Examples Of Sexism In Othello

In 1604, William Shakespeare wrote a tragedy set in Venice, Italy by the title of Othello (Mabilard). This play is often considered to be controversial; undermining sexist ideals inherent is Elizabethan society by creating strong female characters and dramatizing men’s violence towards women. However, there are still extremely exist and alarming undertones in “Othello”, such as murder of disobedient female characters, reinforcing the stigma against elopement, and women being seen as objects. The men in this work use, abuse, and kill their wives and the women around them, and give no inclination that they see these actions as wrong or extreme. In William Shakespeare’s Othello, gender roles and sexism are reinforced by killing off morally innocent

Many people would believe that Emilia expresses proto-feminist ideas, saying that men treat women like ‘[they] are all but food” (III, iv, 93) and refusing to “charm [her] tongue” and keep quiet like Iago orders (V, ii, 220). However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that she does not enforce sexist ideals to the audience. Both Othello and Iago treat Emilia badly, their justification being that she is a “foolish wife”, meaning that she isn’t wise enough to keep her mouth shut in the presence of men. Emilia is also of a very low social status as Desdemona’s attendant and is married to a low ranking officer. It is entirely possible that Emilia is another character exemplifying what will come for disobedient women. Emilia says that she is “bound to speak” even though Iago has ordered her to stay silent in the face in injustice (V, ii, 220). Enraged by her husband’s villainous acts and the death of her mistress, she tells Othello that she “did give [the handkerchief]” to Iago, dismantling Othello’s rationale for killing Desdemona (V, ii, 269). She dies almost immediately after speaking up, stabbed by her husband, Iago. This shows the audience yet again that going against the orders of a man is dangerous. The death of Emilia’s character comes entirely from Iago asserting the power he had over her, silencing the voice that spoke against his. Emilia’s character brings up important social issues

The two main male characters, Othello and Iago, go to wildly extreme lengths to punish their wives, even though neither of their wives had explicitly done anything wrong. Iago’s ploy to sabotage Othello begins with his idea to use Desdemona’s “fresh and delicate” nature against her, picking her as the first and easiest target to get through to Othello (II, iii, 20). He spreads irreversible rumors on Desdemona’s fidelity; planting seeds of jealousy and doubt into Othello’s mind. Iago sees Desdemona as the weakest of his pawns, an object he can control and manipulate, and forces Othello to look at her that way as well. Then when Othello believes Desdemona is a whore, he exclaims that his marriage is “curse[d]” because he is unable to control Desdemona’s sexual “appetite” (III, iii, 309-311), demonstrating the societal standard for men to be in complete control of their wives (Papp and Kirkland). Othello starts the play respecting Desdemona, but is so easily swayed by Iago to believe that “[Desdemona is] a whore” that his decency toward and respect for her drops drastically as the play continues (III, iii, 410). By the end of the play, he simply sees her as an obstacle keeping him from living with sanity that he kills her just so that he doesn’t have to think about her anymore. Iago uses Emilia in his plot to steal Desdemona’s handkerchief, making it his