This work investigates how gender crossing and cross-dressing in Shakespearean drama function as sites for the construction and destabilization of sexual difference. James W. Stone, a scholar of Renaissance literature, utilizes a feminist psychoanalytic framework to examine the linguistic and structural nuances of identity within the Bard's canon. By analyzing the interplay between performance and psyche, the author argues that these moments of gender fluidity reveal deep-seated anxieties regarding the nature of the self and the social order in early modern England.

Scholars frequently cite this text for its rigorous application of psychoanalytic theory to the specific linguistic textures of Shakespearean dialogue. It is widely regarded as a significant contribution to the discourse on gender performance in early modern studies.