Othello was written by Willaim Shakespeare in approximately 1603, and is a tragedy based on the Italian short story 'Un Capitano Moro' ('A Moorish Captain') by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565. A prominent theme and motivator for character behaviour throughout the play is misogyny - a dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women. Looking at the play through a feminist lens, we can see how this misogyny manifests in characters like Iago and Othello against the female characters, like Desdemona and Emilia, and therefore the play may be described as a misogynistic text.
Throughout Othello, Iago is arguably the most misogynistic character. He consistently makes blatantly misogynistic remarks. In Act II Scene I, he summarises his perception of women as elusive, mercurial, and deceitful: ‘You are pictures out of doors, bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens, saints in your injuries, devils being offended, players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds’. In this quote, he accuses women of appearing to be perfect ‘housewives’ in public, while in reality, they are ‘wild-cats’. This animalistic imagery is not only dehumanising, but shows
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Through a feminist lens, we can infer that Othello was so quick to believe this because he himself harboured doubts about Desdemona, perhaps also believing, like Iago, that women were disloyal and untrustworthy. However, an alternative reading should also be considered: Othello is the only black character in the play, and he was written by a white man who likely portrayed negative stereotypes through Othello. These stereotypes include the belief that black people were less sophisticated than white people, and more irrational and animalistic. Racism was and still is prominent across England, which would explain the portrayal of Othello as a quick-to-anger, irrational man in addition to the feminist