Having played Viola before, I’ve really enjoyed looking at her language when she is playing Cesario. For example, in 1.5, she says to Olivia, “No, my profound heart; and yet — by the very fangs of malice I swear — I am not that I play”(1.5.175-76), and when asked about Cesario’s parentage, she responds, “Above my fortunes, yet my state is well. / I am a gentleman” (1.5.266-67). As in both of these cases, while she is playing Cesario, she never fully lies about her identity. With “I am a gentleman,” one could say the word gentleman by using ‘gentle’ as an adjective, stating she is a ‘gentle man,’ which can be interpreted as a way of her distinguishing herself from the male sex and subtly hinting at her own by using an adjective traditionally associated with women.