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The Importance Of Women In Shakespeare's Othello

2055 Words9 Pages

According to Elizabethan or Shakespeare 's society built upon Renaissance beliefs, women were meant only to marry. As their single occupation, marriage held massive responsibilities of house management and child rearing. Additionally, women were expected to be silent, chaste, and obedient to their husbands, fathers, brothers, and all men in general. Patriarchal rule justified women 's subordination as the natural order because women were thought to be physiologically and psychologically inferior to men. It demonstrates the expectations of the Elizabethan patriarchal society, the practice of privileges in patriarchal marriages, and the suppression and restriction of femininity. There are only three women in ‘Othello’: Desdemona, Emilia and …show more content…

But finally Brabantio disowns Desdemona and dies in despair. Brabantio feels betrayed and lost: “O, she deceives me / past thought! / O treason of the blood!” (1.1 163) Brabantio`s love for Desdemona is that of a father to a daughter. He is now alone. She is his only child, and he is a widower. Barbantio is the same as a person who invested his properties just on one thing. He is a real loser. It is the effect of Desdemona`s treason: “For your sake, jewel, / I am glad at soul I have no other child / For thy escape would teach me tyranny.” (1.3. 193- 195) Brabantio try to recapture his daughter from the thief for the last time. So he went to Senate for doing that and referring to Othello as “a foul thief” (1.2.62) and his daughter as a property that is “stolen from me and corrupted.” (1.3.61) According to this sentence, it is clear that we were in patriarchal society on Shakespeare’s time and consider women as man’s …show more content…

Beside the jealousy, there is another factor that is also psychological and based on gender study. Gender relations are pretty antagonistic in Othello. Unmarried women are regarded as their fathers ' property and the play 's two marriages are marked by male jealousy and cruelty. It means both wives are murdered by their own husbands. Most male characters in Othello assume that all Venetian women are inherently promiscuous, which explains why female sexuality is a huge threat to men in the play. Othello is easily convinced his wife is cheating on him and feels emasculated and humiliated as a result. We should also note that it 's impossible to discuss gender and sexuality without considering race – several characters in the play, including Othello, believe that black men sexually contaminate white women, which may partially explain why Othello sees his wife as

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