09:37
Desdemona
Throughout "Othello," Shakespeare shows that Desdemona is a pure, honest and law-abiding woman. They are her main characteristics when she is passive. However, when we focus on the first act of Othello, we see another characteristic which is her assertive personality. When we begin to study the play, these ideas are immediately put across to us through the introduction.
Within the introduction, we observe the portrayal of Desdemona by the Duke of Venice and Brabantio. It is clear that Brabantio believes “[she is] a maiden never bold, of spirit so still and quiet that her motion Blushed at herself;” the language Brabantio uses is a much idealised view of her. He might be seeing her as she was in her younger days. But really, she is hardly a blushing “maiden.” Perhaps, there is some truth in this due to him being her father. When Desdemona is described by Iago, he speaks to the other characters in the play in prose such as Brabantio “Zounds, sir, you’re robb’d…you have lost half your soul… an old black ram Is tupping your white ewe.” (A form of non-verse writing which is used mainly when a character of low class is speaking) and when, he is describing Desdemona to Othello, he insults her. However, in his second soliloquy in 2:3 he compliments her and tells the audience in blank verse (the style often adopted by high class characters) the truth of what he thinks about her. He has no reason to lie at this point of the play. Othello describes Desdemona’s courtship as “But still the house affairs would draw her thence; She’d come again, and with a greedy ear Devour up my discourse.” So she is distracted from her housework by Othello’s account and his life and she becomes fascinated by him, and comes back as often as she can. The image of a “greedy ear” and “devour” stress how keen she is like a hungry person eating an eagerly anticipated meal. Shakespeare uses the word “greedy” because it shows us she is eager to hear Othello, so she can know him better. She She becomes increasingly emotionally involved, and she asks him to tell her more about his life, he responds with “When I did speak of some distressful stroke That my youth suffered” She is moved to tears of compassion when she hears of his sufferings and “She wished she had not heard it, yet she wished That heaven had made her such a man.” So the audience can see her as young woman living a sheltered, routine experience, emotionally susceptible to the glamour and sense of adventure Othello brings to her life. Also we see her as someone who is easily roused to pity and compassion, all these lead to her falling in love.
She is a sexually liberated in that she obeys her own passion to marry Othello. She doesn’t consult her father, a radical step to take at that time, as fathers were normally regarded as having total authority over their children. Compare it to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, when Theseus is talking to Hermia in 1:1, “Be advised, fair maid, To you your father should be as a god;” As a result of her marriage Brabantio believe that she cannot be trusted, for “she has deceived her father” he also believes she will betray Othello. When Desdemona has deceived her father, this leads to Brabantio’s death because she has caused him to die of a broken heart. Finally she insists on going to Cyprus, because she has dedicated her soul and future life to Othello’s honourable and courageous attributes. “And to his honours and his valiant parts Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate. ” She is innocent in that the thought of marriage has not been attractive to her- she has been, according to Brabantio in 1:2- “So opposite to marriages that she shunn’d/ the wealthy curled darlings of our nation”- and it is only when she meets Othello that her feelings change. When married she becomes a traditionally submissive wife, and finds it hard to believe Othello can be jealous or cruel. Shakespeare makes Desdemona as an innocent maiden because she is viewed by Cassio as an “exquisite lady” and Emilia as an “angel” who is not tainted by any evil, as Iago is. Shakespeare’s uses the handkerchief as a symbol of love, trust and marriage, and when Iago takes the handkerchief; all three are broken, ultimately causing Desdemona’s death.
Desdemona’s carefully chosen, articulated words, concerning a daughter’s conflicting duties towards her father and the man she loves, echo in other Shakespearean plays such as "King Lear" and "Romeo and Juliet". “I do perceive here a divided duty…My life and education both do learn me How to respect you…as my mother show’d To you, preferring you before her father… I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor my lord.” Her speech shows her thoughtfulness, as she does not insist on her loyalty to Othello at the expense of respect for her father, but rather acknowledges that her duty is “divided.” Because Desdemona is brave enough to stand up to her father and even partially rejects him in public, these words also establish for the audience her courage and her strength of conviction. Later, this same ability to separate different degrees and kinds of affection will make Desdemona seek, without hesitation, to help Cassio, thereby fuelling Othello’s jealousy. Again and again, Desdemona speaks clearly and truthfully, but, tragically, Othello is poisoned by Iago’s constant manipulation of language and emotions and is therefore blind to Desdemona’s honesty. She becomes more assertive when she asks the Duke to let her accompany her new husband to Cyprus “That I did love the Moor to live with him” in Elizabethan time they would find this shocking because of the racial difference and her open avowal of her sexuality. This is a deliberate decision by Shakespeare. We see her purity and assertiveness towards the Senate when she “saw Othello's visage in his mind,” which means that she can see his inner beauty and does not care about outward good looks. The language she utilizes is mostly honest and innocent, suiting her characteristics. Such purity resides in sharp contrast to Iago, who is vile, guilty and tainted.
She makes it clear that she wants the freedom to marry anyone she pleases. She feels an emotional subjugation to Othello and falls in loves him with him because of his stories, and those stories are able to sway and conquer her own feelings, “She loved me for the dangers I had passed,” She is also assertive when she asks about her rights as a married woman because she thinks, she will be deprived of the privileges (sexual and otherwise) a wife ought to have. There is a dramatic irony when she wants to marry Othello, because when she wants to marry him, it ends up as a disaster for her and it leads up to her death. When she is the victim, Desdemona becomes quiet and submissive through Othello’s horrible accusation, “cunning whore of Venice.” Another quote highlighting her submissive character can be found in the following passage: “Do not talk to me Emilia, I cannot weep, nor answers have I none but what should go by water.” Shakespeare is implying that she is upset, so tears are about to flow. Shakespeare made Desdemona a patient Griselda from Chaucer tale, ‘glorious in her resignation in the face of husbandly chastisement’; she shows ‘exemplary passivity in adversity’ and becomes a stereotype of female passivity.
Desdemona is assertive near the beginning of the play where we are told that “[she is] half the wooer”, indicating that she is an active female who will make her own choices, choices such as marrying Othello or defending Cassio. The latter is the other important occasion where she takes the lead is when in 3:3 she pleads with Othello to reinstate Cassio, who has been removed from his post after his brawl with Roderigo. Shakespeare wanted to stress the kindness she has for her husband’s friend and Shakespeare wanted the audience to know that. She persists with her pleading, despite Othello’s attempts to talk of other things, and finally she says, “What? Michael Cassio, That came a-wooeing with you, and so many a time, When I have spoke of you dispraisingly, Hath ta’en your part- to have so much to do To bring him in?” Finally, Othello agrees to see him. In 3:3, there is another dramatic irony when Desdemona heavily uses the word “honest” referring to Iago, and within minutes Iago‘s wickedness will have begun to destroy her. In the same scene, when Desdemona first asks Othello to restore Cassio to his post, she keeps on about it and finally wins him over. But when the handkerchief is lost 3:4 Desdemona tries to pretend that this is Othello’s trick to distract her from pleading for Cassio; but she knows that the handkerchief is lost. So you could say that she is being cowardly here, trying to avert Othello’s anger. However, she is also brave because she continues pleading for Cassio. Shakespeare structures this scene so that Othello knows what has happened to the handkerchief, but Desdemona doesn’t know about it. We have seen earlier that she is easily moved to pity and compassion-when listening to Othello’s accounts of his adventures in 1:3, he says, “often did beguile her of her tears When I did speak of some distressful stroke That my youth suffered.” This is another example of that, as well as a matter of repaying a debt to the man who helped persuade her to marry Othello. Iago uses this pleading in his plot against Othello to make it seem that Desdemona and Cassio are lovers, but this just illustrates his ability to turn good to evil. In the rest of the play she is more sinned against than sinning, and her main function is to become the unwitting, innocent victim of Iago’s plotting.
In Act IV, this is a scene which is in the middle of the conversation. Again it is not difficult to recreate the conversation between Othello and Emilia which has preceded their entrance; it quickly becomes clearer that he now thinks Desdemona as a prostitute and Emilia, accordingly, as her bawd. He has also slapped her in public which had humiliated her. In 4:1 Othello strikes Desdemona, she says “I have not deserved this” and she “weeps”; Othello tells her to leave and Lodovico, who has observed the scene and says “Truly an obedient lady, I do beseech your lordship, call her back.” So she doesn’t with respond with anger or accusations, Lodovico tell us that she remains passive and mild despite provocation. In the same act, Shakespeare uses the song “Willow” as symbol of her foretold death. It creates a sad atmosphere and we the audience feel sympathetic and moved by her because Othello has lost faith in her. The song she sings is similar to Ophelia in Hamlet, who is also a victim of conflict between men. Her death cannot be passive, as she is pleading for her life, she cannot also be said to be dignified. However, it brings us to an emotional, harrowing scene. Near the end of the play, Emilia enters and asks “O who hath done this deed?” Desdemona replies “Nobody, I myself. Farewell. Commend me to my kind lord.” She attains dignity and nobility, because with her final breath, she denies Othello has killed her, and calls him “my kind lord.” Shakespeare implies that such a noble person as Desdemona will accept the blame for her own death and she would protect her loved one Othello at any cost.
To conclude, Shakespeare uses Desdemona as a character, who many people misinterpret as completely passive and misled. However, Shakespeare makes her seem the most noble and trustworthy character in the play. She has been considered to be corrupted by her husband but we see her in a different light. She is a woman of many good qualities. Shakespeare uses her innocence to emphasise the pathos of her situation and the horror of her fate. She is a thoroughly good character, but sufficiently self-willed and passion-driven to be convincing. However, she is not perfect as she has deceived her father. She romanticised everything including Othello. Her character is angelic but she has been too trusting. Shakespeare through her character shows us how kind and compassionate people can be; but he also shows how she deceives her father to follow her desires, so we see her as a plausible human being with human weaknesses.
Throughout "Othello," Shakespeare shows that Desdemona is a pure, honest and law-abiding woman. They are her main characteristics when she is passive. However, when we focus on the first act of Othello, we see another characteristic which is her assertive personality. When we begin to study the play, these ideas are immediately put across to us through the introduction.
Within the introduction, we observe the portrayal of Desdemona by the Duke of Venice and Brabantio. It is clear that Brabantio believes “[she is] a maiden never bold, of spirit so still and quiet that her motion Blushed at herself;” the language Brabantio uses is a much idealised view of her. He might be seeing her as she was in her younger days. But really, she is hardly a blushing “maiden.” Perhaps, there is some truth in this due to him being her father. When Desdemona is described by Iago, he speaks to the other characters in the play in prose such as Brabantio “Zounds, sir, you’re robb’d…you have lost half your soul… an old black ram Is tupping your white ewe.” (A form of non-verse writing which is used mainly when a character of low class is speaking) and when, he is describing Desdemona to Othello, he insults her. However, in his second soliloquy in 2:3 he compliments her and tells the audience in blank verse (the style often adopted by high class characters) the truth of what he thinks about her. He has no reason to lie at this point of the play. Othello describes Desdemona’s courtship as “But still the house affairs would draw her thence; She’d come again, and with a greedy ear Devour up my discourse.” So she is distracted from her housework by Othello’s account and his life and she becomes fascinated by him, and comes back as often as she can. The image of a “greedy ear” and “devour” stress how keen she is like a hungry person eating an eagerly anticipated meal. Shakespeare uses the word “greedy” because it shows us she is eager to hear Othello, so she can know him better. She She becomes increasingly emotionally involved, and she asks him to tell her more about his life, he responds with “When I did speak of some distressful stroke That my youth suffered” She is moved to tears of compassion when she hears of his sufferings and “She wished she had not heard it, yet she wished That heaven had made her such a man.” So the audience can see her as young woman living a sheltered, routine experience, emotionally susceptible to the glamour and sense of adventure Othello brings to her life. Also we see her as someone who is easily roused to pity and compassion, all these lead to her falling in love.
She is a sexually liberated in that she obeys her own passion to marry Othello. She doesn’t consult her father, a radical step to take at that time, as fathers were normally regarded as having total authority over their children. Compare it to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, when Theseus is talking to Hermia in 1:1, “Be advised, fair maid, To you your father should be as a god;” As a result of her marriage Brabantio believe that she cannot be trusted, for “she has deceived her father” he also believes she will betray Othello. When Desdemona has deceived her father, this leads to Brabantio’s death because she has caused him to die of a broken heart. Finally she insists on going to Cyprus, because she has dedicated her soul and future life to Othello’s honourable and courageous attributes. “And to his honours and his valiant parts Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate. ” She is innocent in that the thought of marriage has not been attractive to her- she has been, according to Brabantio in 1:2- “So opposite to marriages that she shunn’d/ the wealthy curled darlings of our nation”- and it is only when she meets Othello that her feelings change. When married she becomes a traditionally submissive wife, and finds it hard to believe Othello can be jealous or cruel. Shakespeare makes Desdemona as an innocent maiden because she is viewed by Cassio as an “exquisite lady” and Emilia as an “angel” who is not tainted by any evil, as Iago is. Shakespeare’s uses the handkerchief as a symbol of love, trust and marriage, and when Iago takes the handkerchief; all three are broken, ultimately causing Desdemona’s death.
Desdemona’s carefully chosen, articulated words, concerning a daughter’s conflicting duties towards her father and the man she loves, echo in other Shakespearean plays such as "King Lear" and "Romeo and Juliet". “I do perceive here a divided duty…My life and education both do learn me How to respect you…as my mother show’d To you, preferring you before her father… I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor my lord.” Her speech shows her thoughtfulness, as she does not insist on her loyalty to Othello at the expense of respect for her father, but rather acknowledges that her duty is “divided.” Because Desdemona is brave enough to stand up to her father and even partially rejects him in public, these words also establish for the audience her courage and her strength of conviction. Later, this same ability to separate different degrees and kinds of affection will make Desdemona seek, without hesitation, to help Cassio, thereby fuelling Othello’s jealousy. Again and again, Desdemona speaks clearly and truthfully, but, tragically, Othello is poisoned by Iago’s constant manipulation of language and emotions and is therefore blind to Desdemona’s honesty. She becomes more assertive when she asks the Duke to let her accompany her new husband to Cyprus “That I did love the Moor to live with him” in Elizabethan time they would find this shocking because of the racial difference and her open avowal of her sexuality. This is a deliberate decision by Shakespeare. We see her purity and assertiveness towards the Senate when she “saw Othello's visage in his mind,” which means that she can see his inner beauty and does not care about outward good looks. The language she utilizes is mostly honest and innocent, suiting her characteristics. Such purity resides in sharp contrast to Iago, who is vile, guilty and tainted.
She makes it clear that she wants the freedom to marry anyone she pleases. She feels an emotional subjugation to Othello and falls in loves him with him because of his stories, and those stories are able to sway and conquer her own feelings, “She loved me for the dangers I had passed,” She is also assertive when she asks about her rights as a married woman because she thinks, she will be deprived of the privileges (sexual and otherwise) a wife ought to have. There is a dramatic irony when she wants to marry Othello, because when she wants to marry him, it ends up as a disaster for her and it leads up to her death. When she is the victim, Desdemona becomes quiet and submissive through Othello’s horrible accusation, “cunning whore of Venice.” Another quote highlighting her submissive character can be found in the following passage: “Do not talk to me Emilia, I cannot weep, nor answers have I none but what should go by water.” Shakespeare is implying that she is upset, so tears are about to flow. Shakespeare made Desdemona a patient Griselda from Chaucer tale, ‘glorious in her resignation in the face of husbandly chastisement’; she shows ‘exemplary passivity in adversity’ and becomes a stereotype of female passivity.
Desdemona is assertive near the beginning of the play where we are told that “[she is] half the wooer”, indicating that she is an active female who will make her own choices, choices such as marrying Othello or defending Cassio. The latter is the other important occasion where she takes the lead is when in 3:3 she pleads with Othello to reinstate Cassio, who has been removed from his post after his brawl with Roderigo. Shakespeare wanted to stress the kindness she has for her husband’s friend and Shakespeare wanted the audience to know that. She persists with her pleading, despite Othello’s attempts to talk of other things, and finally she says, “What? Michael Cassio, That came a-wooeing with you, and so many a time, When I have spoke of you dispraisingly, Hath ta’en your part- to have so much to do To bring him in?” Finally, Othello agrees to see him. In 3:3, there is another dramatic irony when Desdemona heavily uses the word “honest” referring to Iago, and within minutes Iago‘s wickedness will have begun to destroy her. In the same scene, when Desdemona first asks Othello to restore Cassio to his post, she keeps on about it and finally wins him over. But when the handkerchief is lost 3:4 Desdemona tries to pretend that this is Othello’s trick to distract her from pleading for Cassio; but she knows that the handkerchief is lost. So you could say that she is being cowardly here, trying to avert Othello’s anger. However, she is also brave because she continues pleading for Cassio. Shakespeare structures this scene so that Othello knows what has happened to the handkerchief, but Desdemona doesn’t know about it. We have seen earlier that she is easily moved to pity and compassion-when listening to Othello’s accounts of his adventures in 1:3, he says, “often did beguile her of her tears When I did speak of some distressful stroke That my youth suffered.” This is another example of that, as well as a matter of repaying a debt to the man who helped persuade her to marry Othello. Iago uses this pleading in his plot against Othello to make it seem that Desdemona and Cassio are lovers, but this just illustrates his ability to turn good to evil. In the rest of the play she is more sinned against than sinning, and her main function is to become the unwitting, innocent victim of Iago’s plotting.
In Act IV, this is a scene which is in the middle of the conversation. Again it is not difficult to recreate the conversation between Othello and Emilia which has preceded their entrance; it quickly becomes clearer that he now thinks Desdemona as a prostitute and Emilia, accordingly, as her bawd. He has also slapped her in public which had humiliated her. In 4:1 Othello strikes Desdemona, she says “I have not deserved this” and she “weeps”; Othello tells her to leave and Lodovico, who has observed the scene and says “Truly an obedient lady, I do beseech your lordship, call her back.” So she doesn’t with respond with anger or accusations, Lodovico tell us that she remains passive and mild despite provocation. In the same act, Shakespeare uses the song “Willow” as symbol of her foretold death. It creates a sad atmosphere and we the audience feel sympathetic and moved by her because Othello has lost faith in her. The song she sings is similar to Ophelia in Hamlet, who is also a victim of conflict between men. Her death cannot be passive, as she is pleading for her life, she cannot also be said to be dignified. However, it brings us to an emotional, harrowing scene. Near the end of the play, Emilia enters and asks “O who hath done this deed?” Desdemona replies “Nobody, I myself. Farewell. Commend me to my kind lord.” She attains dignity and nobility, because with her final breath, she denies Othello has killed her, and calls him “my kind lord.” Shakespeare implies that such a noble person as Desdemona will accept the blame for her own death and she would protect her loved one Othello at any cost.
To conclude, Shakespeare uses Desdemona as a character, who many people misinterpret as completely passive and misled. However, Shakespeare makes her seem the most noble and trustworthy character in the play. She has been considered to be corrupted by her husband but we see her in a different light. She is a woman of many good qualities. Shakespeare uses her innocence to emphasise the pathos of her situation and the horror of her fate. She is a thoroughly good character, but sufficiently self-willed and passion-driven to be convincing. However, she is not perfect as she has deceived her father. She romanticised everything including Othello. Her character is angelic but she has been too trusting. Shakespeare through her character shows us how kind and compassionate people can be; but he also shows how she deceives her father to follow her desires, so we see her as a plausible human being with human weaknesses.
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