as exclusively male once again reflects the binary nature of gender. There is the potential to view this story through a transgender lens. At the end of the work, when Silence is revealed to be a girl, nature has to do work reshaping his body to appear more feminine. The fact that this transformation was necessary could suggest that Silence was more than just disguised as a man. This act complicates the ending of the tale as it presents a possibility that perhaps the binary has some wiggle room after all and maybe Silence is less content with his final transformation to be female than one may at first think. Additionally, the rhetoric of the Narrator points to the complications that arise when describing Silence's cross-dressing. In some cases, the Narrator describes her actions as "concealment" or as masking the truth. In others, her behavior is described as changing or altering. These variances in the dynamic of the rhetoric indicate the complexities that even the Narrator faces when discussing Silence's cross-dressing in terms of her gender identity. Critics discuss the motives and interpretation of the poem with the central question "Is this romance ultimately misogynist or philogynous?" Some argue that the character of Silence frees women from the oppressive traditional gendered social expectations, as others discuss the anti-feminist tones used to define other female characters by their gender stereotypes. The name "Silence" Silence was named "Silentia" by her parents and called "Silentius" because of her changed gender. However, she was largely referred to by the gender-neutral name "Silence". In the beginning, Silence was in a way silenced because he could not reveal his true sex as a woman, but he chose his gender to be male. He was only briefly able to speak his opinions as a woman at the end of the story when he claimed that he no longer cared to keep silent any longer. His final monologue was the only time when he was publicly recognized as a woman and able to give his honest opinion. Afterwards, his opinions were no longer stated and he was effectively silenced. Silence was silent in various ways throughout the story. Instead of being called Silentius, Silence was called by a genderless name as if waiting for the day he would turn back into a woman. It also let Silence maintain a sense of self. During a short period of time,