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Gerard O’Brien
Introduction to English I
Dr. James Ward
Thursday, 10 am.
a. How central are issues of gender and sexuality to an understanding of
literary texts?
In this essay I hope to show the importance of reading gender and sexuality in
the interpretation and understanding of literary texts.
The reading of gender
and sexuality can often pose a problem, as, unless explicitly stated or
demonstrated otherwise, we often assume what Judith Butler describes as
‘the heterosexual presumption’; that is we read male characters as intrinsically
‘masculine’, female characters as intrinsically ‘feminine’, and all characters as
‘heterosexual’ as prescribed by the society we live in. We are often so used
to societal gender norms that it may not even occur to us that there are a
variety of ways of interpreting a character and their relationship and
importance within a literary text.
Gender and sexuality are most commonly used by characters in
literature to exert power and control over other characters – most commonly
male characters over female characters, although occasionally characters of
the same sex will be described in terms of the ‘other’ gender, usually to
demonstrate that they are somehow flawed or perverse. As language is not
gender-neutral, a character with masculine traits will often be seen to
dominate or to desire domination over those they perceive to be feminine. A
similar use is reserved for sexuality in literature: it is used by characters to
assert their superiority, as Judith Butler writes: ‘homophobia often operates
through the attribution of a damaged, failed, or otherwise abject gender to
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homosexuals,’ to be labelled as ‘homosexual’ is an indication that one
character believes another to be somehow lacking an essential part of what
makes them a man or a woman.
A perfect example of literary texts with central issues of gender and
sexuality are Shakespeare’s plays. At the time Shakespeare wrote his plays,
men and women had clearly defined gender roles (perhaps even moreso than
today’s) – to be a man was to be strong, bold, decisive and authoritative; to be
a woman was to be subservient, quiet and meek: in effect to be the
possessions of their husbands or fathers. If we look closely at his plays,
however, we begin to notice that Shakespeare’s characters do not always live
up to these exaggerated paradigms of masculinity and femininity (indeed, it
seems to be that they more often contradict them than reinforce them). A
recurring motif in Shakespeare is the reversing of traditional gender roles,
where the male hero is manipulated or controlled by a central female
character, or group of female characters:, in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth calls to
evil spirits to ‘unsex’ her; she sees the need to remove her femininity to
ensure she can carry out what must be done. Conversely, she appeals to
Macbeth’s manhood (or lack of it) when he shows hesitation over the planned
murder of Duncan, naming him ‘coward in thine own esteem,’ suggesting he
is not a man now that he balks at the deed, but ‘when you durst do it, then you
were a man.’ At the appearance of Banquo’s ghost, she again challenges
Macbeth’s masculinity, asking ‘Are you a man?’ suggesting his apparent
madness is not in keeping with her idea of manliness.
In King Lear, Regan, Goneril and to an extent, Cordelia, switch
between masculine and feminine behaviour as the play progresses (although
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Cordelia’s progression through the spectrum appears to be the polar opposite
of her sisters’).
Regan’s and Goneril’s speeches to their father at the
beginning of the play paint them as the essentialist feminine ideal: they idolise
and are obedient to their father (or at least, they claim to be), whilst their
treatment of their husbands subscribes to a reversed form of the heterosexual
presumption – they clearly wield all the power in their relationships. Similarly,
their rivalry over Edmond is distinctly un-feminine in the terms of the time –
they both actively pursue him, in contradiction to the social norm of the time.
Cordelia’s case is slightly different, however. At the beginning of the play she
does not reject her father’s love outright, saying: ‘That lord whose hand must
take my plight shall carry / Half my love with him, half my care and duty,” in
keeping with the idea of a woman being the property of her husband or her
father. Her refusal to bend to Lear’s will, however, is distinctly un-feminine, as
the Elizabethans would have understood the concept of femininity. Her utter
devotion to Lear at the end of the play, however, sees a return to the
essentialist view of femininity.
At this point I feel it should be noted that, although Shakespeare was
capable of writing characters outside the binary concept of all-masculine male
characters and all-feminine female characters, the problems in these
tragedies seem to stem from the ‘unnatural’ masculine behaviour of female
characters. It can, of course, be argued that the perceived gender of the
protagonists in these plays is coincidental at best, immaterial at worst. After
all, the most obvious reading of both Macbeth and King Lear are as
indictments of pride and the perils of interfering with the divine right of kings –
notions of masculinity or femininity are secondary to the plot. Othello, on the
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other hand, does not have such an obvious reading; each character’s motives
are as confused as Othello himself. It is undeniable that the play primarily
focuses on ‘otherness’, but what this otherness is is disputable. Although it is
tempting to assume that the motivating factor driving each character is simply
Othello’s ethnicity, it is not absurd (nor is it incompatible) with a reading of the
play as being driven by sexual- and gender-based interaction. In contrast to
Macbeth and King Lear, the language in Othello is often overtly sexual,
suggesting that sexuality is more central to the interpretation of the play than
in Shakespeare’s other tragedies.
Iago’s preoccupation with sex, for
example, is obvious, but who is the object of his desire?
Desdemona?
Cassio? Othello himself? Does Iago’s sexuality have any part to play in his
destruction of Othello, or is his obsession with the sexual act simply
secondary to his hatred of ‘the Moor’ for the reason of race alone? The other
characters in the play can also be interpreted through the lenses of sexuality
and gender, although none are as ambiguous as Iago. Othello’s susceptibility
to suggestion when it comes to Desdemona’s behaviour is perhaps indicative
of feelings of inferiority, or a sign that he is sexually inexperienced.
Desdemona’s championing of Cassio’s cause may be, as Honigmann’s
introduction
to
the
Arden
edition
of
the
play
suggests,
‘sexually
uncomplicated,’ Desdemona ‘as unaware as a child,’ or perhaps her naïveté
is simply a front, perhaps she does harbour feelings for him; after all, she is
closer to Cassio in terms of age and standing within Venetian society, and he,
for the least part, seems to worship her. Each of these scenarios lends a
different dimension to the play, and to the ways in which the characters
interact.
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Moving from classic texts to a contemporary one, Hanif Kureshi’s
screenplay My Beautiful Laundrette shows us that gender and sexuality still
have an important part to play in the interpretation of modern literature. Like
Othello, Laundrette deals with both sexuality and race, but they differ in that
both the action and the language in Laundrette are more overtly sexual.
Sexual language is used by all the characters in Laundrette to assert
dominance, however, unlike Othello, gender and sexuality are not the
exclusive preserve of the characters, but can also be applied to countries and
societies. Sex is interpreted in a number of different ways by the characters
in the screenplay. When Nasser talks about England, he seems to see it as
a prostitute, ‘all spread out and available…you just need to know how to
squeeze the tits of the system.’
This analogy clearly places Nasser in a
position of power, simply taking what he wants while going through the
motions to keep the system docile. His attitude towards women in general
seems to reflect this, as his infidelity to his wife shows that he is really only
after one thing. The characters often use sexual language to send a negative
message: Nasser says of Pakistan: ‘that country has been sodomized by
religion;’ Salim tells Omar not to ‘fuck’ his uncle’s business and accuses him
of trying to ‘bugger’ him up – all violent sexual terms, used by the characters
to describe something that’s broken or destroyed. The younger characters
seem to see sex as a tool for positive outcomes, in some way reclaiming the
debased sexual act for good: Johnny seems to use it to right past wrongs
committed against Omar and his father; Omar replies to Salim’s threat that ‘in
my humble opinion, much good can come of fucking;’ Tania bares her breasts
to Omar as a way of fighting their elders’ conservative ideals.
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In order to use gender and sexuality as tools for interpreting a text,
we have to realise that essentialist notions of gender and sexuality are
absurd. They are not simply how we act, as defined by male and female, but
actions we perform as defined by our personal beliefs. It is important to use
literature as a tool to challenge these hyperbolic performances of male and
female, as a non-essentialist readings of texts often show that the essentialist
view leads to unequal treatment of the ‘feminine’ by the ‘masculine’. The
myth of woman, all-pervasive for thousands of years, is only now being
broken down, partially thanks to non-essentialist literature.
Besides the
issues of gender equality, issues of gender and sexuality are central to the
interpretation of a text as it is also impossible to fully understand a text without
considering the gender roles in society at the time it was written. Taken out of
the context of issues contemporary to the time it was written, even the
greatest works of literature would be completely useless.
Kureshi, Hanif. My Beautiful Laundrette. Faber&Faber, 2000
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. S.Wells & G.Taylor. London: Oxford UP, 1987
Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. A.J.Honnigmann. Arden Shakespeare, 2004
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. S.Wells & G.Taylor. London: Oxford UP, 1987
Butler, Judith. ‘Bodies that Matter’. Modern Literary Theory. Ed. P.Rice et al. London: Oxford UP, 2001
Honnigmann, A.J. ‘Introduction to Othello’. Othello. Ed. A.J.Honnigmann. Arden Shakespeare, 2004