Was Shakespeare queer? It’s a question that has plagued scholars for centuries, and it’s a question we’ll never know the answer to. What we do know is that there are at least a few queer characters in Shakespeare, although nobody can quite agree on which characters they are. Therefore, I have compiled this list, looking through characters who are often suggested to be gay or queer by scholars and fans, and put together my own opinions on them. Now, these opinions are based on a combination of the text and whether or not the idea could be successful in performance. I discuss characters in a series of tiers, from definitely gay to definitely not gay. Here we go!

 

Definitely Gay

1. Antonio (“Merchant of Venice”): Antonio is quite possibly the most gay character in Shakespeare. Let me explain. This is a man who puts down his life as collateral on a loan for a different man named Bassanio. He opens the play wondering why he is so sad, and ends the play melancholy even though he seems to have gotten everything he wanted. And he writes a full-on love letter to Bassanio, and is perfectly content to die for him. If Antonio is not in love with Bassano, none of his motivation makes any sense and his whole character becomes a confusing muddle. If Antonio is gay, his whole arc makes perfect sense. The play doesn’t work if Antonio is not gay, and therefore, he is definitely gay, perhaps the most so of any Shakespeare character.

 

2. Antonio (“Twelfth Night”): Shakespeare just loved naming his gay characters Antonio. Antonio in “Twelfth Night” is not nearly as important of a character as Antonio in “Merchant of Venice,” but his motivation also makes no sense unless he’s in love with a man, in this case, Sebastian. Antonio literally goes into a city where he is a wanted criminal because he “does adore [Sebastian] so.” There is no internal logic to that decision unless Antonio is in love with Sebastian.

 

Probably Gay

1. Coriolanus and Aufidius (“Coriolanus”): The only reason why these guys are in the “probably” category and not the “definitely” category is because you could pull off a successful production playing these two as straight. The homoerotic subtext is more of a bonus rather than a performance necessity. However, a performance with straight Coriolanus and Aufidius would be much harder work than just playing them as the enemies-to-lovers gay couple they clearly are. Look at what Coriolanus says to Aufidius: “Know thou first,/I loved the maid I married; never man/Sighed truer breath. But that I see thee here,/Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart/Than when I first my wedded mistress saw/Bestride my threshold.” Enough said.

 

2. Brutus and Cassius (“Julius Caesar”): Now, this is complicated, because Brutus is married to a woman and apparently in love with her. However, Brutus and Cassius share one scene (the infamous ‘tent scene’) which is entirely driven by very intense personal stakes. Cassius is constantly holding Brutus’ love, or lack thereof, over Brutus’ head. Now, could you successfully pull this scene off without any gay subtext? Yes, and I’ve seen a few examples of it. But the emotional weight of the back half of ‘Julius Caesar’ is much more impactful if there is some sort of queer love between Brutus and Cassius, toxic though it may be. Therefore, they have been elevated to the “probably” category.

 

Not Gay, but Probably Queer

1. Viola (“Twelfth Night”): On the surface, Viola is a woman who is in love with a man. However, her relationship with gender is absurdly complicated. She sees herself living “as I am man” and “as I am woman,” and she occupies a world in which gender is very much connected to outward performance of gender roles, rather than internalized identity. Unlike Shakespeare’s other cross-dressers, we barely see Viola as a woman. She only has one scene presenting as a woman, and the bulk of that scene is her choosing to disguise herself. As such, I think that Viola is genderqueer in some way. She certainly morphs into her male alter ego far more completely than Shakespeare’s other cross-dressers do. 

 

2. Puck (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”): The tricky thing with Puck is that he isn’t a human character, therefore pretty much anything goes as far as sexuality is concerned. The fairies in Midsummer are pretty split down gender lines, so I think Puck is male/male presenting, but he definitely views love as a foolish madness and is a bit of a flirt. Queer, probably, but it’s hard to nail down an accurate label for a character who isn’t human.

 

3. Ariel (“The Tempest”): Ariel is similar to Puck, in that he is not a human character. However, what makes Ariel fascinating is the fact that he uses he/him pronouns, but is consistently described in very feminine terms (delicate, dainty, graceful, etc.). There is definitely a really interesting gender fluidity in Ariel’s character, and a subversion of gendered language vs. gender presentation that Shakespeare could only achieve with a non-human character. Plus, Ariel has a long history of being played by and as both men and women.

 

4. Orsino (“Twelfth Night”): Orsino is the Li Shang of Shakespeare, in that he develops feelings for a woman who is disguised as a man, and then discovers this man is in fact a woman and he can be in a safely heterosexual relationship. So Orsino can’t be gay, but he is almost certainly a bisexual, or at the very least, having a bit of a crisis over his sexual orientation.

 

The Vibes are Gay but the Text is Not

1. Mercutio (“Romeo and Juliet”): Mercutio is a classic example of a character who just seems gay, or at least queer. His personality feels like the stereotypical “gay best friend” in a ‘90s romcom. However, there is not nearly enough in the text to make a compelling argument for Mercutio being gay, and every argument I’ve heard has boiled down to “vibes.” The play can absolutely have forward momentum without Mercutio being gay, but it’s just far easier to play him as a queer character than it is to play him straight.

 

2. Antonio (“The Tempest”): Is there anything at all in the text that suggests that this guy is gay? No. There isn’t. But, his name is Antonio, and he is very close to a character named Sebastian, therefore the vibes are automatically gay.

 

3. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern (“Hamlet”): The thing is, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are always together and basically interchangeable. They could be played as gay. The vibes are kind of gay. But there is absolutely nothing in the text to go off.

 

An Interesting Performance Choice, but Not an Essay

1. Iago (“Othello”): The idea that Iago is secretly gay and in love with Othello waxes and wanes in popularity in the Shakespeare world. Now, Iago is certainly obsessed with Othello and has some sort of complex. In production, you could take some liberties and make some specific choices and have a gay Iago. However, in the scholarly world, the idea that Iago is gay is born out of the misconception that Iago never makes his motivation for hating Othello clear, so clearly he must secretly be gay. However, Iago tells the audience his motivation multiple times (he was passed over for a promotion and thinks Othello slept with his wife) and there isn’t enough direct textual or circumstantial evidence to say that Iago is gay. It would make an interesting production, but in my opinion, there isn’t enough material to write a compelling scholarly article on the matter.

 

2. Katherina (“Taming of the Shrew”): I totally understand the impulse to have Katherina be a lesbian, as I too want Katherina to have a storyline that doesn’t relate to horrific domestic abuse. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing in the text to suggest that she is gay other than the fact that she is a woman with some more masculine qualities (until they are beaten out of her). I think you could pull off a successful and powerful production with a lesbian Katherina, but it would take a lot of leg work and adding moments not in the original text.

 

3. Emilia (“Othello”): Yes, I’ve read the essays saying that Emilia is a lesbian. However, I am yet to be convinced by anything in the text. To me, Emilia reads more as someone suffering from abuse rather than someone who is in love with Desdemona, especially since she betrays Desdemona for her abusive husband. Do I think you could pull off a lesbian Emilia in performance with some clever cuts and hard work on the actor’s part? Yes, I do. However, I personally don’t see enough in the text to make the argument in essay form.

 

Being Gay is Not a Substitute for Having a Personality

1. Benvolio (“Romeo and Juliet”): Benvolio exists to be an exposition machine. He has a limited individual personality. Because of this, many productions, as well as Shakespeare fans, decide that Benvolio is gay in order to give him some sort of a personality. Benvolio has a lot of lines, so you need to cast a good actor to play him, and making Benvolio gay gives that actor a bit more material to work with. But yeah, there’s nothing in the text to suggest that Benvolio is gay. Making Benvolio gay in performance just serves to make him less bland. 
2. Horatio (“Hamlet”): Horatio is another character who doesn’t really get a big personality to work with. He is also Hamlet’s best friend, and there is a large community that obsesses over Hamlet and Horatio as a couple (generally by inventing historical connotations that didn’t exist and making up fake quotes). However, I think that this tendency comes from the fact that Horatio is a male character who doesn’t have a lot of personality on the page, therefore it is easy to superimpose being gay on him. Yes, Horatio does want to commit suicide at the end of the play, but who wouldn’t, after everything he had to go through? Horatio exists to be a sidekick and someone for Hamlet to talk to. A good actor can elevate the character, and he definitely has more personality than Benvolio, but there’s nothing in the text to suggest that he’s gay.

 

Probably Not Gay

1. Hermia and Helena (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”): I have heard many passionate analyses explaining why Hermia and Helena had some sort of sapphic relationship in their childhood. My issue with this reading is that it never comes through effectively in performance. Firstly, the conflict between Hermia and Helena is entirely driven by desire for men. Secondly, close female friendship, especially between young girls, is absolutely an intimate force, and to me, that is more what is described in the play. It is hard to buy the supposed sapphic subtext when the main plot of Midsummer is entirely driven by drama between m/f couples. Could you pull off a production with a lesbian subtext between the two? Possibly. But I remain unconvinced. 

 

2. Paulina & Hermione (“A Winter’s Tale”): Look, I want sapphic relationships in Shakespeare as much as anyone. Sadly, I don’t think that was something Shakespeare was interested in. Paulina and Hermione are very close, and Paulina protects Hermione for 16 years. However, a large part of the plot revolves around Hermione being falsely accused of infidelity, and the whole play kind of comes unstuck if Hermione is secretly in love with Paulina the whole time. I could absolutely get behind a lesbian Paulina in performance, but I don’t think a relationship with Hermione quite works.

 

Definitely Not Gay

1. Hamlet (“Hamlet”): Hamlet hates women. Therefore, some enterprising scholars and fans have decided that Hamlet must be gay. Now I’m only going to say this once: being gay is not a suitable excuse for misogyny. Also, it’s heavily implied that Hamlet was in a relationship with Ophelia before the events of the play. Hamlet is depressed and brooding, but that does not equate to being gay.

 

2. Rosalind & Celia (“As You Like It”): They are cousins. Yuck. That’s all I have to say.