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Masculinity in Othello
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MasculinityShakespeare presents masculinity as being intertwined with the damaging pride of
the hyper masculine ego within Elizabethan society. He explores this through the detriment
of categorising women as property and the belief of the inherent duplicity of women, along
side the fear of being emasculated due to homosexual attraction as portrayed through the
character of Iago. Finally he explores the importance of a valiant reputation after death in
order to adhere to traditional masculine values.
Shakespeare explores masculinity firstly through the destructive patriarchal belief in
the inherent duplicity of women and the demonstration of masculinity therefore being in
maintaining the control and obedience of your women. Each of the male characters within
the text categorise women into the sexually promiscuous and the virginal wife, a
categorisation that has been coined by Sigmund Freud as the ‘Madonna Whore’ theory.
Women within Elizabethan time were expected to be completely chaste until marriage (an
expectation that was not expected from men), and once married women were to be
submissive and faithful. To commit ‘fornication’, ‘adultery’ or any ‘unclean’ act was depicted
as going against ‘God’s commandment’. In a 1547 sermon of whoredom and uncleanness,
women who engaged in such acts were seen to ‘abuse the gentleness and humanity’ of her
husband. In a society where women were always guilty until proven innocent, to be labelled
a ‘whore’ therefore meant the downfall of the woman and the tarnishing of the entire
family’s reputation, including the husband, given that women were deemed the property of
husband and their behaviour seen as a reflection of the husband’s masculinity and control.
Desdemona’s death results completely from the implementation of these standards. At first
she is depicted by Cassio and Othello as the ‘virtuous’, ‘honest, ‘gentle’, ‘fresh and delicate’ ,
‘obedient’, modest’, ‘indeed perfection’ and ‘the world has not a sweeter creature’. The
lexical field of innocence, purity and docile nature fit the characteristics expected by this
patriarchal dictum of a good woman in Elizabethan England. Ania Loomba expresses how
‘Iago’s machinations are effective because Othello is predisposed to believing his
pronouncements about the inherent duplicity of women’. Iago successfully destructs
Othello’s relationship with the virtuous Desdemona by planting the seeds of her infidelity
with Cassio into Othello’s mind, a ploy he supports through the ‘evidence’ of Desdemona’s
handkerchief in Cassio’s possession: ‘I saw Cassio use this handkerchief to wipe his beard
with’. The handkerchief becomes arguably a metonymic representation of Othello and
Desdemona’s wedding sheets. The handkerchief is perceived to be ‘spotted with
strawberries’ of which Lynda Boose draws on the Elizabethan gardener’s belief in the
strawberry being the purest of fruits arguing the fruits to be the emblem of virginal blood
and therefore the consummation of Othello and Desdemona’s marriage. Othello placing
such value on the inanimate object enables Iago to turn Othello’s view of Desdemona to the
grotesque: ‘monster’, ‘beast’, ‘a cistern of foul toads’, dehumanising and demonising her. He
further refers to her as ‘strumpet!’ synonymous to whore. The extent of Othello’s new
hatred for Desdemona as a ‘whore’, results in his desire to murder Desdemona. He beliefs
this honour killing will prevent Desdemona to ‘betray more men’, emphasising his need to
assert his masculine control and hierarchy over other men. Furthermore, Othello draws on
the Old Testament: ‘it strikes where it doth love’ to suggest alike God punishing humanity for
their personal growth, men should punish their wives for their own good. Ultimately
masculine belief in the duplicity of women results in the death of not only Desdemona but
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