How Shakespeare Presents Desdemona in Acts One through Four

How Shakespeare Presents Desdemona in Acts One through Four

Throughout the first four acts, Desdemona grows as a character. As

the play opens, the audience only hear of her and the suspense is

built. As an audience member, she does not appear to be of such

importance at the beginning, but as the play proceeds, we find out

more about her and her part in the twisting storyline. Desdemona’s

character certainly changes through all four acts, making the audience

continually question her and her true self.

When Act One, scene one first opens we are introduced with two

characters, Iago and Roderigo, arguing over a woman. They say that

she has left her house to ‘make the beast with two backs’ with a

character simply referred to as the moor. This simply means that they

are accusing Desdemona of leaving home without her fathers consent and

having sex secretly with Othello. Barbantio, Desdemona’s father,

first accuses Iago and Roderigo of being drunk, and refuses to believe

this, as he feels his daughter would not ever be able to betray him

like this. This shows the audience that Desdemona may be smothered as

a woman and not allowed to make her own decisions, which would explain

her leaving her house. When he checks her room and finds she is gone,

the audience can see that this is quite a rebellious woman. As a first

impression, this leaves the audience wanting to hear more about this

feisty and supposedly brave woman. She sounds like a woman who does

what she feels like, but also, since she left without her father’s

knowledge, she could be highly deceiving. We then find out that she

is married to Othello, which also adds to secret...

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...We also find out Emilia’s thoughts on men, and how

she perceives them. She feels that ‘it is their husband’s faults if

wives do fall’ which Desdemona simply replies by saying she will try

to amend herself.

All through the four acts, we see many sides of Desdemona. We start

with a strong, brave woman, who stands up for what she believes what

is right. Shakespeare deliberately introduces Desdemona with a

dramatic, bold scene to show the audience that this is a powerful

character. He also very cleverly shows the audience how her character

is destroyed by the lies and treacherous actions by Iago. By the end

of the four acts, she is weak, feeble and very vulnerable. Most of

all, she is confused. This is also a theme that runs throughout the

play, with many characters, to intertwine and join many plots

together.