Feminine Roles in Othello Essay -- Othello essays

Feminine Roles in Othello A variety of roles have women in them in William Shakespeares tragic drama Othello. Let us in this essay examine the female characters and their roles. One key role for the heroine of the drama, Desdemona, is to support the general. David Bevington in William Shakespeare Four Tragedies enlightens us about the heros dependence on Desdemona Othellos most tortured speeches (3.4.57-77, 4.2.49-66) reveal the extent to which he equates the seemingly betraying cleaning lady he has so depended on for happiness with his own mother, who gave Othellos father a handkerchief and threatened him with loss of her love if he should lose it. Othello has presently learned and then forgotten the precious art of harmonizing erotic passion and spiritual love, and as these two great aims of love are driven by in him, he comes to loathe and fear the sexuality that puts him so much in mind of his physical frailty and dependence on woman. (226) At the branch of the play Iag o persuades the rejected suitor of Desdemona, Roderigo, to accompany him to the home of Brabantio, Desdemonas father, in the middle of the night. Once there the two awaken the senator with loud shouts about his little girls elopement with Othello. This is the initial reference to the role of women in the play the role of wife. In response to the noise and Iagos vulgar descriptions of Desdemonas involvement with the general, Brabantio arises from bed. Iagos bawdy references to the senators daughter present a second role of women that of illicit lover. With Roderigos help, he gathers a search party to go and finger Desdemona and bring her home. The fathers attitude is that life without his Desdemona will be much ... ... murder on. Emilia is aware that she is violating social convention here Tis neat I obey him, but not now. This violation costs her dearly Emilias stunning interrogation and conviction of her own husband as the evil mastermind behind the murder results in Iagos ki lling her. Despondent Othello, grief-stricken by remorse for the tragic mistake he has made, stabs himself and dies on the bed next to his wife. Thus it is seen that the roles of women are many and varied and are key to the successful development of the story. WORKS CITED Bevington, David, ed. William Shakespeare Four Tragedies. New York Bantam Books, 1980. Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http//www.eiu.edu/multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.