The Role Of Women In Utopia And

Othello Essay, Research Paper

ROLE OF WOMEN ESSAY

When reviewing literature, a major question being posed lately is what exactly are women’s roles in various books. The works, which I am particularly concerned with in this essay, are William Shakespeare’s “Othello” and Thomas More’s “Utopia”. I will be examining various themes of “Othello”, in order to figure out where exactly women fit in with the work. These include things like the symbols used, the expectations and virtual rules for a female at the time (especially one from a privileged background like Desdemona), her responsibility (or lack of, perhaps) for the events of the play and the female character’s importance in the play in general. I will also be enquiring in the essay as to whether Desdemona was deserving of the treatment she got (or whether she got the respect she deserved) and the different roles she plays in the book (and her avoidance of stereotypification). Her elopement with Othello also raises many questions (in Shakespeare’s time and even more recently). In “Utopia”(which I feel has less of an emphasis on the role of women since it appears to be more concerned with humans in general, but still raises important points on gender), I will be examining if there’s a background behind More’s image of women and his considering of them as more fragile. I will also be attempting to figure out just what is their role in his literary Utopia (and if these ideas are in any ways revolutionary, considering their time).

Brabianto has a false image of Desdemona believing her to be the perfect daughter, not realising she is mortal like all other daughters, “She that was ever fair and never proud, Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud-Ibid.”. Because of this, he believes she is a daughter that would not elope “A maid so tender, fair and happy/so opposite to marriage”. She is presented as different things in “Othello” First of all is Brabianto’s aforementioned idea that she is the perfect daughter, and thus surely not like other daughters. “A maiden never bold, of spirit so still and quiet that her mation blush’d at herself”. However, Desdemona also plays the part of the deceptive daughter, “She has deceiv’d her father, and may thee”.

Her image almost appears to be contradictory at certain stages, she talks brazenly and sexually with Iago in Act 2 like a woman who appears to have everything well sussed out but with incredulous innocence and naivety, she cannot believe in betrayal by Act 4, “Beshrew me if I would do so such a wrong, for the whole world”. Could this transformation be behind Othello’s accusation that Desdemona was shedding “Crocodile tears”. Due to being a white Venetian woman, her marriage to Othello changes the way she is viewed as well. She becomes a sexually tainted woman who through her choice of partner, is condemned as black.

Desdemona also rejects stereotypification because she runs away not with a handsome young white man but with a much older black man. Her marriage is seen in a negative light however when it’s discovered that her marriage has killed her father who appears to have foreseen the consequences. “Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief”. This is substantiating the notion those males, in this case her father, and know best and those females follow their heart too much. Her former disobedience partly dispels the image of her as a victim. By the last scene, the transformation is complete. Desdemona’s last words are a self-indictment, something, which has puzzled critics. This is basically a victim protecting her abuser.

Desdemona’s various characteristics which all don’t necessarily fit in with each other perhaps portray a truer picture of women than a one-sided all virtuous or all-evil heroine. She is presented as the perfect daughter at the start, but most wealthy fathers of the time probably considered their precious daughter “perfect”. Her tainting after marriage with Othello is an example of the lack of distinction of wives from their husbands in Shakespearean times. Since a wife was almost only seen as an extension of her husband, it’s not surprising but slightly disturbing that she was labelled “black” after marrying a black man. Also, Desdemona is constructed in terms of Bianca and Emilia, because all women are the same in a misogynistic culture. Desdemona is not simply the opposite of Bianca.

Symbols are regularly used in “Othello” to illustrate what a woman life was really like in the times of Othello, i.e. what their role in society was. The quote “They are all but stomachs, and we are all but food, To eat us hungrily, and when they are full, They belch us”, pretty much sums up the sort of life a woman faced as she grew up and got married, they had a purpose and were expected to fulfil it. Also, the handkerchief in “Othello” is a symbol for female silence. Silent and obedient women in the 16th and 17th centuries were often into sewing. Othello laments her after deciding her death by saying “So delicate with her needle”. The needles Excellency (1631) cautioned women to “use their tongues lesse, and their tongues more”.

I believe it was Iago who was in this case the snake fouling the Garden of Eden (an exaggeration perhaps, but with the exception of Othello’s paranoia, it appeared to be a loving and well-suited marriage). The theme’s (prejudice and unbridled jealousy) are all characteristics of the males only. I