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Desdemona In Othello

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William Shakespeare is a name unknown to few. As one of the world’s most prominent playwrights, there is hardly a student who has failed to read at least one of his plays. In fact, “no writer of any land or age has ever had the popularity and renown on such a colossal and astounding scale” as Shakespeare has (Brown). Despite pronounced eminence, very little is known about Shakespeare personal life foregoing his upbringing in rural England during the late 16th, and eventual move to London where he began his career. However, as with many writers, Shakespeare’s own experiences likely had great influence in his work. One impeccable example of this is the play Othello, which opens with a man, Iago, ranting about his anger that Othello, a superior …show more content…

Her significance stems from how relatable she was to women of the time. As a female who is generally oppressed by her society, and especially the men around her, such as Othello when he kills her simply for rumors that she may have cheated on him, the majority of women who came to watch Othello would resonate with the strength she carries herself with without any recognition. She even attempts to claim that she killed herself to save from ridicule Othello as she dies. Considering that women in the early 17th century would have had, and utilized, the ability to go to the theatre and support plays they enjoyed seeing, it makes very much sense that Shakespeare would have appealed to them in this way (Crowley). Thus it is likely that Desdemona’s, and Emilia’s, honest developments were influenced by awareness of a female audience. Furthermore, Shakespeare doubtlessly wrote Othello as somewhat of a social commentary on the patriarchal society in which he was living. Generally, women were thought of as “subjects” to the men in their lives, and were to be used at their disposable, doing whatever they demanded (Iyasere). Shakespeare even clearly points this out by means of Emilia’s speech early in the play, discussing with Desdemona why Othello was acting so aggressively about his lost

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Therefore, William Shakespeare shows how the feminist perspective is not the best lens to view modern literature in his play “Othello”, when Shakespeare shared through Othello in Act 3 when he speaks to Iago that “The man whose wife has been unfaithful lives happily as long as he does not love his wife” (Shakespeare, 127). Likewise, this quote shows how the feminist perspective might not show us how women were treated in the 1600s; this scene explains how men were not expected to love their wife and not expected to care. He is allowed to be happy as long as he didn’t love his wife. This is absorbing because we can see in modern days that men expect women to love them even if they don’t. Lastly, women then and now are expected to love their husbands even if they aren’t being treated right whereas men don’t need to love their wife if they don’t want

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Primary Drama Posting: Act V, Scene ii Othello makes a careful distinction between “a murder” and “a sacrifice” (65). What is the difference, as he sees it? Othello starts the scene thinking Desdemona’s death will be an honorable “sacrifice”(V.ii.65), but her denial of guilt “dost stone [his] heart, ”(V.ii.63), and vilifies his murderous intent.

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The women in Othello and Chaucer's Wife of Bath differ, but in the end both want their husbands to love them. In Othello there are only three women displayed in the story, but the statements that were said about these three women were the belief that all women in that society were all the same- evil, whores who were temptress to the men. The three women; Desdemona, the wife of Othello, Emilia, the wife of Iago, and Bianca, perceived as a prostitute who is a “customer” (l. 138. 4.1) of Cassio. Iago is one of the main characters who degrades and slanders all women including his wife Emilia.

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In Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, women are portrayed as either pure angelic beings and jewels, or as whores who are impure. They are objectified and shown as something to be used. The only women in this play are Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca compared to the main 6 male characters, not to mention the minor characters, who are also all male. Their depicted purpose is to belong to a man; Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca’s lives revolve around being wives to Othello, Iago and Cassio. This fits into the idea of a perfect Elizabethan woman, who’s lives are subject to their husband’s rule across all aspects, to be disposed of as men wish.

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At the beginning of William Shakespeare’s Othello, Emilia, Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s attendant, remains blindly loyal to her husband. Emilia demonstrates her blind loyalty when she steals Desdemona’s handkerchief for Iago, stating that she is “nothing but to please his fancy” (3.3.343). However, by the end of the play, she comes to realize the dark truths about her husband and reveals them. Unlike the other characters in the play, including Iago, Othello, and even Desdemona, Emilia is driven by honesty and logic, rather than passion or jealousy. Her ability to think logically eventually causes her to abandon her loyalty to Iago and pursue of truth and justice.

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In Desdemona, Desdemona discusses her family life and

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In Shakespeare’s play Othello, the male characters perceive woman as property of their own who have to be submissive and they treat them as adulterous. The male characters in Othello perceive women characters as promiscuous and adulterous. Iago being the character who strongly shows his perception that woman are promiscuous by concluding that his wife has deceive him with Othello and Cassio. Moreover, Iago creates and immoral image of Desdemona persuading Othello of this lie, ultimately, Othello convinces himself that Desdemona is a promiscuous.

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A Modern View of Feminist Criticism William Shakespeare 's "Othello” can be analyzed from a feminist perspective. This criticism focuses on relationships between genders, like the patterns of thoughts, behavior, values, enfranchisement, and power in relations between and within sexes. A feminist examination of the play enables us to judge the distinctive social esteems and status of women and proposes that the male-female power connections that become an integral factor in scenes of Othello impact its comprehension. I believe that the critical lens that provides modern society with the most compelling view of literature is Feminist Criticism because it analyzes distrust and disloyalty among relationships, women being treated as possessions

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While Desdemona is a remarkably strong character, Emilia also displays independence unmatched by any other female in Othello, and there are multiple details of Shakespeare and his time that may have prompted such a portrayal. In Elizabethan England, many women worked behind the scenes of productions, like Shakespeare’s, as uncredited authors and editors (Crowley). Due to their anonymity, nobody can be sure that women were involved in Shakespeare’s plays nor Othello in particular, but there is a genuine possibility that female writers did have leverage. This may have had to do with how Emilia was portrayed as resilient from the time of Desdemona’s death all the way until her own, standing up for herself regardless of the ridicule it caused her (Iyasere). In fact, it even killed her in the end.

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