Explore Shakespeare’s presentation of Desdemona in ‘Othello’. You must relate your discussion to
relevant contextual factors and ideas from your critical reading.
Introduction (Topic Sentences):
Desdemona as the victim of male conflict.
Desdemona as the initially transgressive and admirable Elizabethan woman in the play.
Desdemona as the self-denying tragic victim.
Paragraph 1
Point: Desdemona is undoubtedly a victim of male conflict in this play, as Iago’s ambition dooms
Desdemona to her homicide by her own husband.
Quotes: Act 1 Scene 1;Iago: “Mere prattle, without practice is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the
election.” Act 2 Scene 3;Iago: “I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear”, Act 3 Scene 3;Desdemona: “Do
not doubt, Cassio, But I will have my lord and you again As friendly as you were.” , Act 4 Scene
2;Othello: “This is a subtle whore, a closet, lock and key, of villainous secrets” Act 4 Scene
2;Desdemona: “Your wife, my lord: your true and loyal wife.”
Critics: Paul Vogel: Othello is “male centred”, Ania Loomba: “Othello is predisposed to believing
[Iago’s] pronouncements about the inherent duplicity of women.”
Context: According to Elizabethan society built on Renaissance beliefs, women were expected to be
silent, chaste and obedient to their husbands, fathers, brothers, and all men in general. Patriarchal
rule justified women’s subordination as the natural order because women were thought to be
physiologically and psychologically inferior to men.
The feelings of Desdemona and Emilia are completely disregarded in Iago’s plotting. The fact that
women, in both Elizabethan and Venetian society are perceived as possessions, secondary to the
lofty plans and desires of men.
Chain of being- Hierarchical chain on which every creature appeared in its ordained position on a
ladder descending from God through angel, King, man and woman to animal, vegetable and finally
mineral.
Paragraph 2
Point: Desdemona appears as the initially transgressive and admirable Elizabethan woman in the
play.
Quotes: Act 1 Scene 3;Desdemona: “I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband” Act 2
Scene 1;Desdemona: “What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst praise me? Act 2 Scene
1;Desdemona: “O my fair warrior!”
Critics: Lisa Jardine: Asserts the view that Desdemona proves to be “too-knowing, too independent”,
S.N Garner: “Desdemona’s liveliness assertiveness, and sensuality are corroborated in her marrying
Othello. The crucial fact of her marriage is not that she elopes, but that she, a white women, weds a
black man”
, Context: Desdemona exhibits some power in public, making powerful us of language when
explaining to her father, in front of other Venetian senators, that her ‘duty’ is now owed to Othello.
It could be argued, however, that even in this instance, Desdemona still fails to assert herself:
although she disagrees with her father, she couches this in terms of merely switching her ‘duty’ from
father to husband. The issue of the ‘duty’ itself remains unquestioned. This is because it is so
ideologically embedded that women do not seem to consider any other possibility, other than in
private conversation with one another.
Paragraph 3
Point: Desdemona becomes a self-denying tragic victim as a result of Othello’s gullibility.
Quotes: Act 5 Scene 2;Desdemona: Kill me tomorrow; let me live tonight, Act 4 Scene 2: His
unkindness may defeat my life But never taint my love, Act 5 Scene 2: “And yet I fear you, for your
fatal then”, Act 5 Scene 2;Emilia: “Who hath done this deed.” “Nobody. I myself. Farewell.”
Critics: Marilyn French: Desdemona “accepts her culture’s dictum that she must be obedient to
males” and is “self-denying in the extreme” when she dies”, John Knox: Women are
“weak ,frail ,impatient ,feeble and foolish..”, Aristotle: “The disposition of the female is softer, and
more tameable and submissive”
Context: Some modern feminist critics see Desdemona as a hideous embodiment of the
downtrodden woman. Suffice it to say, there is a large body of evidence to support this critical
stance. Desdemona herself declares that ‘I am obedient’ continuing to obey Othello’s orders from
the early ‘happy’ phase of their relationship through to the later stages of his jealous ravings. Even
when he orders Desdemona to go to her bed towards the end of Act IV, she still replies with the
submissive ‘I will, my lord’. In her final breath she still remains true to her husband saying ‘Commend
me to my kind lord’ and providing Othello with an alibi that he does not use. She appears to have
completely accepted her role as subordinate and obedient wife.
