Masters of Disguise and Language
Evaluates the influence of Homer on Shakespeare centralizing on the use of physical, verbal, and emotional disguises in the characters to impel forward the plot line of the story and enhance themes
Introduction
The six degrees of separation seems to be an excellent analysis for the relationship between Homer and Shakespeare. The theory of six degrees of separation is that everyone is linked to each other by at least six different acquaintances. This theory has been applied to movies to link actors of today with actors of yester-year. Literature can be linked in a similar way. Although literary works may not be linked by writers? acquaintances, the works may be linked through style and ideas. Most literary works of today have borrowed from works that have proceeded them. Homer and Shakespeare may seem to be a comparison of apples and oranges, but ?the text of the ?Odyssey? should be compared with the script of a play, rather than with a novel or a poem designed from the start to be read? (Crane). Homer?s ?Odyssey? comes from an ?oral tradition that developed without the use of writing?(Crane); therefore, it was designed from the beginning to be performed for an audience and not read by an audience. Shakespeare?s plays like Homer?s poetry was designed to be performed by actors and experienced by the audience.
Homer?s works have influenced not only the literary culture that followed him but also the Greek culture. ?No other text in the Western imagination occupy as central a position in the self-definition of Western culture as the two epic poems of Homer, the ?Iliad? and the ?Odyssey?? (Hooker Homer.htm). Although the Greeks did not consider Homer?s poems to be a bible in the sense of religion, they did base much of their culture on the beliefs and history based in the themes of the ?Iliad? and the ?Odyssey?. ?So unlike most ancient cultures which rooted collective identity in religious texts of some sort, the Greeks turned to literature? (Hooker Homer.htm).
Homer?s influence on literature expands from the Italian poet Dante Alighieri through the Irish writer James Joyce (Encarta ?Homer? 4). In the middle of this expansion lies Shakespeare with Homer?s influence centralizing on the use of verbal, physical and emotional disguises. The Odyssey taken in this paper will voyage into Homer and Shakespeare?s use of disguise and language in their characters. The comparison within these pages hopes to bring to light the influence of Homer on Shakespeare centralizing on the use of physical, verbal, and emotional disguises in the characters to impel forward the plot line of the story and enhance the themes that lie within the plot.
Twelfth Night and the ?Odyssey?
The best plot structure is one that can be viewed from the top as thick and from the side as entwined in other words the cause and effect must follow through the story so that without any piece of the story the entire piece of work falls apart. The structure of the ?Odyssey? is ?such a mutual interchange of cause and effect that each book can be understood only in the light of earlier books? (Scott 56). Shakespeare?s plots are structured so that if you were to pull out a piece of the play the entire work would fall apart. In the Twelfth Night, ?every character has his mask, for the assumption of the play is that no one is without a mask in the serio-comic business of the pursuit of happiness? (Palmer 87). The ?Odyssey? and the Twelfth Night use the characters? physical, verbal and emotional disguises to perpetuate the plot line of the poem and the play.
Orsino, the first character that Shakespeare introduces, is masking his true feelings. Orsino seems to fit the character Palmer speaks of when he says, ?the character who thinks it is possible to live without assuming a mask is merely too na?ve to recognize the mask he has already assumed? (Palmer 87). Odysseus could seem to fit Palmer?s character, because throughout the ?Odyssey? Odysseus uses disguises to keep his individuality when in actuality all he truly wants is to keep his fame. ?Odysseus would always be honored for having been the cleverest of the Greeks at Troy, but only when he regains his place as king of Ithaca can he complete his fame as the most resourceful of men, equal to any challenge? (Taylor 88).
First an examination of Odysseus? mask of his emotions as Homer has external forces play on Odysseus' disguises. When Odysseus is feasting with the Phaeacians, he is trying to hide his emotions that appear during the bard?s song.
In time, when hunger and thirst were turned away,
The Muse brought to the minstrel?s mind a song
Of heroes whose great fame rang under heaven:
The clash between Odysseus and Akhilleus,
How one time they contended at the godfeast
Raging, and the marshal, Agamemnon,
Felt inward joy over his captains? quarrel;
[?]
So ran the tale the minstrel sang. Odysseus
With massive hand drew his rich mantle down
Over his brow, cloaking his face with it,
To make the Phaiakians miss the secret tears
That started to his eyes. How skillfully
He dried them when the song came to a pause!
Threw back his mantle, split his gout of wine!
But soon the minstrel plucked his note once more
[?]
Then in his cloak Odysseus wept again.
His tears flowed in the mantle unperceived;
Only Alkinoos, at his elbow, saw them,
And caught the low groan in the man?s breathing.
(Odyssey VIII.76-101)
Odysseus weeps because the song is about him and he cannot claim himself the famed Odysseus the bard sings about. When Odysseus ?split his gout with the wine?, he is showing his warrior side. The swig of the wine is a stereotypical manly form of action. This action is an attempt to cover his emotions. Homer counters the ?splitting of Odysseus? gout of wine? with the ?mantle? collecting the tears that flowed from Odysseus. Odysseus? body language tips off Alkinoos who believes this man must have experienced the Trojan War. Homer is using this minstrel?s song to force Odysseus to reveal his true identity. Odysseus needs to reveal his identity so that the story of his last nine years can be displayed for the audience. The plot of the poem would be difficult to continue if Odysseus did not tell of his adventure, which is one of the main themes of the poem, the wanderings of Odysseus.
Now an examination of the first part of Orsino?s speech in 1.1 of the Twelfth Night which shows love as something to be given in ?excess? in order to ?sicken the appetite? and let it ?die? (Downer TN1.1.2-3). Orsino wants to be flooded with love so that he wants it no more. Shakespeare ends this disguise of feeling with a couplet after which he reveals that Orsino is in love with love itself. ?So full of shapes is fancy that it alone is high fantastical? (TN1.1.14-15). Orsino is saying that love (fancy) has many sides (shapes) but the idea of being in love (it alone) gives a person a wonderful feeling (high fantastical). When Orsino speaks of his love for Olivia it is not external but internal in that the hunt for love exists inside his own body. ?That instant was I turned into a hart, and my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, e?er since pursue me? (TN1.4.20-22). The play on the word ?hart? as Bevington says is alluding to the story of Ovid where he is turned into a deer and killed by his own hounds. The heart of Orsino has turned upside down in pursuit of the idea of love not the actual tangible love between two people. The pursuit of Olivia?s love is what Orsino is infatuated with not Olivia. Orsino?s mask is his true self and what he loves. The mask helps move the plot to its final renaissance comedy end of marriage by adding inner conflict which opens the door for Orsino to find his true love Viola. If the conflict was external, Viola verses Olivia, than the end would be a tragic one where one of the women would have to lose. By making the masked conflict internal, Shakespeare allows external facts to resolve the problem.
Where Homer uses body language to reveal Odysseus? emotions, Shakespeare uses verbal language to reveal Orsino?s physical attraction to Cesario (Viola) and enhance the comic plot of Twelfth Night. Orsino compares Cesario?s lips to ?Diana?s lips that are not as smooth and rubious? (TN1.4.31) as Cesario?s. To Orsino?s ear, Cesario?s ?small pipe is as the maiden?s organ, shrill and sound? (TN1.4.32). Orsino says, ?all of Cesario resembles a woman?s parts? (TN1.4.34). Orsino is saying that Cesario?s youth would be looked upon more favorably by Olivia than his own age. Orsino thinks that if the feminine man conveyed his words of woe, Olivia would fall in love with the words and ultimately him. The ironic comedy is that the words Orsino uses actually reveal his true affections for Cesario (Viola). Orsino?s emotional conflict is that he finds a young boy attractive and interesting enough to derail his own mask of being in love with love in 2.4. In this scene, Shakespeare gives Orsino two masks. The first mask, Orsino?s attraction to Cesario, is portrayed in the language Shakespeare chooses for Orsino to say. The second mask is Orsino hiding behind Cesario?s youth to woe Olivia. The plot for the characters of Twelfth Night thickens with each disguise of feeling, language and gender. The comedy for the audience is enhanced by their knowledge of the disguises.
Homer?s audience revels in his tale of Odysseus because of their knowledge of the Trojan War. The element of gender disguise in the ?Odyssey? does not enhance the audience?s perception of the poem but enhances the intrigue of the story. Homer uses the idea of gender disguise with Athena. Athena comes to Telemachus as a man in order to enter his world and help advise him of what to do about the suitors. The disguise of Athena helps reveal the revenge theme of the ?Odyssey? with Athena?s words ?what a swift doom would befall the suitors if Odysseus were to appear now? with helmet, shield and spears, as Mentes once saw him long ago!? (Nelson 115-116)
Athena provides more than a gender disguise for the poem, she also aids Odysseus with his disguises. In book VI of the ?Odyssey?, ?Athena lent a hand, making him seem / taller, and massive too, with crisping hair? (Odyssey VI.241-242). Athena?s help with Odysseus? appearance made him more presentable for the Phaeacians. Some critics have said that the Chthonian powers are absent from the poem. Athena?s help shows that the ?Chthonian powers are not so much absent from the ?Odyssey? as they are subdued or brought into Odysseus? service by the hero?s extraordinary feats of will and intelligence? (Taylor 94). Athena may have helped to clean up Odysseus but his gentlemanly demeanor can be attributed to his self-discipline and ability to adapt to any situation.
Although the gender disguise element that Shakespeare uses differs from Homer?s, it is the best comic disguise of Twelfth Night that revolves around Viola?s Cesario. The renaissance audience knows that Viola is a boy playing a girl playing a boy. This element of the comedy dabbles with the disguise of disguise. Disguised gender propels the comic plot and increases the conflicts that need untangled in the end. With the mask of a man, Viola creates an emotional conflict for Orsino, Olivia, and herself. Shakespeare sums up the entire plot of disguise in Viola?s soliloquy:
My master loves her dearly,
And I, poor monster, fond as much on him;
And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.
As I am man, My state is desperate for my master?s love;
As I am woman?now, alas the day. (TN2.2.33-38)
When Viola puts her heart and soul into the clich?s:
Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my soul within the house;
Write loyal cantons of contemned love
And sing them loud even in the dead of night;
Halloo your name to the reverberate hills
And make the babbling gossip of the sir
Cry out ?Olivia!? O, you should not rest
Between the elements of air and earth,
But you should pity me! (TN 1.5.249-254)
Olivia falls for Viola?s emotional reflection of love for Orsino. Falling in love with the messenger and not the message, Olivia finds herself in conflict with her veil of grieving for her brother for seven years. The conflict is shown in the melancholy description Olivia gives to the ?plague? (love) (TN1.5.290) that has ?crept in through her eyes? (Viola?s physical appearance) (TN1.5.293). The plot points of Twelfth Night depend mainly on this external disguise of gender. Without Viola playing a man, the characters of the play could never truly have complexity. The complexities of the characters add to the comic plot. Remove Viola?s disguise and Orsino would have immediately stopped his pursuit of Olivia. If Orsino stopped his pursuit, Olivia would not have met Cesario/Viola and later mistaken Sebastian for the man she loves. The mistake is part of the unraveling of the conflicts that would not be present without the disguise of Viola. The entire comedy would have fallen apart.
Physical disguise is used throughout the ?Odyssey? but one great disguise lies in Odysseus use of language with the Cyclops. In book IX, Odysseus is faced with a man eating Cyclops. He tricks the beast to drink wine that makes the beast fall into a deep sleep. After the Cyclops is in a deep sleep, Odysseus puts out the beast?s eye. The Cyclops proposed a gift if Odysseus would tell him his name. To this request Odysseus replied:
Kyklops,
You ask my honorable name? Remember
The gift you promised me, and I shall tell you.
My name is Nohbody: mother, father, and friends,
Everyone calls me Nohbdy.
(Odyssey IX.380-384)
The use of the word ?Nobody? has many meanings for the poem and Odysseus. First for Odysseus he is nobody until he returns to Ithaca. Second the use of ?Nobody? aids Odysseus and his men in their escape from the Cyclops. If they had not escaped, the poem would have had to end with their death. Odysseus proud would win out with the Cyclops for he ended up revealing his true name that enabled Polyphemus to call Poseidon his father to avenge the trickery. Now Odysseus had a new enemy. This new enemy, Poseidon, continues the theme, the wanderings of Odysseus. Poseidon also gives depth to the revenge theme of the Odysseus because it is a mini episode of revenge compared with the main revenge that occurs near the end of the poem dealing with the death of the suitors. Although Odysseus loses his identity for a few disguises they are only ?temporary sacrifices of his identity for the present in the interest of establishing it beyond compare for the future? (Taylor 88). The future of Odysseus is to be the most honored man of self-discipline and intelligence. Odysseus maybe nobody at the time with the Cyclops but by having him reveal his name Homer shows that Odysseus won?t be nobody for long. The Cyclops episode can be viewed as a prediction for the episode with the suitors for they think him nobody but a beggar. The suitors lose in the end because Odysseus can never truly be ?nobody? now that he has returned to Ithaca. The disguise of language reveals the true identity of Odysseus just as Viola?s language reveals who she is also.
Shakespeare not only gives Viola an outer disguise, but he also aids his plot by disguising Viola?s language. Viola reveals her true hidden feelings for Orsino through her story of her sister in 2.4. Shakespeare shows two plot points in the following quotation:
I am all the daughters of my father?s house,
And all the brothers too?and yet I know not. (TN2.4.20-21)
The first point is that Viola is ?all the daughters of her father?s house? which means she is the sister of the story. Viola is using the story to mirror her love for Orsino. The second point is ?all the brothers too? which is referring to Sebastian the lost brother that will arrive later and untangle the disguise of mistaken gender. These few verbal statements continue the plot of the story and enlighten the audience to how everything will be resolved in the end.
Homer?s influence on Shakespeare does not end with the Twelfth Night. The Homeric influence can be seen in many of Shakespeare?s plays from Henry VI to The Merchant of Venice.
Homer?s influence on other Shakespeare Plays
Shakespeare?s productivity coincided in time with the translation of Chapman, a translation with which the poet was familiar, as is shown by the introduction into the story of Troilus and Cressida of the character of the common reviler, Thersites, since that figure is not found either in Chaucer or in the medieval romance. Added proof that Shakespeare was familiar with the story of the ?Iliad? is found in the manner by which Achilles is called back into action, since Shakespeare follows the Homeric account that is was the death of Patroclus which made Achilles forego his anger, while in the other version he returned because of the exploits of Troilus. (Scott 133)
An outline of the tenth book of the ?Iliad? is found in the words of Warwick:
Our scouts have found the adventure very easy,
That as Ulysses and stout Diomede
With sleight and manhood stole to Rhesus? tents
And brought from thence the Thracian fatal steeds.
(Henry VI, Part III, IV, 2.) (Scott 133)
Theobald gives an example of Homer?s influence on the play King Richard III. Theobald is referring to the line where Clarence speaks of beating the breast as a sign of grief. ?Homer describes the female captives as thus behaving when the news reaches Achilles of the death of Patrochus? (Theobald 50).
Loud was the wailing of the female band,
Achilles and Patrochus prize of war,
As round Achilles, rushing out of doors,
?Beating their breasts,? with tottering limbs they pressed.
(Theobald 51)
Another example given by Theobald is in The Tempest when Iris says:
Thy pole-clipt vineyard.
?This is a poetic reflection of Homer?s description of a vineyard surrounded by a ditch encompassed by a fence, that is, pole-clipt (Theobald 52) ?Around, a darksome trench; beyond, a fence was wrought,? (Iliad XVIII.564)
Symbolic language appears in the ?Odyssey? with the use of the word ?nobody?. For Odysseus, it symbolizes that he is nobody until he returns home to Ithaca and takes his rightful place on the throne. For the Cyclops, it symbolizes his ignorance in language. For the poem itself, it symbolizes the theme of identity being tied up in the name of Odysseus, giver and receiver of pain. Shakespeare uses symbolic language in The Merchant of Venice.
Portia is the greatest example of Shakespeare?s symbolic language. Portia?s freedom to choose a husband is restrained by her father?s last will and testament. Chance by a man?s choice of the portrait-bearing casket will determine Portia?s mate for life. Since her father is dead, Portia must show her independence through disguised intellectually symbolic language. She utilizes this language to misguide unwanted suitors in their choices of a casket. She also uses this language to guide Bassanio to the correct choice. Using surface appearance words, Portia misguides Morocco to choose the superficial appearance of the casket of gold. The reference to ?eyes in 2.1.14 symbolizes a tangible outer appearance that can be seen. She combines the adjective ?fair? just four lines later to allude to the outer beauty one can see with the eyes. Portia?s intelligence in the application of suggested meaning has her still adhering to her father?s will, yet succeeding in freedom of choice by manipulation. The second suitor Portia manipulates with her language is Aragon. Portia plays off the inscription on the silver casket by using a method today called reverse psychology. Aragon plays on Portia?s statement, ?my worthless self? (2.9.18), with his interpretation of her merit: not boosting of her exterior beauty. Aragon feels he justly deserves both Portia?s beauty and nobility; he considers himself to have the same qualities. Once again Portia defeats another suitor and infringement on her right to choose a husband. This accomplishment happens again because of her sly use of language.
Theobald sums things up perfectly when he says:
?If we accept unchallenged the bold and unsupported assertion that Shakespeare wrote these dramatic works exclusively by the light of his own genius, what is effect does this claim amount to, but that Shakespeare did what no writer since Homer?s time has done; that is to say, emancipated himself from that law which pervades literature no less than art, known as ?Morphology,? which may be explained as the law regulating the relationship of every work of nature, literature or art, with the works of a similar character which have preceded it? (Theobald 22).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Clarke, Howard W. (Ed.) (1983). Twentieth Century Interpretations of the Odyssey: A Collection
Of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-hall, inc. A Spectrum Book.
Downer, Alan S. (Ed.). (1958). William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night and Othello. New York:
Rinehart & Co., Inc.
Nelson, Conny (Ed.) (1969). Homer?s Odyssey: A Critical Handbook. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Publishing Company, inc.
Palmer, D. J. (Ed.). (1972). Shakespeare Twelfth Night A Casebook. Great Britain: The
Anchor Press LTD
Scott, John A. (1963). Homer and His Influence. New York: Cooper Square Publishers LTD
Taylor, Jr., Charles H. (Ed.) (1969). Essays on the Odyssey: Selected Modern Criticism. US:
Indiana University Press.
Theobald, William. (1909). The Classical Element in the Shakespeare Plays. London:
Robert Banks & Son, Racquet Court, Fleet Street, E.C.
Wilson, John Dover. (Ed.). (1958). The Merchant of Venice. Great Britain: University Press
Cambridge.
Other Sources
Encarta Encyclopedia 99. (1993-1998). (Computer Program). Redwood, WA: Microsoft
Corporation.
Crane, Gregory. (Ed.). ?Homer?. The Perseus Project. Tufts U.
Hooker, Richard. ?Bureaucrats and Barbarians the Greek Dark Ages?. Washington State
University. 1996 Updated 6-6-1999
