The Way In Which Shakespeare Presents Women In Othello

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The Way In Which Shakespeare Presents Women In Othello

The concept of equality between the sexes would have seemed very

foreign to most in Shakespeare's day. It was believed that he created

Adam first, and Eve; she was created specifically to give him comfort,

and was to be secondary to him, to obey him and to accept her lesser

status. A dominant woman was unnatural, and was almost seen as a

disease.

We can see that Shakespeare didn't necessarily believe this, by

looking at the role of women in other plays of Shakespeare's. There

are strong women and weak women alike throughout the plays. In "The

Merchant Of Venice" for instance, Portia dresses as a man and pretends

to be a lawyer, she wins the case she is fighting for and is one of

the rare occasions were a Shakespeare play finishes happily.

"Maccbeth" also contains a strong woman. Lady Maccbeth bullies her

husband into the murder of the king, but turns mad and dies. Ophelia

in "Hamlet" on the other-hand is much like Desdemona in "Othello"; she

is her husband's servant almost and ends up drowning herself. All

women are on the receiving end from men in the plays, in some way. All

die, so it still shows that Shakespeare believed that woman should

know their place in society.

The first of the three women in "Othello" I am going to look at is

Bianca. Bianca is a prostitute. She is Cassio's plaything; he doesn't

really care much for her and only really makes contact with her for

sex. Bianca has only a small part in the play; her first line isn't

until Act 3 Scene 3 where she has confronted Cassio about his

ignorance of her. Cassio gives her the hankachive that he has found in

his chamber; it is Othello's who has given it to Desdemona. Bianca

thinks that Cassio has been cheating on her, and that the handkerchief

is his new lovers, Cassio assures her he knows not of the

handkerchiefs origin and tells her to get a copy made.

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