Kenneth Muir, in the Introduction to William Shakespeare: Othello, explains the Moor’s blind ignorance of his won wife:
Iago begins his temptation on the following morning, and he is able to exploit Othello’s comparative ignorance of his wife. This ignorance is only partly due to the fact that they have had no opportunity of living together. It is due to a number of other factors. Othello comes of royal birth but he has won for himself a place of distinction in the service of the Venetian state by his military prowess. He confesses the one-sidedness of his experience (I.3.86-7):
little of this great world can I speak
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle. . . . (32)
The violence against women in this drama is unpalatable for much of the audience. A.C. Bradley, in his book of literary criticism, Shakespearean Tragedy, describes the violence against the heroine as a “sin against the canons of art”:
To some readers, again, parts of Othello appear shocking or even horrible. They think – if I may formulate their objection – that in these parts Shakespeare has sinned against the canons of art, by representing on the stage a violence or brutality the effect of which is unnecessarily painful and rather sensational than tragic. The passages which thus give offence are probably those already referred to – that where Othello strikes Desdemona (IV.i.251), that where he affects to treat her as an inmate of a house of ill-fame (IV.i…
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…ies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Literature. N. p.: Random House, 1986.
Gardner, Helen. “Othello: A Tragedy of Beauty and Fortune.” Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from “The Noble Moor.” British Academy Lectures, no. 9, 1955.
Heilman, Robert B. “Wit and Witchcraft: an Approach to Othello.” Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. Rev. Ed. Rpt. from The Sewanee Review, LXIV, 1 (Winter 1956), 1-4, 8-10; and Arizona Quarterly (Spring 1956), pp.5-16.
Muir, Kenneth. Introduction. William Shakespeare: Othello. New York: Penguin Books, 1968.
Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.
Custom Written Term Papers: The Role of Women in Othello
The Role of Women in Othello
At the beginning of Othello two men stand and discuss the fate of a woman. One contested for her and lost and the other willingly admits to her beauty, charm and worth. Both men wish to bring down the man who has won her, Desdemona, and slander her name nonetheless. This man, their rival and superior is none other than Othello. Othello has managed to obtain something they could not; Desdemona. Throughout the play Desdemona is rarely viewed as a human being, she is merely a prize, and from the very beginning Desdemona is an object of lust. Emilia and Bianca are also mistreated in this way.
The three women in the play; Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca contrast in class. Desdemona is born from a high-class Venetian family, Emilia is from a servant class and Bianca is a prostitute or “whore”, a word that Desdemona refuses to use. Despite this they are all abused by men and are objects of men’s sexuality, and they all suffer under the cruel hands of those whom they love. Each one is shown in relation to a particular man, (Othello, Iago and Cassio) and is contrasted with the other women, which reveal how the stereotypical version of womanhood impacts their lives, (in Desdemona and Emilia’s case, their deaths). The three women’s eventual destinies are interlinked with the plays central symbol: the handkerchief.
Women are major characters in Shakespeare’s plays. In “Othello” women are …
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…e: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.
Muir, Kenneth. Introduction. William Shakespeare: Othello. New York: Penguin Books, 1968.
Neely, Carol. “Women and Men in Othello” Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s Othello. Ed. Anthony G. Barthelemy Pub. Macmillan New York, NY 1994. (page 68-90)
Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.
Wayne, Valerie. “Historical Differences: Misogyny and Othello.” The Matter of Difference: Materialist Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. Ed Valerie Wayne. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991.