Alex Bussell
3/1/10
Lit Shakespeare
Brad Bleck

The Perception of Gender in Shakespeare

Regula Hohl Trillini’s article titled “The Gaze of the Listener: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 128 and Early Modern Discourses of Music and Gender” is a thought provoking look into some of the phrases and wordings pertaining to music and gender in Sonnet 128 as well as an interesting breakdown of cultural gender norms of Elizabethan England. Trillini asserts that Sonnet 128 is “largely disregarded” and is a rich study of “women’s music-making in the early modern period.” One of the focal subjects of this article is the virginals; an early piano which Trillini explains has a similar gendered connotation as the modern piano.
The article starts with an explanation of the English tradition of judging music very emotionally, with almost all the descriptive language relating to feeling or mood. Because of this, the effect musical performance had on people was a popular topic for many English poets of the time. Music was thought to be capable of both good and bad effects on people. Often though, the line drawn between the dual natures of music was a gendered one and it is this aspect that Trillini explores in her essay. There is an extra emphasis on the performance aspect of music, especially when talking about the gendered aspects of it. Rather than further paraphrasing long standing traditions of feminizing music, Trillini sheds some light on early “normative texts on male performance as a complementary mirror of the same anxieties and contradictions” that show up in many texts on female performance. Men were more expected to be an “expert observer” when it came to music, more than an actual performer. The position of performer was an inferior one, to be the entertainment or general provider of pleasure. The relationship of the player/observer at this time displays perfectly the gender relations of a patriarchal system.
Though men were not encouraged to play music very much, it was a regular practice for women to perform and learn music for the purpose of courtship. The virginals were a common instrument learned by women for this purpose. Often more than just a practice, being able to play music was a social requirement of being eligible for courtship. Its effectiveness could be attributed to straightforward erotic appeal but was often a status symbol as well. A woman that was skilled with the virginals showed that not only was she gifted, but also that she came from a wealthy enough background to afford training. With this said, Trillini brings up that music was played by women not for enjoyment but solely to “play their part in the mating ritual.” This point is further illustrated in that for acceptable courtship, music could be attractive, but female skill could not draw attention. It seems that even with the strict guidelines in place there was still much fear of the female musician and the power she had over the male mind to provoke desire or affection even though courtship was the main purpose. Because courtship and eventually marriage was the main point of an instrument like the virginals, an explicitly female instrument, crude sexual associations accompany them.
After displaying Sonnet 128, Trillini begins analyzing the sonnet itself and the various metaphors contained within. The beginning lines “thou, my music,” and “music play’st” are shown to be “a significant anticipation of the trajectory of the text” which becomes very physical and crude “in a way that is quite exceptional for Elizabethan verse.” This crudeness in a love poem “is only the first among a number of fascinating transgressions in Sonnet 128.” The next “transgression” illustrated is a mix up of terms. Shakespeare uses the term “jacks,” the hammers of the virginals, which “leap”, in a way that seems he’s talking about the keys of the instrument Trillini argues that this allows two different attributes to be related to the figure of the lover. The last “transgression” is shown in “the mixed metaphors that tangle between player’s body, and instrument.” When Shakespeare refers to this lady as “thou, my music” Trillini claims he is seeking to approach her erotically as a piece of music or instrument, turning her into a passive object. This represents the role confusion and enacts the absence of music and the musician as a human agent found in many situations of a woman performing for a man.
These examples of feminized situations of performance are compared to Sonnet 8, another musical sonnet but in this case the object is a man. In this sonnet Shakespeare gets rid of the performer altogether, avoiding the awkward situation of a male performer. The language used is much more mild and the idealized family metaphor contrasts quite sharply with the emotionally charged “jacks,” “keys,” and body parts. In fact it seems that this sonnet may seek to complicate Sonnet 128 by contrast. Sonnet 128, being heterosexual in nature, uses many unique words to Shakespeare and contains much more complicated metaphors. Sonnet 8 is very simple and idealized, with no complex feelings or contradictions. The instrument is not even specified, adding another specific personified character to the latter sonnet.
The conclusion to this article suggests that there is only one “fault line” that Sonnet 128 does not cross. That is that in Elizabethan times, depiction of a woman playing the virginals is usually of the “perceptions of the listener rather than the perspective of the objectified player.” The phrase “the Gaze of the Listener” that appears in the title is attributed to Laura Mulvey's essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” and refers to the “biological vision and culturally conditioned perception” describing the dominating perspective of a male listener in a narrative. Trillini explains that a great way to ensure non-communication from women is to attribute them to music. This effectively takes away a woman’s voice and therefore they are perceived purely visually. Women musicians only have male words to describe them then, “thus they become perfect erotic objects.” This visual objectification is another element of gender dynamics in music. Overall Sonnet 128 is shown to have many insights into gender roles and actually enacts these dynamics in the verse. The sonnet does not denounce or glorify these dynamics, but materializes them in a narrative.

This article was a fascinating study of Sonnet 128. I think the gender dynamics that Regula Trillini addressed and explored pertaining to the sonnet are all very pertinent and I see different elements of them everyday. Although our modern culture does not have the same courtship rituals or very similar ideas of music as talked about in the article, many of the gender relationships that were discussed have carried through the ages and are still with us today. The tying in of historical musical traditions and customs to these gender roles that are still prevalent is a great way to gain perspective on certain dynamics that you may not recognize. In some ways I think I could argue that music has become more male dominated, at least in a social sense, after thinking about the role that it plays for different genders.
While I don’t think there is as much derogatory and fear around female musicians today, I do think that music has a vital role in the gender and race dynamics of our civilization. Different genres of music can be used as stereotypes for certain genders or races, in a way rendering those affected people as unable to make themselves know as a woman being perceived as music in a Shakespearean poem. I also think that “the Gaze of the Listener” is a very prominent subject in modern cinema and literature. It’s obvious to me that gender is perceived almost completely visually in our culture. I would venture to guess that there is an overpowering male lead in 75-85% of all new movies, and most modern female roles are voiceless “erotic objects”. One large difference I noticed in Elizabethan and modern time is the critiquing of music has become far more aesthetic than the pure emotional tradition of that time. I’m not quite sure how that changes some of the elements of gender and music, but I’m sure there is still a large amount of gender dynamics at play in modern music.
I think the most noticeable difference between the perception of male and female relationships to music in Shakespeare’s sonnets is the comparisons of Sonnet 128 and 8. In the feminine poem, the relationship between the author and object is very complicated and contains many contradictions; like the metonymic meanings of two different words to describe the woman. I realize even more complexity in the verse after reading Sonnet 8 and realizing that not only is there much simpler language Sonnet 8, but there is an extra character portrayed in the instrument personified, but there is much more erotic desire in the latter sonnet than in number 8. In the masculine poem, the object is spoken about very respectively. There is no connotation of erotic desire, instead Shakespeare speaks very idyllically. He does not take advantage of the male object as he does the female object of the poem, saying that he doesn’t really care what the female object does, as long as he can have the “parts” he desires. To me this is one of Shakespeare’s methods of pointing something out, the more complicated the writing is, the more important it may be.
Regula Hohl Trillini’s writing helped me look at many of the gender dynamics that exist in our time from a unique and helpful perspective. Our society is based so much off older societies that it really helps to get historical perspective on what’s happening today. Music has always been a very powerful force in humanity and it is important to reflect on how certain gender biased and oppressive elements of our culture play into it. I am very glad that Miss Trillini recognized that this sonnet has been perceived from a male perspective and therefore has never gotten the attention that it deserves.