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Desdemona as a commodity essay
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Desdemona as a commodity
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Rukhsar Yazmin 12HHNMs Patel
English Lit
In the literature of love, women are often seen as commodities.
In the light of this view, discuss how the male attitudes towards
Desdemona are presented in the extract and across the play.
In the extract, Shakespeare presents Desdemona as a commodity
through various male attitudes of her being a possession to be
owned and taken. Shakespeare presents this idea of ownership and
control over women through the stereotypical father daughter
relationship that Brabantio and Desdemona have, this is evident in
many of Shakespeare’s plays, where the father treats his daughter
like a possession rather than a human being with free will. This is
evident in the repetition of ‘My daughter! Oh, my daughter!” The
repetitive use of the determiner connotes the idea of Brabantio
claiming ownership and rights over his daughter and that by
continually exclaiming ‘my’ further indicates that in Brabantio’s eyes
Desdemona is a commodity; she belongs to him. This suggestion is
also seen earlier in the play when Brabantio is told of Desdemona
and Othello’s relationship and claims that she has betrayed him, this
is seen in the line’ O, she deceives me!” The use of the verb
‘deceive’ indicates that Brabantio is horrified that Desdemona would
choose Othello and that to him, her using her free will and
consciously choosing to follow her heart and not obey her father is
an act of betrayal and deception. It adds to the concept of custody
as Brabantio doesn’t think Desdemona should act of her own accord,
especially against the wishes of her father. Shakespeare repeatedly
uses this stereotypical and generic father daughter relationship in
numerous plays to show the expectations of Elizabethan women and
that in the 17th century women were treated like objects,
commodities to be controlled and used, inferior to men and of lower
class and respect which is why Desdemona is constantly degraded
through the possessiveness of the men around her.
Desdemona is presented as a commodity in the extract as various
males, including Othello himself, degrade and objectify her as a
woman. Desdemona is repeatedly objectified by the men in Othello,
her status as a woman immediately degrades her to being nothing
but an object in the eyes of men and that she holds no respect and
identity as she belongs to men, first her father and then her
husband Othello. In the extract the line ‘I won his daughter’
connotes her being a good and prize. The proud tone of the verb
‘won’ indicates that even Othello, who loves and adores Desdemona
as a woman is still objectifying her as ‘his’ and that despite him
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