Othello, By William Shakespeare

In Shakespeare’s play, Othello, the characters Othello and Desdemona are very different. Othello is an older, experienced soldier. He is not very refined or gentlemanly according to soci-ety’s rules. He has been a soldier most of his life and because of this and he is not very cultured. On the other hand Desdemona is young, beautiful, smart and refined. She is not afraid to speak her mind and disagree with men, which is very bold according to the customs of the times. She shows this when she speaks to Iago about his views on women. Even though Othello and Desde-mona are very different they love each other. He admires her for the beautiful and refined person she is. Desdemona loves Othello in a nurturing way. She feels great empathy for his

Desdemona is portrayed as a very inquisitive women, whom loves to explore the things and people outside of her class. She fell in love with Othello because of her curious nature and being attracted to his acts of bravado. Her intentions are sincere; however her curiosity in this act is seen as folly. She asks her cousin Lodovico about his arrival and informs him of Cassio’s dismissal. This angers Othello as she is praising another man, taking a persona of being proactive about him. For Othello this concludes that she is disobedient and has dishonored him - to put her in place, he resorts to violence:

In William Shakespeare’s Othello, Desdemona is the main female character who are affected by Othello’s poor decisions. Desdemona is seen as a loyal spouse who stands by her husband like women are expected during that time. Desdemona’s loyalty towards Othello is the result of her betrayal. Desdemona could not accost Othello because it was against expectations during the time. Her loyalty made her oblivious to Iago’s plotting against Othello.

Despite being a wife and loyally loving her husband, Desdemona isn’t as officious as the stereotypical “loving woman” character is made to be. A strange problem with “loving woman” characters is how consistently apologetic they’re made to be, but how it’s “only out of love.” Desdemona doesn’t fall to Othello’s feet to pick up after him and act like he isn’t responsible for himself, they instead speak as equals.

Othello believes that Desdemona is his possession, an object in his life which is supposed to show he honour and reputation as a man, therefore the belief that Desdemona has broken that honour and nobility forces Othello to destroy her.

William Shakespeare’s Othello would not be a dramatic tragedy if the smiling villain, Iago, were a deaf mute. There is no doubt that the destruction of each character can be blamed on jealous Iago. The theme of jealousy helps propel the plot naturally and demonstrates the consequences of being morbidly jealous. The circumstantial evidence Iago provides acts like a lethal poison, which surrounds Othello in suspicion and envy but also turns him into an inhuman murderer. Jealousy is the ‘monster’ that unresonably conducts the great suffering in the story.

In Othello, Desdemona has a relentless nature which allows her to love and care unconditionally. Throughout the play, Desdemona has a determined attitude towards her beliefs and she does not believe other’s opinions. This is shown when Desdemona and Emilia were having a conversation. Emilia tells Desdemona that Othello shows jealously but Desdemona immediately disagrees with Emilia telling her to “Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse/Full of crusadoes And but my noble Moor/ Is true of mind, and made of no such baseness/As jealous creatures are, it were enough/To put him to ill thinking” (3.4.24-29). Desdemona is relentless in her love for Othello and claims Othello to be too noble to be jealous. Her relentless nature makes her love for Othello so unconditional that she cannot see the clear jealousy Othello harbours. Desdemona then shows that she is not only relentless but determined when she makes a promise with Cassio. After being harshly fired, Desdemona promises Cassio that she will convince

Tragically, this pure, innocent love obsession more often than not, develops into a bitter and resentful obsession that will spite one or both parties. This is clear in Shakespeare’s Othello. Desdemona’s and Othello’s harmonious marriage is warped by the Machiavellian villain Iago, who is insanely jealous and obsessed himself. Othello finds true contentment in Desdemona; she truly comprises his ‘other half’, as a spousal cliché states. She provides serenity in the life of a soldier who has known war since the age of seven. Unfortunately, this serenity and this union is what Iago seeks to undo. Expert in his understanding, he seizes upon lines previously spoken: “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:/ She has deceived her father, and

William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice presents a man who is undone by his own insecurities, as well as strong female characters who lead to the downfall of the men. The character of Othello allows others to control how he feels and this leads to a tragedy that could have been prevented. The source of this tragedy comes from within himself. His character is completely wrapped up in his wife Desdemona’s character and interestingly enough, as soon as her character starts to decline from the words of Iago, so does Othello’s. Unable to stand on his own, Othello is more concerned with outwardly appearances than Desdemona. He puts more pressure on her, than he does himself in regards to his character and how he

We see Desdemona as a young beautiful white female, madly in love with a powerful black man. She is strong inside but doesn't tend to show that side of her as much as she would want to. She tends to play the peace-maker in her marriage and is always trying to understand Othello. Throughout the play she struggles to prove her loyalty and respect to her husband, no matter what it takes she tries to be a

From the outset Desdemona is treated as an object. In Act 1 Scene 1, Iago announces to Brabantio that his daughter is gone, “Zounds, sir, you’re robbed”. Immediately, the audience is given the impression that Desdemona is but an object to Brabantio and this is an reoccurring theme throughout. With regards to deterioration of identities, Desdemona is again one of the biggest victims. She begins the play as a confident young woman yet through Othello’s physical and emotional abuse she undergoes a transformation into a passive and obedient woman. Even on her deathbed she defends her husband by claiming that she had killed herself. This type of loyalty is common in the play and the female protagonists are used as tools in their husband’s game. For example, Emilia’s actually plays a role in Desdemona’s downfall by obeying her husband Iago and stealing the handkerchief. Emilia delivers one of the most important speeches of the play on the relationship between the typical venetian couple, “But I do think it is their husband’s faults If wives do fall...let them know, the ills we do, their ills instruct us so”. Professor Ryan provides us with an insightful analysis of this quote in his thesis “Shakespeare”(1989 3rd Edition 2002). Ryan writes, “Emilia’s argument leaves us no room to doubt that sexual deceit and vengeful jealousy...are the predictable products of organised inequality and oppression”. This quote is extremely profound and allows us to understand the true nature of the sexist society that the female characters have to

The relationship between Desdemona and Othello in the play ‘Othello’ is used to express and observe the way that humans are selfish by nature. Although both Desdemona and Othello do sincerely love each other, both of them find great personal gain in their marriage, which clearly contributes to their feelings for one another. Othello, who is a black leader in an overwhelmingly white, Christian society, has come from a troubled and difficult background, being “sold to slavery” and working in the military all his life. In finding a good Christian wife in Desdemona, he finds someone to always support him in hard times, as evidenced in his summary of their romance, “she loved me for the dangers I had passed, and I loved her that she did pity them”. This quote suggests that their love is more self-serving than he lets on; Desdemona loves Othello for the adventures he has been on and the stories he tells, and Othello loves Desdemona because she listens and devotes herself to what he has to say. When Desdemona gets a chance to explain their relationship herself, she is particularly proud of the fact that she “did love the Moor to live with him; my downright violence and storms of fortunes may trumpet to the world”. We note that she mentions her ‘violence’, the way she deliberately disobeyed her father and fled his company to secretly marry a man who is not one of her father’s approved suitors. This furthers the idea that Desdemona seems to be in love with Othello because of the adventures he has been on, and the excitement and liberty of her being with such a man; she is seeking her own freedom in a misogynistic society by defying her father to marry Othello. Their relationship is

A noticeable theme throughout Othello is that looks are not always what they appear to be. We see this right from the start and all the way to the end. The characters take what they hear and interpret and mold it so that what they see automatically fits into the mental mold they have already created, therefore confirming their suspicions. Iago makes use of a deadly weapon, his words, to mislead characters into misinterpreting what they see. The characters in Othello are unable to recognize the hidden meaning of words often missing the deeper meaning and accepting them at face value. This is evident in several passages, such as Cassio’s fight with Montano and when Iago and Cassio speak about Bianca. Othello believes everything to be true or false, black or white, and real or fake. According to Iago, “The Moor is of free and open nature that thinks men honest that but seem to be so; and will as tenderly be led by th’ nose.” (Othello 2.1.391-393) Just the very nature of Othello’s character makes him vulnerable to Iago’s poison. The combination of interpreting words at their surface meaning and believing what they hear leads to copious amounts of jealous.

Desdemona the lead female in the play is the one who plays the most into the stereotype of belonging to and obeying her husband, Othello. In the play Desdemona states, “Father, this isn’t easy for me. I’m torn. I owe you respect because you gave me life and education. You’re the one I have to obey. I’m your daughter. But this man here is my husband now, and I owe him as much as my mother owed you, just as she preferred you to her own father. So I have to give my obedience to the Moor, my husband” (43). Desdemona feels divided between her dad, Brabantio and her husband, Othello. For instance, her speech shows her thoughtfulness, as she shows respect towards once belonging to her dad and owing respect to him.

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