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Romeo and Juliet, and Othello.
In Shakespeare’s tragedy plays, Romeo and Juliet and Othello, daughters are portrayed as disobedient through the protagonist Juliet and Desdemona. Juliet revolts her father’s order by rejecting her marriage to Paris. Similarly, Desdemona disrespected her father by having relationship with Othello. The theme of love is essential in both of the plays, and the romantic relationships have brought the daughters insulting their superior fathers. Shakespeare presents women inferior according to the Elizabethan society and Jacobean Era, because it was male dominated society.
Both Shakespeare’s plays Romeo and Juliet, and Othello, fathers are considered strict and protective in terms of whom their daughter marries. In
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Importantly. The fathers are refuse to knowledge their daughters has grown up. Admit this scene is focusing on tragedy stage of climax. As the situation has changed by Capulet’s and Brabantio behaviour, as it focuses on the main issues came to the main part of the scene. In Act 3 scene 5, Romeo and Juliet are considered as facing lots of troubles then before. This is evident through the quote “how, how, how, how? Chapped logic! What is this? The use of repetition tells and rhetorical question proves Brabantio’s and Capulet anger plus confusion at their daughter’s decisions against them. Furthermore the use of Exclamation marks recommends his annoyance and emotions. The Adverb ‘how’ tells us how confuse Brabantio is about her daughter relationship with Othello, and still he can’t believe what has happened as he never expected this behaviours from his daughter, because according to the Jacobean era , men had dictatorship over women, therefore they has to obey men, and follow the government
Romeo and Juliet, (R&J), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (AMSND), are two different genres with but have the same basic plot: Two young lovers can’t wed and the girl is to marry another man who is preferred by her father, so the couple meets at night and plans to run away. Both couples have gone against the wishes of their authority figures but it doesn’t end well for Tybalt, Paris, Romeo, or Juliet. R&J is set in Elizabethan times, and the Chain of Being would have been disrupted by their actions.AMSND has fantastical elements that interfere with fate and these elements such as fairies and cupid, would have been understood to be higher on the chain than man by its attendees of the time. Is it the force of celestial bodies that makes R&J a tragedy and AMSND a comedy?
The “Daughter” and “Niece” Archetypes. Within Shakespeare’s comedies, many of the female characters are portrayed as submissive and easily controlled. Like dutiful daughters, these women submit to patriarchal repression with little complaint. Perhaps the best example of a “daughter” character in Shakespearean comedy is the role of Hero in Much Ado About Nothing. Hero is completely under the control of her father Leonato, especially with regard to courtship.
How Shakespeare Dramatically Presents Power and Authority in the Relationship Between Men and Women in Much Ado About Nothing One of the key explorations of power and authority in “Much Ado About Nothing” is the relationship between Hero and Leonato as father and daughter. The play was written in Elizabethan England, and social attitudes of the period, together with long standing tradition, influence Shakespeare’s portrayal of the “proper” relationship between father and daughter, and duty they owed to each other. In “Much Ado About Nothing” it is very much a patriarchal society, where rank and position rule supreme and women are submissive position to men, whether fathers or husbands. This “male dominance” is most acutely represented by the nature of arranged marriage.
Young sons and daughters take center stage in several of William Shakespeare’s plays, including the tragedies of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. However, the treatment of the sons in comparison to daughters differs substantially. Although both are constrained by similar forces, these work to very different extents based on their genders. While young men such as Romeo, Hamlet, and Laertes are given relatively free reign to do as and go where they please, Juliet and Ophelia are much more constrained by their parents. The tight control of these parents over their daughters, and their attempts to shape their lives, indirectly cause the young women’s deaths. Shakespeare therefore suggests that young women should be given more freedom, as their male counterparts are. This idea greatly challenges the social
During this time period, the men would work to support their family. Additionally, the woman would stay at home and care for her husband and children. This society thought of women as weaker than men. They were often treated as possessions of their husbands, “This concurs with Othello 's own insight when he describes murderous jealousy as innate in the husband-wife relationship which posits the wife as the exclusive possession of the husband and is thus at odds with the human condition wherein one can never know another person 's inmost thoughts and desires” (Vanita 342).The language Shakespeare uses in the play supports that men seemed freer than women. When Brabantio speaks of his daughter he describes her as obedient. Likewise, Desdemona obeyed Othello’s orders and stated she is indeed obedient to him. When Othello was convinced Desdemona was cheating on him he proceeded to murder
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.
Love, honor and jealousy are basic human emotions that at birth we all unlawfully subscribe to. These fundamental emotions are the basis for William Shakespeare 's well-known tragedy Othello. Shakespeare uses the basic flaws in human emotion to discuss the issues of his time, some of which still affect us today. It is important to be well acquainted with the particular time period that the play in written in as well as the time period in which it takes place. For the simple fact that it helps the reader better understand and fully grasp the characters actions as well as their underplayed gestures. During the time period it was written and the period where it is set in, women basically are voiceless. They are considered property in a male driven
During Shakespeare's period, social status was the main focus of life. Everything was made around social status. Who was acceptable to talk to, who was acceptable to marriage, and who even how they treated others. Women had to live to strict ways of life. The father controls the daughter, she is accepted to do as her father says and what he pleases. A women must always have a man in charge of her, the father picks out her husband to which the future husband will help higher the social status that they have already. Shakespeare uses Hero and Beatrice to demonstrate the dangers of love at first sight vs. the benefits of a relationship based on mutual understating.
Within Shakespeare’s Othello there is an analysis into the context of the female. Brabantio’s rhyming couplet “Look to her, Moor, If thou hast eyes to see/ She has deceived her father, and may thee,” demonstrates his domineering and patronising attitude, as the Elizabethan era was a patriarchal society and the role of the female was to be ‘obedient’ to their father or husband. Brabantio also endeavours into placing a seed of doubt in Othello’s mind as a result of his jealousy. Consequentially Brabantio objectifies Desdemona when he states, “Where has thou stow’d my daughter?” exemplifying how he deems her as a possession, which can be stolen like any other. Othello prolongs this objectification through asserting that he “won his daughter” portraying Desdemona as a prize to be won, and a possession to be owned and argued over by husband and father. Desdemona is depicted early on in the play as the “angel” wi...
The society in which Othello takes place is a patriarchal one, where men had complete control over women. They were seen as possessions rather than being just as equally human and capable of duties performed by men. All women of the Elizabethan were to obey all men, fathers, brothers, husbands, etc. Which leads me to the most reliable and trustworthy character of Desdemona, whom goes through many trials just to satisfy her love. Shakespeare brings the thought of Desdemona into the play by Barbantio, her father, “It is too true an evil. Gone she is....Oh, she deceives me Past thought! …” (1.1.163)(1.1.168-169), whom has just found she has taken off with Othello and firstly suspects they have been hitched. Shakespeare gives reader the impression Desdemona is a devious imp full of disrespect towards her father. However, surpassing normal tradition of asking of her fathers’ permission to wed, Desdemona ran off and did marry the moor. This in a sense was her emancipation of her father’s possessiveness and oblivion of Othello’s dominance over her. Othello replies to Barbantio’s accusation, sedating or using black magic on his daughter, by saying, “My very noble and approved good masters, That I have ta’en away this old man’s daughter. It is most true.” (1.3.79-81), which brings me to the claim that Desdemona’s character in this tragedy, was only to become and to serve as Othello’s private possession rather than a typical beloved daughter or wife as in modern time. Shakespeare bases this tragedy on the foundation of Desdemona’s character by the symbol of the discrimination of women in the Shakespearean time era. Desdemona even for the first and only time within the play stands up and challenges her inferiority under her father’s aut...
In his novel Othello, William Shakespeare reveals Desdemona and Emilia’s courage through situations involving conflict to portray the ability for women to stand up for themselves as he exhibits his idea of feminism through their actions. The courageous attitudes of these women and their passionate voice grew stronger throughout the play as they eventually died, staying true to their beliefs. This transformation parallels the rights of women over history, as the female population progressed very slowly towards a more equal position in society. With Shakespeare being an advocate for women’s unheard voices during the Elizabethan period, he is able to use Desdemona and Emilia’s characteristics to contrast what the world was like during that era, and how he viewed and wished the world would function.
In the end, we can conclude that Shakespeare used a very conservative world view in his play, “Othello”. Using the characters of Othello, Desdemona, and Iago, Shakespeare reinforced the stereotypes of his time. In conclusion, gender expectations have greatly impacted the outcome of Shakespeare’s play, “Othello”, because the script of the play has reinforced the stereotypes such as girls who resist their fathers die, women who marry different race, class, and cultures die, and women who decide their own destiny die at the end. Through “Othello”, Shakespeare portrays women in a patriarchal system, and the result of the play is the consequences of gender disruptions. Therefore, there is no doubt that the gender expectations placed on both male and female characters have greatly impacted the outcome of Shakespeare’s play “Othello”.
During the Shakespearean time women were treated as inferiors. The three women in Othello, Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca encountered many degrading and unfortunate situations. They were to be obedient. The women had to comply with the commands, orders, and the instructions of the men. Women were made to believe that they had no rights. The men would publicly humiliate the three women. It was difficult for the women to stand up for themselves due to that time in society. In Shakespeare’s play Othello, he portrayed the three women to be viewed as obedient, loyal, and submissive to their husbands.
The play Othello is presented as a male-dominated society where women are only recognized as property; objects to own and to bear children. Women in the Elizabethan society and in Shakespeare society were not seen as equal to men and were expected to be loyal to their husbands, be respectful, and to not go against their husbands judgements or actions. Shakespeare presents Desdemona, Emilia , and Bianca as women in the Elizabethan time where they were judged based on their class, mortality, and intelligence. Shakespeare makes his female characters act the way they would be expected to act in an Elizabethan society. The role of these women in Othello is crucial because they show how women were treated and how unhealthy their relationships between men really were in both Elizabethan and Shakespeare's society.
Desdemona, Othello’s wife, the more traditional female character, believes in putting her husband first and that love is all that matters. On the other hand, Emilia, Iago’s wife and one of Desdemona’s dearest friends, is portrayed as the stronger feminist in the play and believes in women’s rights and that women are physically no different to men. To place this assumption into retrospect, in Shakespeare time, from the 1558 to the 1600s, England society was ruled by Queen Elizabeth. Although women took ownership of the country, in Elizabethan’s society married women and minor girls were entirely in the power of their husband and guardianship of their father. None the less, even after Elizabeth I took the throne, she was expected to wed and “have her rights to rule limited or completely taken up by her husband” (Wagner, 21).