Father and Daughter in Shakespeare

904 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Romeo and juliet context father and daughter relations

William Shakespeare, a poet and playwright wrote many tragedies of similar ideas of young people opposed to marriages. In the story of Othello, Desdemona’s father Brabantio always invites Othello over his house to listen to his stories. Brabantio never expected Othello to marry his daughter. From the beginning of the play Brabantio believes Desdemona is his property and she is only allowed to marry men that he chooses. Because Othello is a moor and not a Venetian Brabantio does not accept him. With the story of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet falls in love with Romeo who is the son of the Montague clan. Juliet is from the Capulet clan, the enemy of the Montague clan. Unfortunately Juliet is undecided between the two and forces herself to pick between Romeo and her family. In Othello and Romeo and Juliet the father-daughter relationships of Brabantio and Desdemona and Juliet and Capulet focuses on love and possess. Similar to Juliet, Desdemona has a dilemma of choosing a lover over her family. Both works can compare to one another because of the father disagreements and greed over their daughters.

Shakespeare uses Desdemona and Brabantio as a father-daughter relationship founded on love and possessiveness because he is manipulative on whom his daughter can or cannot marry. Desdemona should have the right to marry who she wants to spend her entire life with but at such a young age her father says he knows what is best for her. When Othello meets with Brabantio and shares the news with him, he is in disbelief. He claims Othello forced Desdemona to like him by drugging her or performing a love spell on her. Brabantio says, “She is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted by spells and medicines bought of mountebanks; for nature so prepost’rou...

... middle of paper ...

...ily for Romeo and so does Desdemona. After all the disagreements and years of obedience it finally came to an end when the daughters made their own decisions. The decisions might of not been the best decisions since Desdemona and Juliet were both dead at the end however, at least they passed away with happiness, knowing they made the decision to marry a man without their fathers approval. The fathers come off as possessive and loving but the bond can often be too strong. Both dilemmas between choosing lovers and family ended in death and regret.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William, and Alvin B. Kernan. The tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. New York: New American Library, 1963. Print.

Shakespeare, William. "." William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet. N.p., 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. .

Show More
Related

  • Formation of Real Truth: Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Shakespeare's Othello

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York; Washington Square Press, 1993.

    Read More

  • Inecurity Of Manhood In Othello's Insecurity Of Manhood

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. T​he Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice.​New York: Washington Square, 1993.

    Read More

  • Jealousy And Jealousy In Othello

    890 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is apparent that Othello idolizes Desdemona, through the language he uses in describing her as well as how he treats her during their interactions. While most female characters in the play are oppressed and demeaned by their male partners, Othello’s respect for Desdemona is a testament of his feeling inadequate and strive to entice her. Although he has an alterior motive of evading a conviction of witchcraft to win Desdemona’s heart, he confesses to many noblemen including Barbantio, Desdemona’s father, that Desdemona does not love him, just his war stories. Incidentally, his war accomplishments were the only way a man of his background would be able to be so close to a prestigious woman such as Desdemona in a time plagued with so much racism. In the second scene of Act V, Othello has been pushed well beyond his breaking...

    Read More

  • William Shakespeare's Othello

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    Desdemona: The daughter of the Venetian senator Brabanzio. Desdemona and Othello are secretly married before the play begins. While in many ways stereotypically pure and meek, Desdemona is also determined and self-possessed. She is equally capable of defending her marriage

    Read More

  • othello

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Shakespear’s play “Othello” it is clear to see that the relationship between him and Desdemona is a complicated one wrought with passion and confusion which leads to emotional trauma and physical abuse. At point and times in the story of “Othello” love was transmuted different. Othello was not as gentle and kind as Desdemona when it came to his lover he a times exhibited symptoms of insanity. He also at times exhibited lack of confidence that is found in the perceived unity of marriage. This was apparent that the two lover on loves battlefield were on two opposing sides, Desdemona was honest and faithful to Othello until their tragic end.

    Read More

  • Gender Relations in Shakespeare´s Romeo and Juliet

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    Romeo and Juliet has different roles for different genders. During the Shakespearean period, when Shakespeare writes, most women had to marry when they were teen, when they were in adolescence or even before. However, the men who they were marrying were in their early to late twenties. In the household that the women lived in, the men basically owned them. The women always followed men’s word, which says that the male was the dominant gender of the society. Romeo and Juliet reflects this in a number of ways. Juliet was forced to marry Paris, by the word of her father, who said that if she did not marry Paris, she would go to the streets(Shakespeare, 3.5.154-62). Women were thought to be weaker and less important than men in Romeo and Juliet because men are trying to be the strongest out of everyone, women have a lower social status, and men think they owned women in Romeo and Juliet.

    Read More

  • Comparing Othello and The Great Gatsby

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009. Print

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Othello and The Great Gatsby

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009. Print

    Read More

  • othello

    773 Words  | 2 Pages

    Othello has a beneficial quality to him; a quality that he uses time and time again. He uses his foreign and exotic nature to his advantage. Othello’s mystique and masculinity captivates his young Venetian wife Desdemona and sets him apart from her other uninteresting Venetian suitors, and Othello’s stories about the dangerous and exciting outside world and warfare provide marvelous entertainment and wonderment for her. After Brabantio, the father of Desdemona and a powerful senator, learns about the marriage of his daughter and Othello, he is outraged and accuses him of “looting” his daughter. For he sees her as property and doesn’t account for her free will and desire to marry the middle aged Othello, different in race and class. In the courtroom Othello gives a speech, “What conjuration and what mighty magic, for such proceeding I am charged withal, I won his daughter”. (Act i Scene iii) Othello denies the use of witchcraft or ma...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Othello's Speech

    933 Words  | 2 Pages

    Othello is a man of romantic nature. He fell in love with the beautiful Desdemona. He was accused of stealing her away from her father. Othello was of a different race and did not fit in with her family. Othello makes a plea for Desdemona and tells his story which wooed her to begin with. Othello tells of the love that her father showed him since his boyish days. This was like a match made in heaven that overcame many obstacles which got in their way. Othello could not understand why he was good enough to work and fight alongside of her father, but was not good enough for his daughter.

    Read More

  • Racism and Cultural Differences Exposed in Othello

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare, William, and Kim F. Hall. Othello, the Moor of Venice: Texts and Contexts. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007. Print.

    Read More

  • William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

    1296 Words  | 3 Pages

    To begin, Juliet challenges her family expectations in favour of living a life where she can express her love to Romeo, who is her family’s enemy, freely. For example, as Romeo and Juliet speak with each other on the balcony, she states “Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet” (II, ii, 100-102). Juliet understands society will not allow her to be with Romeo, a Montague, because he is the family’s (Capulet’s) enemy. But due to her intense love toward Romeo, she is ready to give up her family ...

    Read More

  • A Closed Reading of Othello's Speech

    1150 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespear. Othello. Dir. Grenblatt, Cohen, Howard, and Eisaman Maus. (second ed.) New York. 2008.

    Read More

  • Race in Othello and Titus Andronicus

    1903 Words  | 4 Pages

    Shakespeare, William. "The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice" The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stanley Wells & |Gary Taylor. New York/London, W.W. Norton Company,1997. 2100-2174

    Read More

  • Jealousy, Love and Betrayal in Othello by William Shakespeare

    1748 Words  | 4 Pages

    The role of jealousy, love and betrayal play a major role in The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. The entire play is based on the human interactions of the characters as related to Othello and Desdemona. The characters’ personalities, their social status, and their relationships to each other control the story line and their fate in the play. Othello is portrayed early in the play as an outsider with animalistic characteristics by Iago and Roderigo because of jealousy. “Your heart is burst; and have lost half of your soul/Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/Is tupping your white ewe”.(531) Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, accuses Othello of using witch craft on his daughter. “If she in chains of magic were not bound/ Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy/ So opposite to marriage that she shunned…” (535) This point is important because Othello must defend himself not only to Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, but to the entire Venetian Senate. “And till she come, as truly as to heaven,/ I do confess the vices of my blood./ So justly to your grave ears I’ll present/ How I did thrive in this fair lady’s love, / And she in mine.” (539) Othello proves himself to be an intellectual hero early in the play. He has worked hard to gain respectability and power, but because he has a different background, is from another country, is dark-skinned and is older than Desdemona, he becomes jealous very quickly of Cassio. Cassio is from the same social class, is compatible with Desdemona and is a young handsome man. Iago has also convinced Cassio to seek favor with Desdemo...

    Read More

More about Father and Daughter in Shakespeare

Open Document