The Hierarchy Of Women In Shakespeare's Othello

To start, both Desdemona and Emilia are the wives of men of activity. Their spouses are in the Venetian military and standard men as well as men who hold positions and quality. Desdemona is the wife of Othello who is a General in the armed force with men under his charge. Emilia 's spouse is Iago who is the extremely old of Othello. Next, the two women demonstrate a level of not knowing anything about the plots in play around them. Unknowingly both Desdemona and Emilia play directly into Iago 's expert arrangement of pulverization. Desdemona and Emilia are likewise faithful wives who need to satisfy their spouses. Othello accepts that Desdemona is improperly sexual and ; along these lines Desdemona needs to quiet down his stresses concerning her faithfulness by cooling him, thusly satisfying him. Desdemona guarantees:

In this scene of Othello, Shakespeare explores the characterization of Desdemona and Emilia to portray their opposing views on fidelity. As Shakespeare reveals, Desdemona’s naivety makes her unsupportive of any form of disloyalty, however, Emilia’s wordly nature argues for the wife's right to sleep with someone else once their husband has already cheated. Not only does the two women’s traits present different perspectives to a problem but it brings them closer together. As Desdemona walks back to her room with Emilia, after Othello has commanded her to go to bed, she begins to think about fidelity.

Desdemona’s action, instead of asking her father’s permission, eloped with the Moor, Othello, is another form of social transgressive action. It seems she denies her father any right in choosing or granting, instead she decides in her own, to marry Othello. This act of independence illustrates Desdemona’s transgression to perform her role as daughter, and reflects icons of masculine which is considered as “incorrect” gender performance. Marrying Othello has also proved that Desdemona breaks the social norms of women’s passivity during her time.

Desdemona is Othello’s happiness, and his love for her is pure. In the Renaissance era, the basis of a marriage is wealth and status. However, Othello and Desdemona’s relationship is untraditional in comparison to arranged marriages. It proves that their marriage bases off of the love they have for one another and not for wealth. Othello tells Desdemona his stories of the past, and she accepts his history. Othello finally finds someone who acknowledges his experiences and is grateful that someone accepts who he is regardless of skin colour. When Othello arrives at Cyprus, he immediately goes to Desdemona stating he is content to see her. He expresses his affection with a kiss, which embodies his love for her. Othello genuinely loves every aspect of Desdemona and enjoys her presence.

All throughout the Shakespearean play Othello gender roles are portrayed as severely unequal. Act 2 in specific portrays women as possessions rather than treating them at a level equal to men. The men are seen as more powerful and as if they own the women. For example in scene three Othello says, “Come, my dear love, the purchases made, the fruit are to ensue; the profit’s yet to come ‘tween me and you. - Goodnight,” (II.III.9-11). When Othello says this he isn’t merely talking about fruit, he is talking about his marriage to Desdemona. Othello is stating that their marriage is more a monetary transaction, something he purchased rather than a true loving relationship. Instead of being equals in their relationship, it is now seen as if Desdemona

Towards the end of the play Emilia becomes so angry with Iago, after all he had just caused Othello to kill his wife and

From the very beginning of the drama anyone can see the love Emilia has for Desdemona. Emilia is always there whenever Desdemona needed her the most. Emilia has shown her loyalty towards not only to Desdemona but to Othello as well. Desdemona and Emilia get closer when Desdemona starts to have issues with Othello. Emilia is always there to listen and to give advice to young Desdemona whenever she needs it the most. All though, Emilia does one act of dishonesty towards Desdemona by taking her handkerchief which Othello gave to her. Emilia does try to regain her loyalty by revealing her husband’s intentions towards Othello and everyone else. Once she did it was too late, Othello already had killed Desdemona for falsely accusing her of being a “whore.” Even though, Emilia finally cleaned her best friend’s name it was too late to bring Desdemona back to life. As any best friend would do she sacrificed her own life for Desdemona. Her husband, Lago, kills her by stabbing her in the back for revealing his true intentions. Emilia can finally rest in peace knowing that she cleaned her best friend’s name and that they will be together in the afterlife.

In her final moments, Desdemona chooses not to blame Othello for her death because she saw that the honor of their love was more important than honesty. After Othello was convinced that Desdemona was cheating on him, Othello had started to show his disappointment with her. He had even gone as far as hitting her (4.1 134). Despite this, Desdemona continued to stay true to Othello. Othello, though, decides to kill her. Desdemona senses a change in Othello and she has a feeling that she will die soon due to the hands of Othello. This does not stop her, though, from continuing to care for Othello. Even when Desdemona was found after Othello strangles her, she still believed that her death was not the fault of Othello. Emilia comes into the couple’s bedroom after Othello smothers Desdemona, but hears Desdemona cry out. Seeing her dying, Emilia asks who would do this. Desdemona replies that it was her fault: “Nobody – I myself. Farewell / Commend me to my kind lord. O, farewell!” (5. 2. 125-126). Not only does she try to protect Othello’s reputation by blaming herself, Desdemona tells Emilia to remind Othello about her showing that she stills respects Othello. By trying to hide the fact that Othello had murdered her, Desdemona has chosen to put the honor of their love above honesty.

In the play ‘Othello’ written by William Shakespeare, we see not only the main male character leads. But we also see the female characters, Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca. These three women were portrayed in ways that showed them being inferior to the other male roles as well as society during the Elizabethan Era. But Shakespeare made each of these individual ladies characteristics quite unique to one another having the traits of a feminist. Even though in the play we read how the male characters did somewhat control them and made them look weak compared to them, there were moments where Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca stood up for themselves.

In addition, Emilia proves her underrated intelligence by standing up for what she believes is right. Desdemona, Othello's wife, and Emilia's relationship grows because of her great loyalty towards her. At the end of the play Emilia stands up for Desdemona because Othello kills her. She explains Desdemona's true love for him and would never do anything to hurt him, which proves Desdemona's innocence. Not only does Emilia stand up for Desdemona, but she also voices her opinion to Othello. Emilia shows no fear standing up to Othello to prove to him that his wife has always been faithful. At first Othello finds it implausible but then Emilia says, "Thou art rash as fire, to say that she was false. O, she was heavenly true!" (Shakespeare V: ii, 165-166).Women are looked at in Othello as unintelligent and unfaithful, but Emilia changes that stereotype by standing up to the men. From the start Emilia and Iago's relationship always seemed rocky. Emilia's confidence in herself shows that she is not afraid to stand up to her husband. Emilia realizes the danger she puts herself in when she stands up to Iago. In order to make things right, she does whatever it takes, even if that means ruining their marriage or taking her life.

(V.ii.220), to which Iago responds by teling her to “get [herself] home” (V.ii.224), which suggests that Iago believes the woman belongs at home with a domestic role. Moreover, once Emilia reveals her husband’s evil at the end of the play, he kills her. Thus, Iago is responsible for the death of two female characters, showing his complete disregard for them. In addition, he

She is then disowned by Barbantio with no further words directed to her by him but is referenced as a liar and should be kept on watch for her conniving ways by him towards Othello. Which then begins Shakespeare’s in depth writing on Othello and Desdemona’s relationship where she is as “a child to chiding” (4.2.119-120). Not even a moment after her father leaves Othello commands Iago to tell his wife, Emilia, to tend to Desdemona as a babysitter. Irony occurs within (2.1.169-171) where Desdemona challenges Iago and stands as an independent woman for Emilia objecting to his conclusion, that women no matter how beautiful or intelligent play the same “foul pranks”. However, as Othello’s jealousy and rage arises throughout the play it seems as her character has to fight even harder to breathe under his control; symbolic for her death of suffocation. Desdemona is a gentle women living under her love’s control with no power to object even if she had opposed this type of controlling relationship. As a higher class woman she had more power and respect over other women characters such as Emilia or Bianca, but is this dominance enough to feel in control of oneself? It is believed that Shakespeare added the 2 other

While this is happening, Iago has put Othello in a hidden room so that he can listen. Othello thinks that Cassio is talking about Desdemona, his wife, when he is not. Neither Othello nor Cassio is aware of how Iago manipulated them to make Othello turn on Cassio. Iago’s third and last characteristic is that he is a murderer. In the last scenes of Othello Iago kills Rodrigo. He kills him because Rodrigo is a loose end that Iago wants to make sure does not tell anyone of the deeds that Iago has done. The second person Iago kills is his wife. Emilia is “Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s attendant” (Briggs). In Othello Desdemona is given a handkerchief from Othello that is special to him. Desdemona drops it one day and Emilia picks it up and gives it to Iago not knowing the sentimental value it has to Othello. Iago then uses as a visual reference to make it seem as if Desdemona gave it to Cassio, which fuels Othello’s jealously even more. In the end Emilia tells that she gave it to Iago which makes Othello realize that his wife was telling the truth. Because Emilia spoke the truth after Iago told her to hold her tongue, he kills

Bianca, like Desdemona and Emilia, is only seen in relation to men and is as such, defined by them. In pertinence to the class element in the said relationship, it must be noted that Elizabethan society required for a woman to be married in order for society to ascribe her any power. As such, Bianca works hard to assert herself as Cassio's mistress, who treats the 'bauble(s)' (4.1.134) genuine affection with contempt. Cassio reveals the limitations of the relationship when he tells Bianca to 'leave me for this time' (4.1.185) because he does not want to be seen by Othello to be 'womaned' (3.4.187). Further examples of the power that Cassio holds over Bianca can be seen in Act 4 Scene 1.

ACT 4 SCENE 3 - Emilia notes that Othello looked to be in better spirits, but she's shocked that he told Desdemona to get rid of her. Desdemona just shrugs it off—she can't risk upsetting Othello now. Emilia says she wishes Desdemona had never seen the man. But Desdemona responds that she loves Othello, so much that she would rather be with him, even when he's being totally strange, than live without him.