Women projected by men

In Act 2, Scene 2, we see Viola, who at the time is still disguised as a man, professing her worries about Olivia’s mistaken affections for her. In this long speech, we hear Viola, a woman, proclaiming how foolish women are and that it’s all their fault that they fall in love because they’re just too impressionable. However, these lines are interesting because Shakespeare is projecting to his audience how women feel about and see themselves, yet no women have been taken into account on this matter. Shakespeare, a man, wrote the play and Viola is being played by a man dressed as a woman. So Shakespeare is enforcing a certain set of ideas about women from the standpoint of men onto both men and women in this audience, therefore creating/reinforcing stereotypes within real society from a fictional story. This isn’t incredibly different from what we see the media today doing towards audiences.

In addition, Viola as a female only gains recognition and authority from the other characters because she is dressed like a man, and therefore gains more respect. Olivia, by contrast, throws away her own future because of the death of her brother and this is supposed to be seen as some sort of noble act. She’s seen as an object to obtain and her whole plot line revolves around love, whether it be because someone loves her or she loves someone else.