A full, in-depth A* essay plan exploring the relationship between Othello and Desdemona in Shakespeare's "Othello", for the Pearson Edexcel A-Level English Literature.
Othello and Desdemona
Introduction –
- Highlights female complexity and male inability to understand this = tragic consummation
- Highlights Othello’s savagery
Complexity - Desdemona highlights male inability to comprehend female complexity
- So much respect for wife that Iago says “our general’s wife is now the general” – not only equals, but she
exceeds him, yet:
- Trophy wife – “I won your daughter”: alternating view of her as a trophy and as headstrong highlights her
complexity and male inability to understand this
- Calls Desdemona “fair”, “gentle”, then shifts to say “tear her into messes” – obliviousness for female ability
to be more than Robertson “either sub or superhuman” and mocks men for viewing women as either “pure
and innocent” or “vulgar” and “common”
- Men can’t understand female complexity – Blamires says this results in tragically ironic ending; “strumpet”
and accused of adultery yet supposedly dies a virgin
Used to highlight Othello’s savage flaws
- Shakespeare implies it is right to be weary of the Moor
- “I do perceive here a divided duty” – Desdemona initially acknowledges she must make a choice between
her respectable father and a Moor (dangerous choice according to Neill – Giraldi’s original message was to
warn women against marriage to blacks due to their dangerous natures
- These stereotypes confirmed by end of play through Othello: Neill – “vocal independence of spirit that
makes her ultimate submissiveness in the face of Othello’s murderous jealousy seem at once more moving
and more shocking” – demise despite wit and intellect makes it more tragic and makes him look more
savage.
- “Desdemona” -> “disdemona”, “the unfortunate” in Greek – must have been carefully chosen by
Shakespeare and reflective of her character according to Worrall: demise is due to Othello, not her own
flaws (victim of his savagery) showing decision to elope is dangerous showing her independence and
bravery
Difference in intention by the end
- Although Burton says “wives are slippery, often unfaithful”, and Coryat said they “open their quivers to
every arrow”, there is much evidence Desdemona has pure intentions
- Emilia blames men for women’s sin “it is their husbands’ faults if wives do fall” but Desdemona lies on
deathbed blaming herself for Othello’s fault – “I, myself” (reinforces female duty to “honour and obey” to
the point where she’s willing to sacrifice her soul) and doesn’t “think there is any such woman” who could
commit adultery
- Wrong to have innocent intentions - despite loyalty she dies as a result of toxic masculinity
- Completely contrasts Othello’s savagery towards Desdemona - “foam at the mouth”, “gnaw” – eventually
internalises these and adopts animalistic behaviour (calls himself a “circumciséd dog” and promises to “tear
[Desdemona] to pieces”) – animalistic imagery
Contrasting reactions in the face of death
- Act 4 Scene 1 – Othello’s speech partakes in erratic and catastrophic retreat into prose from sophisticated
free verse “to please the palate of my appetite”, refers to himself in the third person “that married with
Othello” showing delusion
- Desdemona remains in blank verse despite her emotional state: “O banish me, my lord, but kill me not” –
calm and collected in face of death
- Shakespeare either tries to present Othello negatively or to sculpt “assertive and headstrong” female -
Atkins
- O adheres to views of Leo Africanus who calls blacks “dogs”, “beastly”, “lives in the forest among beasts”
- D adheres to loyal wife who should honour + obey by sacrificing her soul at the end “I, myself”
Conclusion
- Shakespeare subtly implies at female strength (O dies sinning through suicide and murder, and Desdemona,
despite being innocent, sacrifices her soul for her husband showing female strength
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