Essay On The Role Of Women In Othello

William Shakespeare is a writer from the 16th century and is to this day still seen as the greatest English poet of all time. His play Othello was written between 1601 and 1604, it was first performed by the King’s Men in 1604. Othello is a play about a general, named Othello, who is being manipulated into thinking that his wife, Desdemona, is unfaithful. The way that women are represented in this play, differs from the way women were viewed during Shakespeare’s time.

During the Elizabethan era, which was the era in which William Shakespeare grew up, women were inferior to men. They were seen as the weaker sex and as possessions. Daughters first belonged to their fathers and after they got married they belonged to their husbands. Women should be obedient and abide by their father’s or husband’s rules. They were also expected to marry and have many children, a woman who was single was mistrusted and often associated with witchcraft. A woman had to remain chased until marriage remain faithful. The reputation of women had a huge impact on the reputation of their entire family, if a daughter would be labelled a whore this would put her family in a weak position in society. Even though a single woman ruled the country, the women living in that country had no vote and few …show more content…
The view that the men have of women in Othello was the same as the view of women during the Elizabethan era. The women themselves knew how they were expected to act, but did not always act accordingly. The married women, Desdemona and Emilia, were not always obedient to their husbands or fathers. Bianca, a prostitute, was portrayed in such a way that people sympathised with her. Shakespeare portrays women not merely as weak and inferior because he believed that women are unable to meet the expectations of women that existed during the Elizabethan era. He used the female characters in his play to shed a different light on