Gender Ambiguity in William Shakespeare’sAs You Like It and TheTwo Gentlemen of Verona

Abstract

InAs You Like ItandTheTwo Gentlemen ofVerona,the heroinesRosalind and Julia disguise as men to become compatible withmen. Both of them are independent-minded andstrong-willedgirls.Rosalindacts as a shepherd to escape from her cruel uncle, Duke Frederick, and to test Orlando’s love for her. In the second play, Julia dresses as a boy and disguises herself as her fiancé’s page, in order to follow her lover, Proteus.This helps them achieve a greater amount of freedom. Although cross-dressing in Shakespeare’s twocomediesmakes the heroines’ gender identity ambiguous: they are both men and women, owning both femininity and masculinity, it helps to deconstruct Renaissance gender stereotypes, the binary opposition of gender, and eventually, patriarchy.