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Desdemona's Role In The Crucible

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Recommended: Women's roles in shakespeare's works

The Ladies Found Within The Text And The Roles They Play
Throughout this year we have read some of the best literature in all of America and have been introduced to some of the most iconic characters. I would like to focus on the women featured within these novels. In Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, we are introduced to Desdemona who is a victim of murder and false accusations. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is venerable in many ways yet is also questionable. Lastly, in The Crucible by Arthur Miller we see the ultimate Villain, Abigail Williams. These three powerful women may not all come from the same novel, but they all strive for the same thing. Ultimately, these ladies strive for love and acceptance.
Desdemona as seen throughout Othello is a beautiful young woman with child like qualities who is well respected and honest. In chapter 3 scene 3 page 141 Iago accuses Desdemona of cheating on Othello with Cassio. Othello is in distress and in disbelief that she would do such a thing. This ends in Othello believing the lies and murdering his own wife when she was fully loyal to him. Desdemona never did anything wrong and only lied in order to save her own life. Her goal in her marriage was to live happily with her husband but Iago ruined that for his own selfish desires. She was a victim of jealousy and abuse. …show more content…

She was full of sinful thoughts yet admirable in the way she carried herself through her society. Hester committed adultery against her husband Chillingworth and had to wear a scarlet A on her chest for the rest of her life. Her punishment was constant public shame and she had to live with that forever. Hester also strived for love and a feeling of acceptance. Hawthorne displayed Hester as a strong independent women by giving her a strong spirited heart and shows her confidence in herself by dressing up her A (found in chapter 5) and being proud of who she really

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Women have always been portrayed as the weaker sex compared to men. It has been demonstrated in history itself and throughout literary works. Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Homer’s The Odyssey, however, portray women to be more powerful than men, even when their society thought otherwise and underestimated them because of their gender. Lady Macbeth, The Three Witches, Queen Arête and Penelope demonstrate the astute, charming, and ambitious side of women that was overlooked by men when it came to having power and making decisions.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne has a very unique usage of language to describe and paint a picture of Hester. One important thing he does is use many different types of tones throughout the story that correlate with the way the Puritans look at Hester. Hawthorne also does a good job of using symbolism to depict an image of Hester through many different type of symbols, the most significant being the scarlet A on her chest. Lastly, Hawthorne does a good job of putting direct quotes from the Puritan people describing Hester, which allows the reader to see exactly what they think about her and shows the way society creates a picture of her. Hester also fits the description of many of things mentioned in Proverbs 31:10-31 which describes a wife of noble character.

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Power for women was not much back in the 1600s. Women had no power at all in the government. Women had to find their power in other things, but women still found power. In the works, The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrated the control of women in the Puritan times. Even though in both The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, women have less control in the society than men, in The Crucible women have more say in the action of the society than the women in The Scarlet Letter.

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She is a beautiful, young woman who has sinned, but is forgiven. Hawthorne portrays Hester as "divine maternity" and she can do no wrong. Not only Hester, but also the physical scarlet letter, a sign of shame, is shown as a beautiful, gold and colorful piece which

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Hester is the main character in the book and she is forced to wear the red scarlet letter “A” which stands for her sin of adultery. Hawthorne narrates, “On the breast of her gown in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A” (Hawthorne 59). This quote shows how the scarlet letter is evil and Hester's committing adultery is bad. The townspeople only see Hester as a bad person as she always has to wear the letter A around her bosom. Over time, Hester shows the townspeople that she is a good person by helping the sick, buying bread for the poor, and counseling men and women.

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On the other hand, Hester represents sin. Hawthorne indicates how much of a hypocrite the Puritans were for choosing to not see the beauty in Hester and her child because they were blinded by her sin. She is looked upon by the Puritans as an extreme sinner. Instead of being put to death for her sin, she is publicly shamed and forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her chest for the rest of her life. Hawthorne introduces

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Two women in the play that display this ability are Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams. The first example of an influential woman, is Elizabeth Proctor. She is wife to John Proctor and, though she may seem to wield little power in her relationship with him, she has great influence and power over his eventual fate. Many women in this novel are submissive and often hysterical but Elizabeth holds her ground and when accused and put on trial, is confident in her innocence.

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Othello later learns that Desdamona was innocent and never cheated. This makes him commit suicide because allowed himself to feel jealous and not be able to deal with himself. After this, Iago kills his wife Emilia because she ends up telling people the truth about Iago. She tells the people Desdamona was always the innocent one and betrayed her own husband to tell the truth. Which was the right thing to do in the end even though it ends with her being killed.

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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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The way these women act and conduct themselves is unquestionably related to the ideological expectations of Elizabethan and patriarchal society. Desdemona, Othello 's wife and Brabantio 's daughter, is represented as the ideal woman. So she would never be disloyal to her husband. On many occasions, Desdemona obeys her husband firmly and calls herself obedient even after Othello hits her. She was loving and loyal to Othello and wishes a long marriage of prosperity and commitment that would lead to her ultimate happiness.

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It may seem like Shakespeare treats his female characters worse than his male characters, but it is his female characters that drive the plot

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Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) immensely supports and enhances my understanding of Canadian culture through the intent of empowering women to become their own heroines and its accentuation of the importance of self-development. Through the author’s revampment of these tragedies and her unexpected use of comedic relief, we, either as the reader or viewer, are able to better understand and relate to those within the play. Being a feminist herself, author Ann-Marie MacDonald’s objective of liberating Shakespeare's female characters from their supposedly unavoidable deaths is a clear example of our role as Canadians to empower the women around us to believe that they are in control of their own destinies for they can oppose the patriarchal

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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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Desdemona constantly refutes against Othello’s false accusations but never completely erases Othello’s negativity towards Casio and her; Othello is greatly influenced by the lies of Iago and considers Desdemona a cheater. In addition, Othello keeps controversial relations with Cassio and labels him as a ‘fool’ (V. II. 319). Othello feels that Cassio has caused a drift between him and Desdemona so he talks to Cassio with a very bad attitude; this in turn causes Othello to lose his trust on his wife Desdemona. This ultimately proves that Othello had to face tremendous amounts of problems due to his loss of trust in Desdemona, the loss of trust played a huge role in turning Othello into a tragic

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