Gender Roles Theme Analysis

Cymbeline demonstrates an awareness that gender roles constrict the options of male and female characters alike. Ancient Rome—and, by extension, Roman Britain—was a patriarchal society. Men had absolute authority over their female family members, even holding over them the power of life and death. In Shakespeare’s time, men still dominated the most powerful positions in society, and they were taught to be warlike, decisive, and bold. Women, on the other hand, were expected to be modest, chaste, and obedient, lacking in agency and self-determination. Shakespeare acknowledges these pervasive gender roles, but also challenges them by showing women subverting socially prescribed behavioral standards, as well as men falling short of masculine ideals.

The play’s male characters scold, manipulate, and malign women, typically cruelly and without sufficient reason. Cymbeline expects his wife and daughter to be obedient to him. He scolds the Queen for going against his orders by allowing Imogen and the banished Posthumus to meet up, and he is angry with Imogen for choosing her own husband. As the Queen and Imogen face the King’s displeasure, Imogen compares her father’s authority to a harsh north wind—“the tyrannous breathing of the north.” Though Posthumus doesn’t wield the same power over women (due to his inferior position to the King), he is quick to blame women for all human faults, explaining that “there’s no motion/ That tends to vice in man but I affirm/ It is the woman’s part.” For his part, Cloten is eager to fight, but he blames his mother’s role as queen for discouraging his fighting partners—no one wants to fight the son of a royal. Women, then, are a convenient scapegoat for a broader problem in Cloten’s life. For Iachimo, women are pawns to be won—he asserts that he could seduce any woman in the world, including Imogen. Women, then, are interchangeable to Iachimo, and he thinks that they are universally susceptible to sexual temptation, alleging that “If you buy ladies’ flesh at a million a dram, you cannot preserve it from tainting.”

Taken all together, the male characters’ perspectives on women demean their agency. Cymbeline hopes for a submissive wife and daughter; Posthumus expects loyalty from women; Cloten is frustrated by the ways he thinks women interfere with his desires; and Iachimo finds women to be instruments in his tricks. In spite of all this, it’s remarkable how much agency the Queen and Imogen manage to attain—and how they go against the stereotypical roles that society dictates for them.

The Queen’s behind-the-scenes manipulation—from the way she deceives Imogen to her insistence that her husband rebel against Rome—shows that she is anything but a meek, modest, obedient wife. She uses her son as a means to obtain power, and maneuvers within a system whose odds are stacked against her. Further, Imogen’s punishment at the beginning of the play for making her own choice in marriage shows that she isn’t confined to the role of faithful daughter. Though the scene in the bed chamber where Iachimo violates the sleeping Imogen’s privacy shows how a man can prey on a vulnerable woman, Imogen is unafraid to speak her mind and take action to repair a situation that others might find hopeless. She openly rejects Cloten, disguises herself as a man to save her life, and tracks down her husband, all of which challenge the sorts of behavior expected of women of her time.

While Shakespeare pushes the boundaries of gender roles for women, he also asks the question of what it means to be a man. Traditional masculine values are upheld throughout a good portion of the play, yet the male characters often fall short of these ideals. When bidding farewell to Imogen, Posthumus chides himself for being on the brink of tears, claiming that crying will make him unmanly. Cloten stakes his manly honor on his ability to fight, obtain power, and secure Imogen’s hand in marriage—but he fails in each task. A repentant Iachimo exclaims that after slandering Imogen’s reputation, he feels a guilt which “takes off my manhood.” None of these men can, according to his own standard, be considered properly masculine. Further, it can be argued that each man fails because of masculine gender standards: Cloten is awful because he seeks the wealth and power that will make him seem a true man, Posthumus falls for Iachimo’s tricks because he is so paranoid about Imogen’s fidelity, and Iachimo pulls his tricks in order to seem more successful at seducing women than he is. So the play not only shows the men as failing to live up to impossible standards of manliness, but seems to suggest that the standards themselves are problematic and destructive.

It’s notable, too, that these men seem to strive above all for strength and honor, though it is the women who most exemplify these traits. The Queen, for example, is quite powerful in the kingdom and her manipulations (both successful and unsuccessful) show that she understands her strength. Imogen—who is faithful and brave—is the play’s most honorable character, despite Shakespeare painting honor as a “male” virtue and Posthumus’ rant about how women are the source of all vice. In fact, when Imogen masquerades as Fidele, Lucius applauds her for her manly virtue, claiming that Fidele has demonstrated loyalty that should teach the Roman troops their “manly duties.” Perhaps, then, since a woman in men’s clothes can obtain masculine ideals, Shakespeare questions the notion of gender roles entirely. As the women characters chafe against society’s restrictions and defy the stereotypical roles available to them, and the men fall away from and scramble back towards masculine ideals, Cymbeline complicates the audience’s understanding of the expectations for “feminine” and “masculine” behavior.