Feminine Roles in Othello Essay -- Othello essays

Feminine Roles in Othello A variety of roles have women in them in William Shakespe bes tragic looseness Othello. Let us in this essay examine the female characters and their roles. atomic number 53 key role for the heroine of the drama, Desdemona, is to support the general. David Bevington in William Shakespeare Four Tragedies enlightens us roughly the heros dependence on Desdemona Othellos most hagridden speeches (3.4.57-77, 4.2.49-66) reveal the extent to which he equates the seemingly betraying woman he has so depended on for happiness with his own mother, who gave Othellos father a hankey and threatened him with loss of her love if he should lose it. Othello has briefly larn and then forgotten the precious art of harmonizing erotic passion and ghostly love, and as these two great aims of love are driven away in him, he comes to loathe and fear the sexuality that puts him so overmuch in mind of his physical frailty and dependence on woman. (226) At the outset of t he play Iago 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 thundery shouts about his daughters 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 complete(a) descriptions of Desdemonas involvement with the general, Brabantio arises from bed. Iagos bawdy references to the senators daughter familiarise a second role of women that of illicit lover. With Roderigos help, he gathers a search party to go and find Desdemona and bring her home. The fathers attitude is that life without his Desdemona will be much ... ... murder on. genus Emilia is aware that she is violating social convention here Tis proper I practise him, but not now. This violation costs her dearly Emilias stunning interrogation and conviction of her own husband as the condemnable mastermi nd behind the murder results in Iagos killing her. brokenhearted 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 tiny 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.