Woman, a critical actor on the stage of life, is pressed to portray many roles—mother, wife, and caregiver. On the stage of Shakespeare, expectations are no different, save the added roles of trophy and sexual object, and when examined through a critical, modern lens, these stage roles become gender roles. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Othello, women are portrayed as the weaker sex through their characteristics and by the murderous ending of the tragedy. Alexander Pope said, “Most women have no character at all,” (Pechter 372). Shakespeare, however, emphasized lack of character as a grace for his female characters (Pechter 372). Through feminist criticism, the patriarchal structure of Shakespeare’s Othello is revealed along with the objectification
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One rib from Adam equates to years of marching for suffrage, battling for the right to own property, and dueling for the freedom to speak and live freely. Feminism arises from this eon old injustice. Feminist criticism pertains to, “Any variety of approaches to literary criticism that attempt to examine the ways in which literature has been shaped according to issues of gender,” (“feminist criticism”). Having taken root post-World War II, feminist criticism not only strives to recover the work of female authors, but examines how literature portrays and treats its characters based upon gender. Through a feminist lens, actions of characters can be taken into full perspective and portrayal of female characters can be better understood. Feminist criticism also provides a larger understanding of the time period the work was written in by highlighting these aspects of characters. For example, in Othello, Iago bends Othello to his will by feeding him lies that Desdemona is lecherous because, “She did deceive her father…” (Othello, Act III, scene iii, line 206). A female of this time period being as bold as to deceive her father—the head of her household, the shepherd of her life—was looked down upon for not being a dutiful …show more content…
Desdemona is, “From an objectively feminist perspective, [her] tragedy too—the tragedy of an unworldly woman calumniated and murdered by a husband who is not the free and open mind he seems but a sex-obsessed tyrant who insists on thinking the worst when she thinks the best,” (Adamson 7). The tragedy may gain depth from a great war-hero and strong male protagonist falling from grace, but the innocent deaths of the women add more depth to Othello. The treatment of the women is juxtaposed with the tyrannical lives of the men, and in this way the tragedy becomes truly devastating because they are in such a position of inferiority that they have no say in their fates whatsoever. Shakespeare crafted a tragedy to reach the cuckold man, however the tragedy reached to a female audience as well—a female audience waiting on Desdemona to have the right to her last
One rib from Adam equates to years of marching for suffrage, battling for the right to own property, and dueling for the freedom to speak and live freely. Feminism arises from this eon old injustice. Feminist criticism pertains to, “Any variety of approaches to literary criticism that attempt to examine the ways in which literature has been shaped according to issues of gender,” (“feminist criticism”). Having taken root post-World War II, feminist criticism not only strives to recover the work of female authors, but examines how literature portrays and treats its characters based upon gender. Through a feminist lens, actions of characters can be taken into full perspective and portrayal of female characters can be better understood. Feminist criticism also provides a larger understanding of the time period the work was written in by highlighting these aspects of characters. For example, in Othello, Iago bends Othello to his will by feeding him lies that Desdemona is lecherous because, “She did deceive her father…” (Othello, Act III, scene iii, line 206). A female of this time period being as bold as to deceive her father—the head of her household, the shepherd of her life—was looked down upon for not being a dutiful …show more content…
Desdemona is, “From an objectively feminist perspective, [her] tragedy too—the tragedy of an unworldly woman calumniated and murdered by a husband who is not the free and open mind he seems but a sex-obsessed tyrant who insists on thinking the worst when she thinks the best,” (Adamson 7). The tragedy may gain depth from a great war-hero and strong male protagonist falling from grace, but the innocent deaths of the women add more depth to Othello. The treatment of the women is juxtaposed with the tyrannical lives of the men, and in this way the tragedy becomes truly devastating because they are in such a position of inferiority that they have no say in their fates whatsoever. Shakespeare crafted a tragedy to reach the cuckold man, however the tragedy reached to a female audience as well—a female audience waiting on Desdemona to have the right to her last