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Othello gender essay
Shakespearean gender roles in Othello
Shakespearean gender roles in Othello
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Othello gender essay
Shakespearean gender roles in Othello
Shakespearean gender roles in Othello
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Othello gender essay
In the play Othello, there are many perspectives one could choose. But there is only one view that is appropriate for this topic and that is the feminist view. The feminist lens shows us that Desdemona was more an object of play than a person in love. If you don’t know what it was about, The Othello play is about a guy who is Jealous of a moracin war general. Then causes the general to kill his wife.
The strongest friendship is between Desdemona, the princess and wife of Othello and, Emilia, Desdemona 's attendant as well as Iago 's wife. Together throughout this tragedy, these friends battle the men in their lives. However, the way these go about it are completely different. There are two types of women, the ones who allow to be eaten, and the ones who don 't. Because of Emilia 's personality, she does not allow herself to be eaten, unlike Desdemona. Emilia is the practical and confident woman of her time.
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.
In the play, Othello, written by William Shakespeare, Venetian women describes as an ‘objects' to sell; they have to obey their owner and have no ability to stand up for themselves. For example, although Desdemona is loyals to her husband, she is still being called a ‘whore' by the one she loves the most. Firstly, culture-conditioning plays a big role on how Desdemona has to obey Othello. Secondly, women have to face to double-standard given from their gentlemen, which makes Desdemona obey Othello without hesitation. Lastly, as a wife of the general and the daughter of a Venetian Senator, Desdemona’s position is different compared to other ladies.
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.
“Iago inflames Othello with the idea of a sexual affair between Cassio and Desdemona” (Shumaker 1). This validates that in society, it was easy to manipulate others on women because of the way women were seen. Instead of trusting his wife, he believes that she is indeed cheating on him because of what Iago says to him about the way women behave. Women were known to only be obedient and submissive, and if they did something, then it would be a dishonor to the whole
Barbantio makes Othello feel ruthless about all he is doing, and concerning the way he feels for his daughter Desdemona. Othello darlings Desdemona with all his emotion and throughout the commencement of the book he pleasures her with admiration and affection at all periods. Othello continuously makes certain that Desdemona is satisfactory and he indulgences her like the women that her father desires her to be treated. Barbantio still does
Desdemona, daughter to senator Brabantio has spurned the advances of eligible young Venetian men, but is captivated by Othello chiefly because of his harsh experiences. We first come
For Shakespeare’s plays to contain enduring ideas, it must illustrate concepts that still remain relevant today, in modern society. Shakespeare utilises his tragic play Othello, to make an important social commentary on the common gender stereotypes. During early modern England, Shakespeare had to comply to the strict social expectations where women were viewed as tools, platonic and mellow, and where men were displayed as masculine, powerful, tempered, violent and manipulative. As distinct as this context is to the 21st century, the play exposes how women were victimised by the men who hold primary power in the community in which they compelled women to conform to the ideal world of a perfect wife or confront an appalling destiny for challenging the system. Moreover, Shakespeare utilises the main antagonist, Iago, to portray how men are desperate to achieve what they want and to indirectly fulfil the stereotype of masculinity and power through manipulation.
Shakespeare's Othello is set during the Renaissance period and therefore the roles of the women in Othello are supposedly bounded by the period when women are considered to be of low intellect. In Othello, most male characters assume that women are inherently promiscuous, which explains why all three women characters in the play are accused of sexual infidelity. Yet Shakespeare develops the women to speak the most sense throughout the play and able to trust other characters in the play. To the men in Othello, female sexuality is a threatening force more than it is an attractive one.
Comprehensively, female characters that sexually mindful will probably be bring down class. Shakespeare enables them more opportunity to investigate their sexuality, maybe in light of the fact that their low-status renders them socially harmless. However, ladies are never absolutely free in Shakespeare's plays: if not possessed by spouses and fathers, some low-class characters are claimed by their managers. Sexuality or attractive quality can likewise prompt dangerous outcomes for Shakespeare's ladies. Desdemona took after her enthusiasm and challenged her dad to wed Othello.
Also, each relationship in Othello provokes jealousy in one partner. In a typical Venetian society, a woman was considered to be a man’s property, so if a woman was disobedient, it negatively impacted the man, while also questioning his masculinity. The hyperbolic soliloquy as Othello expressed he would “rather be a toad” than “keep a corner of the thing I love” is Othello’s justification of killing his wife, as her untrustworthiness challenged his masculinity and reputation. Referring to Desdemona as a “thing” emphasises the idea of women being property. Iago’s jealousy of Desdemona and Othello’s relationship is emphasised through the degrading comment of Othello, “an old black ram” “tupping” Brabantio’s “white ewe”.
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
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.
Prospero the protagonist in Shakespeare's The Tempest, struggles to position herself as a paternal/maternal figure and protector of Miranda. Upon arrival of Ferdinand to Prospero's safe –place the island, Miranda falls head over heals for Ferdinand, and him likewise, exploring their attraction on an intellectual level, forcing Prospero to trust her daughter's expression of self, beyond the control of her supernatural powers. The Julie Taymor screen adaptation of the playwright portrays Ferdinand as feeble, not a major threat to Prospero or Miranda, as well as a maternal Prospero who takes on the identity of a female, demonstrates gender identity to plan a minute role. Familial relations are explored through the sporadic nature love Miranda and Ferdinand share, lending themselves as the vehicle to changing familial relations of Prospero.