Female Roles in Othello - Essay Example

My My (i.e. English 101) 9 Mar 2009 Female Roles in Othello Shakespeare’s “Othello” is a tragedy for all its characters, but in particular, for the female characters. The central plot hinges on the way women are categorized in this renaissance drama as either “whores” or as “honest” women. There is an underlying doctrine of obedience in all the male-female interactions of the play. A patriarchal theme further frames the view of the identity of the women. This paper examines the roles of Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca from a feminist viewpoint of these issues. The greatest tragedy of Othello is the way that all the women are judged on whether or not they are a “whore”. Othello wonders how Desdemona can be described, questioning her “Was this fair paper, this most goodly book, Made to write ‘whore’ on?” (4.2.71). Throughout the play it is the major issue at hand, and the judgment of whether or not they are a “whore” is applied to all three women. All three are called a “whore” at various times of the play. When Emilia speaks the truth, her husband Iago says “Villianous whore!” (5.2.228). Desdemona is murdered by Othello for allegedly being a whore, and Othello describes this as an honor killing. For the characters of “Othello”, there is only black and white on this issue of sexual “honesty” and it colors everything including life or death situations. Bianca is deemed by Cassio to be unworthy to marry, solely on the matter of allegedly being a whore. Casio uses this rationale to treat Bianca cruelly. This is a great tragedy for Bianca, who apparently loves Cassio with all her heart. Cassio will come to dinner with Bianca, but won’t even be seen with Bianca in public. As Cassio says, “ I do attend here on the general, And think it no addition nor my wish, To have him see me woman’d.” (3.4.191). This is a situation, as a reader, that one would wish Bianca would not have to endure. She is after all, the one who laments the way Cassio is injured and nearly dying at the end. This “whore”/”honest” categorization is a tragic situation for Bianca throughout the play. An interesting point made by Desdemona in the play, is that there probably didn’t exist in the whole world a woman who would treat their husband in the same way the women of this play were being treated. She questions Emilia about this: “Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?”(4.3.68). Emilia offers some doubts as to whether women wouldn’t behave the same way, but this is essentially Shakespeare himself pointing out the double standard at work. It makes the reader (or play-goer) think about how this may be unfortunately true in reality. Would “Othello” still be a believable play if all the female-male roles were reversed, and the whole plot centered around whether the men were “honest” (sexually faithful)? Occasionally there may be women who treat their partners in such a violent manner, but it seems unlikely that women would create a culture of doing so, as is on display in “Othello”, however this feeling of improbability may be built on still further stereotypes held about women. This suspicion that the women in the play would never behave in the same manner as the men is reinforced by Emilia’s behavior. Emilia steals Desdemona’s handkerchief when Desdemona drops it, and then gives it to her husband Iago, who had asked her to steal it. Emilia then deceives Desdemona about knowing where it is. But in the end of the play, Emilia admits her wrongdoing, and is aggrieved of its terrible circumstances. This is in stark contrast to her husband Iago, who deviously plots and schemes throughout the play. Whether or not Shakespeare himself holds this view, it does appear that within “Othello” there is a stereotype that women would not behave in such a scheming manner. It is certainly interesting that the issue of whether or not Othello, Iago and Cassio are “honest” or “whores” apparently never comes up during the play. There doesn’t seem to be any evidence in the play that the men are sexually unfaithful to their partners, but neither does it seem to be ever considered by any of the characters. However, an argument could be made that the way Cassio visits and presumably “dates” Bianca without any intention of marrying her actually makes him a “whore” by the same standards espoused in the play. Too bad this wasn’t mentioned by one of the female characters. It appears that male “whores” was an irrelevant issue to the characters’ renaissance lives, even as they were consumed by the idea in the other half of the population. Another way women are treated in a degrading manner within “Othello”, and what contributes to their demise, stems from acceptance of the doctrine of obedience. The women of the play are all many different points of the play commanded to “go”, or in Shakespearean parlance, “dispatch”, “get you home” (5.2.222). There doesn’t appear to be an instance of a woman saying that to a man in the play. After Othello violently strikes Desdemona, he brags to Desdemona’s kinsman Lodovico that he can make her turn at will: “Ay, you did wish that I would make her turn. Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on, and turn again” (4.1.250). Desdemona’s and Emilia’s obedience contributes to the final violent tragedy. When Emilia proclaims “’Tis proper I obey him, but not now” (5.2.195), she has broken with the doctrine of obedience, but too late to avert Desdemona’s murder or her own. Acceptance of the doctrine of obedience appears to change in the character of Desdemona. In the beginning of the play, Desdemona seems to act in unconventional ways when she marries Othello against the will of her father. But by the end of the play, Desdemona is so obedient that she even considers it honorable to obey Othello onto death, as though this somehow qualifies her love as true. Deats argues that Desdemona is actually at all times following conventional models of a consensual, compassionate marriage (243), however that ideal falls apart. Although Desdemona’s obedience onto death sounds like twisted thinking, atleast to a modern reader, it is the deadly outcome of this doctrine of obedience, applied in only one direction of course. In addition to the sexual “honest”/”whore” categorization and the doctrine of obedience, “Othello” is framed by a theme of patriarchal ownership that reinforces the view of woman’s identity in the renaissance world. The play begins with the patriarchal situation of Desdemona’s father running about, treating it like a crime that Desdemona is not in her bed at his house. Desdemona’s father makes it clear that he views Desdemona as if she were his property. She is not allowed to marry whom she wishes. She is not allowed freedom of movement. Desdemona continues to be treated as property by her husband Othello, who makes the decision whether she will go to Cyprus, and when and with whom, without even consulting her. When viewed in conjunction with the sexual categorization and demands for obedience, this patriarchy seals the fate for women to that of slave. In conclusion, the main tragedy of “Othello”, and the central issue that the plot hinges on, is the way all the women of the play are strictly categorized as either “honest” or “whore”. After suffering through an entire play of women being ultimately viewed in this way, it makes a modern reader want to say, analogously to the Queer Nation chant, “we’re here, we’re a whore, we want more!”(Stanton 82). But that, to modern readers, may be the most valuable asset of this renaissance play (besides for it being quite entertaining). Although it was created hundred of years ago, it still serves to wake us up to the extremely limiting and potentially violent outcomes of sexual categories and engrained double standards that perniciously persist in our so-called civilized society. Works Cited Deats, Sara Munson. “ ‘Truly, an Obedient Lady’: Desdemona, Emilia, and the Doctrine of Obedience in Othello.” Othello: New Critical Essays. Ed. Philip C. Kohn. New York: Routledge, 2002. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello The Moor of Venice. Ed. By Tucker Brooke an Lawrence Mason. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956. Stanton, Kay. “ ‘Made to write ‘whore’ upon’: Male and Female Use of the Word ‘Whore’ in Shakespeare’s Canon”. A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare. Ed. By Dympna Callaghan. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000. Read More