Viola s disguise

[Anthony Furze]

What exactly was the reason for Viola s diguise? She says o make her occasion "mellow" but was there a deeper reason?

[lune-fee]

By the line containing "Make mine occasion mellow what my estate is" I believe she meant she wanted to hide her status from the world until she decided to reveal it. In Shakespeare's time, it wasn't easy to be a woman alone in the world--she wanted a way to make her life easier. Also, I've heard it debated that she genuinely had some sort of gender confusion--perhaps some sort of trauma from the idea of her brother dying?

[CrazyGeekGirl]

The main reasons, I would say, are to protect herself and to get a job. Depending on the production, she can be unsatisfied with contemporary women's roles, but that would probably be secondary. Also, she's trying to keep Sebastian with her.