Othello’s Feminine Roles
The audience finds within the Shakespearean tragic drama Othello several female characters who figure into the plot of the play. Their roles are varied and their lives end tragically.
Alvin Kernan’s “Othello: an Introduction” explains Desdemona’s role as a model of faith and chastity for the protagonist who converts to a belief in her after her death:
His willingness to speak of what he has done – in contrast to Iago’s sullen silence – is a willingness to recognize the meaning of Desdemona’s faith and chastity, to acknowledge that innocence and love do exist, and that therefore The City can stand, though his life is required to validate the truth and justice on which it is built. (81)
In the volume Shakespeare and Tragedy John Bayley explains the roles of the two main women characters in the play:
Even the risk of alienating the onlooker from the tragic action produces a corresponding gain: that action and behaviour remain in the play perennially controversial, and the focus of sexual and social awareness sharp and clear. In a production today, the implications of this are usually more interesting than the actual intrigue can be, and a lot of weight is usually put on Emilia’s role as a figure of common sense and common humanity, correcting the romantic excesses of the lovers. [. . .] But no figure in these three tragedies has such a symbolically positional status. Besides, Emilia, for all her virtues, has a stupidity and lack of imagination comparable in its own way to that of her husband; while her views on the sex war, from the feminine angle, are as pungent as his. Certainly the role of women is important, but it is Desdemona alone who, because of her love, can remain unconscious of the tragedy/comedy element, as she does of the polarity between sex and love. (218)
At the outset of the play Iago persuades the rejected suitor of Desdemona, Roderigo, to accompany him to the home of Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, in the middle of the night. Once there the two awaken the senator with loud shouts about his daughter’s elopement with Othello. This is the initial reference to the role of women in the play – the role of wife. In response to the noise and Iago’s vulgar descriptions of Desdemona’s involvement with the general, Brabantio arises from bed.
Desdemona represents many characteristics throughout the play Othello. The attributes of one such as Desdemona appear to be the perfect qualities that a woman can possess. Yet it is these same seemingly wonderful qualities that turn against their host, blinding them to the realities of society. Her trust in her husband does not allow her to see the beast he has become. Her loyalty to her friends blurs how the relationship may be seen from outside sources. Overall, this “perfect” Desdemona leads herself to her death, yet has no knowledge of doing so while on her life's journey. She leads on the perfect life, but in the end shows to every extent, that not everything can last forever. Not even your own loyalty to a relationship can last forever.
The love between Othello and Desdemona is a great venture of faith. He is free; she achieves her freedom, and at a great cost. Shakespeare, in creating the figure of her wronged father, who dies of grief at her revolt, sharpened and heightened, as everywhere, the story in the source. Her disobedience and deception of him perhaps cross her mind at Othello’s ominous ‘Think on thy sins.’ If so, she puts the thought aside with ‘They are loves I bear you.’ . . . Othello is a drama of passion and runs to the time of passion; it is also a drama of love which, failing to sustain its height of noon, falls at once to night. (141)
In Shakespeare’s “Othello”, the role of women is deeply emphasized; the significant characters of the play Othello, Iago, and Casio, each have a lady that stands behind him. These women each have commitment to remain faithful and respect their husband's needs, especially Desdemona and Emilia.
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Desdemona is a prime example of how being accused of doing something immoral managed to change the connotation in which Othello thought of her. Othello’s anger towards Desdemona can be seen the way he talks and treats her after he believed to have found concrete evidence of her adultery, “O curse of marriage, That we can call these delicate creatures ours, And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad, …'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death: Even then this forked plague is fated to us when we do quicken” (III.iii.273-292). Once Othello believes Desdem...
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Desdemona is one of the few special characters. Desdemona is the daughter of Brabantio. She is a very defiant character when it comes to her fathers’ expectations and the society’s wishes on interracial marriage. Her father hopes that she marries a white man that he approves of, but she does not want that. Instead she chose to marry Othello, who is a black, older man. Despite public opinion, Desdemona does not let that stop her from marrying Othello. In the beginning of the play, Desdemona shows that she is all about excitement. She enjoys the adventurous stories that Othello shares with her about his past. When he is called to go on duty for the military, she tries her best to convince him to let her come along. She tried to go with him because she likes the action and she finds staying at home very boring. Desdemona also likes taking part in sexual activities with her husband. Another reason she wants to go with him when he goes on duty is because of her sexual attraction to him. She wants it so desperately that she asks Emilia is it okay for her to cheat. Desdemona also plays the role of a victim in the play. I say this because Othello abuses her in public ...
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Othello serves as an example to demonstrate the expectations of an Elizabethan society, the practice of privileges in patriarchal marriages and the suppression and restriction of femininity. According to Elizabethan beliefs, women were vassals for both marriage and breeding, seen as passive subordinates in comparison to the patriarchy of male domination. Patriarchal rule justified women’s subordination as the natural order, because women were thought to be psychologically and physiologically inferior to men In terms of Othello, representations of women clearly conform to the expectations of an Elizabethan society. For instance there are three female characters in Othello: Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca, with each of these characters behaving and conducting themselves in ways that are linked to the ideological expectations of men. This is demonstrated through the character of Desdemona who as Othello’s wife is the embodiment of passitivity and vulnerability. This is illustrated through her submissive nature, which represents her as passive throughout, regardless of whether she has done wrong or not. For example her use of language defines her passive nature, where she states ‘ I am obedient’, reflecting her subservience to masculine rule ( act 3 scene 3 p.g. 89). Alternatively it could be argued that the use of the pronoun ‘I’ is authorative suggesting that the sentence has a double meaning ; she is obedient yet an individual in her own right. It infers that although she does fit the stereotypical convention of a passive female, she will also stand up for herself when it matters. However a critique of this viewpoint is that throughout she continues to conform to masculine rule and is faithful, even when she is being victimized...
...scene and the misogynistic views of such as Iago, 'How if she be black and witty'' with the later scene of Act IV Scne iii and Desdemona's refusal to say the word 'whore', 'I cannot say whore/It does abhor me', then the dark baseness of the male world is seen in opposition and dark contrast to the innocence and naivety of Desdemona.
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The Shakespearean classic work Othello enchants the readers mind through the tragic love story of the witty and cunning soldier Othello and the charming and powerful Desdemona. The continuous reinforcement of their tragedy is molded by the gender roles present in the play, particularly those of Bianca, Desdemona, and Emilia. Although the men are important within the outcome of the play, mainly Iago and Othello, the women take a more subtle, yet effective approach in manipulating the work through their personalities. Bianca is a woman of self-esteem and sexual power while Desdemona is the keeper of Othello’s heart and handkerchief, never once denouncing him, even her death. Emilia subtly represents that women are just as powerful, if not more,
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