their choice of gender performance affirms gender construction’s presence. Viola praises Olivia’s beauty because she is in male costumes and performs her unconscious. Olivia falls in love with Viola because she thinks Viola is a man even though the things that make Olivia fall in love are essential to Viola’s female self. If they knew their true identities, they would avoid to praise and to fall in love. Freud’s suggestion about sexual inhibition would help readers to make sense out of that situation: “It is during this period of total or only partial latency that are built up the mental forces which are later to impede the course of sexual instinct and, like dams, restrict its flow — disgust, feelings of shame and the claims of aesthetic and moral ideals” (Freud 43). Before talking about that notion in depth, I would like to talk about Lacan’s theory in relation to Freud’s assertion about shame and moral ideals. Similar to Freud, Lacan also talks about the formation of social laws and norms. They fall under the Symbolic Stage category in the world of language and children do not have any sense about those ideals. Children have fragmented notion of “I” and they do not have any constraints in terms of social ideals. In that sense, Freud’s claim complements Lacan’s theory as a result. When children inhibit their sexual instincts they start to constitute disgust, shame and ideals in the Symbolic Realm. To me, the fact that sexual inhibition causes disgust, shame and formation of moral ideals by restricting sexual instinct goes hand in hand with the constructivism of gender roles that imposes shame and moral ideals on individuals. One of the perfect illustrations comes from the scene in which “true” identities come out. After Viola confesses her sex to the others and her love to Orsino, Orsino says that “Give me thy hand; And let me see thee in thy woman’s weeds” (5.1.279–80). For me, his request is kind of odd because Viola has been around him for four acts as Cesario and he has never thought about infatuation with her as Cesario disregarding her essence as male. Now, after figuring out that he is actually a “she”, Orsino thinks about marrying her. What supports Freud’s shame and moral ideals theory is the very fact that Orsino is still obsessed with the male clothes. He wants Viola to change her clothes with female ones. His moral ideals are already constructed and he cannot deny them and tries to avoid social stigma that he will may possibly experience as a shame in the society by trying to control her clothes. However, he just discovered Viola’s true identity and his previous expose to Cesario as a male is what actually makes him want to marry Viola — Cesario. Oh Shakespeare, what a genius you are!

I desire to end my work with another proof for constructed moral sense and gender roles that summarizes what I have pointed out so far. It comes from Sebastian’s mouth: “So comes it, lady, you have been mistook: / But nature to her bias drew in that. / You would have been contracted to a maid; / Nor are you therein, by my life, deceived, / You are betroth’d both to a maid and man” (5.1.266–70). His claim here is the resolution point. Both Orsino and Olivia are biased against the Viola’s essential identity because of gender construction. Orsino would not love Cesario because that kind of love is out of moral ideals of society and causes shame. Similarly, Olivia could not love Viola but can love Cesario even if she is the same person, and lastly Viola as Viola could not praise Olivia’s beauty but she can do so as Cesario. Shakespeare uses disguise to disrupt the symbolic order of gender roles that ultimately enables characters to reveal their unconscious by crossing gender roles.