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Misogyny In Othello

Decent Essays

What is striking and somewhat frightening about Shakespeare’s diverse plethora of works is how aptly they relate not only to the time in which they were written, but to the modern day. Take Othello, for example, a play which encapsulated the fears and faults of early modern England especially concerning misogyny and race. Othello is an outsider, distinguished from the other members of the plot as a foreigner, a moor, and simply different in every way. He is “dark” and described as wild, deceiving, prone to negative emotion, untrustworthy, overtly sexual and even “gross” seeking to steal the innocence and reputation of the fair Desdemona. This level of racism is reflected heavily in the discourse surrounding moors in the seventeenth century …show more content…

The treatment of women in the early modern period is no secret, however the depth to which women were controlled and yet still abused is manifest in the many complex female characters of Othello. Desdemona defies the hierarchy of man through her actions of marrying in secret and disobeying her father, while still maintaining the cultural norm of obeying her husband. This revolt is subtle and overlooked, especially when the very man she ran away with begins to abuse …show more content…

In both cases a woman was abused and murdered, by a man who claimed to love her. So while this may be a depressing discovery, it is interesting to consider the narrative of misogyny that perpetuates these attitudes toward women. Why does the same story unfold in the seventeenth century and the 1990’s? It is also interesting to consider the way the audience, the way these narratives play out to the public eye, and the reactions of the masses shape how the story is told. Othello played to an early modern audience might have elicited a wide range of reactions, however as the character of Iago is meant to demonstrate, many would have identified with the belief that an adulterous woman deserved punishment and should have expected a lusty untrustworthy moor to react as he did. While the same dialogue did not surround the OJ Simpson trial, he was acquitted, with tremendous evidence to suggest he was indeed the murderer. What does that say about how our culture has changed, or perhaps not changed at

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