This document contains detailed analysis, context and in-depth tragic convention exploration for the Drama section of the Edexcel A-Level English Literature course. Further support is given to students with the inclusion of quotation banks and critical theory providing students with the foundations...
Women were subordinates to men in the 16 th and 17th century when they married everything they
owned became the husbands possession including the wives themselves. Fathers also were expected
to choose the husbands for their daughters as they were their “possession” to give away.
Desdemona is said to be “bound” to both her husband and her father and owes him a “duty” she is
ultimately a powerless and passive character. Women speaking for themselves was seen to
contradict the patriarchal hierarchy.
Othello and Desdemona have a passionate love which could be seen as a threat to the
rules established by the Venetian patriarchal order: their intense, emotionally charged and
equal marriage challenges ideas about class, race and the conformity of women. The play
perhaps suggests ultimately, if the social order is to continue, this marriage and what it
represents must be destroyed.
Cyprus is less controlled, a bastion of male power where Desdemona, alone and isolated
from her Venetian support system, is vulnerable to the machinations of the arch
manipulator Iago.
Desdemona had challenged the patriarchal order in marrying Othello, had shown a free
and open spirit but she is murdered. The patriarchal attitudes that existed at the start of
the play are reinforced by Cassio's appointment.
the Renaissance period was a misogynistic time period in
which women were seen to be both mentally and physically weak.
Women were expected to be virgins until their wedding night. When a man “took” a
woman’s virginity, this was seen as an act of ownership. A woman who lost her virginity
before marriage was called a “stale” and disowned. She would have two options: to
become a nun, or a prostitute. if your wife was unfaithful you were viewed as not being
able to satisfy them and were mocked as a cuckold:
Despite their being a Queen on the throne, the Renaissance period was a misogynistic time
period in
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