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Othello play how women are treated
Othello and women
Gender relations in othello
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In 1604, William Shakespeare wrote a tragedy set in Venice, Italy by the title of Othello (Mabilard). This play is often considered to be controversial; undermining sexist ideals inherent is Elizabethan society by creating strong female characters and dramatizing men’s violence towards women. However, there are still extremely exist and alarming undertones in “Othello”, such as murder of disobedient female characters, reinforcing the stigma against elopement, and women being seen as objects. The men in this work use, abuse, and kill their wives and the women around them, and give no inclination that they see these actions as wrong or extreme. In William Shakespeare’s Othello, gender roles and sexism are reinforced by killing off morally innocent …show more content…
Many people would believe that Emilia expresses proto-feminist ideas, saying that men treat women like ‘[they] are all but food” (III, iv, 93) and refusing to “charm [her] tongue” and keep quiet like Iago orders (V, ii, 220). However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that she does not enforce sexist ideals to the audience. Both Othello and Iago treat Emilia badly, their justification being that she is a “foolish wife”, meaning that she isn’t wise enough to keep her mouth shut in the presence of men. Emilia is also of a very low social status as Desdemona’s attendant and is married to a low ranking officer. It is entirely possible that Emilia is another character exemplifying what will come for disobedient women. Emilia says that she is “bound to speak” even though Iago has ordered her to stay silent in the face in injustice (V, ii, 220). Enraged by her husband’s villainous acts and the death of her mistress, she tells Othello that she “did give [the handkerchief]” to Iago, dismantling Othello’s rationale for killing Desdemona (V, ii, 269). She dies almost immediately after speaking up, stabbed by her husband, Iago. This shows the audience yet again that going against the orders of a man is dangerous. The death of Emilia’s character comes entirely from Iago asserting the power he had over her, silencing the voice that spoke against his. Emilia’s character brings up important social issues …show more content…
The two main male characters, Othello and Iago, go to wildly extreme lengths to punish their wives, even though neither of their wives had explicitly done anything wrong. Iago’s ploy to sabotage Othello begins with his idea to use Desdemona’s “fresh and delicate” nature against her, picking her as the first and easiest target to get through to Othello (II, iii, 20). He spreads irreversible rumors on Desdemona’s fidelity; planting seeds of jealousy and doubt into Othello’s mind. Iago sees Desdemona as the weakest of his pawns, an object he can control and manipulate, and forces Othello to look at her that way as well. Then when Othello believes Desdemona is a whore, he exclaims that his marriage is “curse[d]” because he is unable to control Desdemona’s sexual “appetite” (III, iii, 309-311), demonstrating the societal standard for men to be in complete control of their wives (Papp and Kirkland). Othello starts the play respecting Desdemona, but is so easily swayed by Iago to believe that “[Desdemona is] a whore” that his decency toward and respect for her drops drastically as the play continues (III, iii, 410). By the end of the play, he simply sees her as an obstacle keeping him from living with sanity that he kills her just so that he doesn’t have to think about her anymore. Iago uses Emilia in his plot to steal Desdemona’s handkerchief, making it his
Emilia displays to Desdemona a helping hand and says to leave Othello if she is so hurt by his “understandings”. “…Having the world for your labor, ‘tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right” She is basically explaining to Desdemona to leave Othello for his ludicrous antics.
She is the only one who is involved but not counted in Iago's scheme. Desdemona shall die, Cassio shall die, but Iago does not plan anything to prevent Emilia from speaking, because he does not anticipate Emilia will abandon her husband for Desdemona. Yet Emilia speaks, and speaks an extremely defenseless thus courageous speech. When Othello tries to stab Iago, he is disarmed twice, once even after everybody has realized what a villain Iago is (Othello 5.2 242&292). But nobody disarms Iago either when he threatens Emilia with his sword or when he stabs Emilia (Othello 4.2 228&242). She is armless but not powerless. The truth she speaks brings justice in, wins the audience's respect, and shows the potential power of a female
The Shakespearean drama Othello renders less to the female gender than it does to the male gender. All the women characters are victims – unjustly so. Let’s talk about the obvious sexism throughout the play.
Shakespeare’s tragic play Othello is an unfortunate example of gender bias, of sexism which takes advantage of women. The three women characters in the drama are all, in their own ways, victims of men’s skewed attitudes regarding women. Let us delve into this topic in this essay.
Many may say Emilia was not aware of how she is supposed to treat by her husband conversely, a comment made by her states otherwise. “Tis proper I obey him, but not now’ (Shakespeare V.ii.195). Towards the end of the story she explains to Othello how her husband asked her to steal the handkerchief from Desdemona She clearly states she know it is the right to obey her husband, but she was not going to support him in his wrong. She is one of the few in this time period to disobey their husband. Emilia is not the type of wife to support him in his wrong-doing. She stands up to her husband.
She is unwittingly responsible for her friend’s death because, she never mentions the handkerchief until Desdemona has been killed. Although, Iago is the mastermind behind Desdemona’s death and Othello is the person who murdered her, if then, it were not for Emilia who initiates Iago’s plans, Desdemona would still be alive. Emilia is unwittingly responsible for Desdemona’s death because she is nave about her husband’s actions; she is silent about the handkerchief and lacks courage to prove to Othello that Desdemona’s is innocent. Desdemona’s death is caused because Emilia is naive and has poor judgment of Iago. Iago believes that Emilia is promiscuous; this sparks his jealousy toward Othello.
Emilia, while lying next to her best friend on her deathbed, began to suppress her passive nature and attempts persecute the murderer. Nonetheless, the only woman who stood up for herself got killed in the end by her own husband. Othello and Iago’s wives were thought to be disloyal to their husband, while only one of them was correct in this accusation, Desdemona and Emilia were both murdered by the people they pledged their allegiance to. But, Emilia was the only woman who denounced the authority men had over women and compares the qualities of both men and women. She is fully aware of the gender
While there have been a great number of changes in the world since Shakespeare wrote Othello, there are a few truths about humanity and society that remain true. Othello is notorious for it’s examination of race, but is not given enough credit for its observations of gender. Iago embodies masculine gender roles in a severe and exaggerated way, allowing his desire for proving his masculinity to corrupt him morally. Iago then turns and uses his own fears of inadequacy against Othello as the root of his revenge and to improve his own self-image. Desdemona is hurt most by the need for gender roles, which ultimately ends up in her death. The characters in Othello are severely harmed by the gender roles they feel the need to adhere to.
At first Emilia's character is the ideal submissive wife. Iago treats Emilia rather badly during the first scenes of the play. He refers to her as a nagging housewife and Emilia is submissively unresponsive to his harsh allegation...
Iago controls Emilia and treats her as less when she does not act as a submissive wife. Therefore, Emilia follows to keep Iago satisfy. Further, Iago tells Emilia to steal the handkerchief; which she follows without knowing his intentions, to then be insulted by Iago calling her a “foolish wife” (3.3.313), and demanding her, “Go, leave me” (3.3.330). Apparently, Iago makes Emilia lesser, and she accepts her role as a submissive wife. Moreover, although Othello proclaims loving Desdemona, he perceives her as inferior as a result of jealousy. As in Act 5, Scene 2 where Othello says to Desdemona, “Down, strumpet!” (89), suggesting that he puts her in an inferior position to kill her reflecting his true perception of Desdemona. And likewise Emilia, Desdemona accepts the role of an obedient wife by using her last breath to take the fault off Othello
During the Shakespearean time women were treated as inferiors. The three women in Othello, Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca encountered many degrading and unfortunate situations. They were to be obedient. The women had to comply with the commands, orders, and the instructions of the men. Women were made to believe that they had no rights. The men would publicly humiliate the three women. It was difficult for the women to stand up for themselves due to that time in society. In Shakespeare’s play Othello, he portrayed the three women to be viewed as obedient, loyal, and submissive to their husbands.
The play Othello is presented as a male-dominated society where women are only recognized as property; objects to own and to bear children. Women in the Elizabethan society and in Shakespeare society were not seen as equal to men and were expected to be loyal to their husbands, be respectful, and to not go against their husbands judgements or actions. Shakespeare presents Desdemona, Emilia , and Bianca as women in the Elizabethan time where they were judged based on their class, mortality, and intelligence. Shakespeare makes his female characters act the way they would be expected to act in an Elizabethan society. The role of these women in Othello is crucial because they show how women were treated and how unhealthy their relationships between men really were in both Elizabethan and Shakespeare's society.
In his novel, Othello, he uses the courage of the women in his literature to depict how women should be treated, and to contrast from how little respect they once obtained. The society in Shakespeare’s Othello is strongly dominated by men who were the political and military leaders of their homeland during the Elizabethan era. These men are expected to stay loyal to their reputations and to uphold the strong sense of character that earned them their positions in the first place. In contrast, during the Elizabethan period of time women were viewed as weak second-class citizens and inferior to males, with their only job being to serve their men.
With these words, Emilia legitimately causes Iago's downfall by revealing to Othello, Cassio and the other men, Iago's full contribution in Desdemona's death. And just as all truth has been justified, Iago comes from behind, and stabs his wife in the back. Emilia, in all her moments of womanly power and strength, is killed. In the collapse of the tragic ending of the play, although Emilia does not carry out the qualities of being an obedient wife to Iago, she instead displays ever so respected strong characteristics that readers throughout centuries can continue to be captivated by. When Emilia decides to deny herself to conforming to social norms, she boastfully follows her beliefs that Desdemona is innocent, regardless that there are indeed some women, including herself, who are not pure but only because it is their husbands faults that cause women to commit adultery.
Emilia plays a major role in the path leading up to Othello’s death by not telling the truth about taking Desdemona’s handkerchief and therefore is partially at fault for the tragedy that takes place. In act three, Emilia steals the