Venetian Women In Othello

The women in Othello are synonymous with Venetian societal standards. Only three women are characters in Othello: Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca but the roles these women play give the reader an idea of how women were portrayed, not only in Shakespeare's Othello but in society in general.

Feminist critical lens examines certain texts with a primary focus on both gender’s relationship with each other and how such relationships demonstrate effects towards beliefs, behaviors, and values. This critical lens also examines a patriarchal-centered society and how such society define and interact with women with an emphasis on stereotypes of both genders that are present and evident in the text being analyzed. William Shakespeare’s Othello can be scrutinized through the feminist critical lens. A deep analysis focused on feminism of the play Othello paves way for the judgement of different societal status of women in the period when the play took place, the Elizabethan society. Othello is a best fit that demonstrates how men were

The basis of Shakespeare’s plays appears to focus mainly around the dominant male character and his conflicts, which tend to deal with a woman. There are only three women in the play Othello; Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca. The way in which these women behave and present themselves strongly reflects the ideological expectations of women within Shakespeare’s imagined Venetian society as well as the Elizabethan society in which he lived. This patriarchal Venetian society presented in the play depicts women as possessions of men who should remain submissive and meek at all times. The women are expected to unselfishly and unreservedly devote their lives to serve their fathers until they are of age to do so, their husbands. All three women love

Firstly, the patriarchal representation of women and sexuality throughout “Othello” effectively demonstrates the movement of cultural values through historical contexts. Desdemona and Emilia are character foils of weak and strong, and Desdemona is often subject to objectification. Desdemona’s husband, Othello, stated, “I won his [Brabantio’s] daughter” (1.2.94), which metaphorically objectifies Desdemona as an object to be “won”. Bianca, a Venetian mistress, is also degraded through her speech. She is often regarded as a “whore”, with no consequence for the men who say it. For the entire play, Bianca speaks in prose whereby there is an absence of iambic pentameter, separating her from the nobility who speak in verse. Bianca and Desdemona effectively reflect female isolation and dismissal within society simply because of their gender, thus emphasising the state of women in 16th century society.

However, in Othello, the character of Desdemona surpassed the norms of gender set for women of that time. There is no doubt to consider Desdemona is violating the social norms because she is willing to breach her social roles as a daughter and even as a wife at times. Through her “incorrect” gender performance, Shakespeare portrays Desdemona as a strong, independent woman who breaks away the gender barriers of patriarchal society. But at the end of the play, we know it is the consequence of her actions that have led her to death.

    In William Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello, the wife of the protagonist, Desdemona, is the main female character. Secondly, there is the ancient’s wife, Emilia, who is morally ambivalent. Thirdly, there is the girlfriend of Michael Cassio, Bianca, who makes her appearance later in the drama. This essay will analyze the roles of these three women.

n Shakespeare's play Othello many issues are undertaken and explored. The three women play a vital role in this. Only one of the women in this play survives. All the women have no separate identity within the play; all three are married or associated with a male character. Bianca is the mistress of Cassio, Emilia is married to Iago and Desdemona is married with Othello. According to the time that the play was written in and the general hierarchy within Venetian society men hold all the power and women are considered to be of low intellect. Yet it is the women that speak the most sense throughout the play and it is also the women that are able to trust other characters in the play. Each woman represents a different social level, Desdemona

Othello, by William Shakespeare is well known for its richness in literary content and elements pertinent to societal ideas. Moreover, women are portrayed in Othello in ways that confirm, but also contradict their treatment in Shakespeare’s time. Both female action and language represent these ideas such as expectations for a wife and expectations for how a woman is to act. That said, there are many other lines spoken by these characters that defy the expectations placed on women at time. Overall, the feminist critical lens allows a reader to understand Othello and the manner in which it is slightly sexist and controversial. This lens allows the reader to observe both discrepancies of how women are treated, and common characteristics found

Othello is a play that asks the reader to take a look at how women are viewed within society. Part of the fear of cuckoldry derives strongly from the play’s cultural influence. In the times of the play it was important for a woman to stay chaste which explains why one of the central issues in the play; adultery gives rise to anxiety on the part of Othello and also the female characters of the play. The Venetian and Cyprus societies has established through social conditioning of the sexual dominance of men. As it is often so in modern day society, men are positioned to be the initiator for an intimate relationship. Women who try to do so are often looked down upon and are reprimanded if they do not meet the ideal that befits a female of those times. An illustration of this particular type of act can be seen in the second setting of the play; the island of Cyprus. The reader will find in the first scene in Cyprus, Iago who most likely has the most hateful attitude towards women says to Desdemona and Emilia ‘You rise to play, and go to bed to work.’(Act 2.2.114). In this scene the reader sees that even royal daughters and wives are looked down upon as material objects and whores. The illustration of victimization of women is strongly depicted through the lack of representation of women. The play carries only three main female characters; Desdemona, Emilia, and Blanca when comparing to the number of male characters.The removal of minor female characters in the play show

In Shakespeare’s Othello, the role of women is greatly emphasized. The important characters of the play, Othello, Iago, and Cassio, each have a women that stands behind him. These women each have an obligation to remain loyal and respect their husband's wishes, especially Desdemona and Emilia.

He searches for answers, clues, or anything else to prove her unfaithfulness. Feminist criticism focuses on the behaviors and power shown between male and female. Othello represents this because he changes the way he acts around Desdemona once he has heard of her wrongdoing. He is harsh, he doesn’t look at her, and he barely gives her conversation. In this day in age any man or boy would have acted this way because they are rarely the ones to get cheated on. The relationship between him and Desdemona changed his entire character of a man who trusted his wife with everything to a man who know doubted everything he knew about

The women attempt to act unfazed by this in an attempt at not seeming weak or vulnerable. Desdemona does acknowledge this disrespect and lack of reason when Othello is accusing her of being disloyal to him. “Heaven stops the nose at it and the moon winks” (4.2.88). This roughly translates to “Heaven has to block his nose when you are around and the moon must close his eyes”. Othello dumped all of his anger on Desdemona without asking her, nor Cassio for their opinion on the topic, leading to catastrophic results. Desdemona, understanding her position in society as a woman, didn’t fight back and accepted that she was unable to do anything about it. Othello is using the power that is granted towards him by the society to aggressively let Desdemona know that she did something wrong. Contrary to what Desdemona did in this situation, some women decide to defy the odds of gender stereotypes. When Emilia is livid about Desdemona getting accused by the Moore of being a whore and ends up calling out her own

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.

The society in which Othello takes place is a patriarchal one, where men had complete control over women. They were seen as possessions rather than being just as equally human and capable of duties performed by men. All women of the Elizabethan were to obey all men, fathers, brothers, husbands, etc. Which leads me to the most reliable and trustworthy character of Desdemona, whom goes through many trials just to satisfy her love. Shakespeare brings the thought of Desdemona into the play by Barbantio, her father, “It is too true an evil. Gone she is.\...Oh, she deceives me\ Past thought! …” (1.1.163)(1.1.168-169), whom has just found she has taken off with Othello and firstly suspects they have been hitched. Shakespeare gives reader the

Women in this plays are seen as mere objects or property of men and expected to be chaste, obedient and silent spectators of what men would do through the play. So when this female characters step out of this labels and fight against the power that marginalize them as subjects they usually end up forced into marriage, muted and dead. In this period braking these social barriers by self-making and voicing your opinion as a women was resisted in society, this could only be done by the queen. Desdemona was bold enough to go against social norms and challenged her family and married a Moor, Othello. But she is still seen a “good wife” because she follows Othello to Cyprus where she remains