LITA4: Notes

How are women presented in Othello, The Taming of the Shrew and the Millers Tale?
Othello
York Notes P. 12
Look at your house, your daughter, and your bags! / Thieves, Thieves imagery makes it clear that
women are seen as possessions to the male characters.
Brabantio believes Desdemona has subverted the natural order by eloping, decision to choose own
husband is treason of the blood.
Some critic see Des as a victim, others believe she is partly responsible for what happens to her.
Feminist readings of Des:

The gender politics of Othello

Feminist would consider the role of male and female characters in relation to the patriarchal
society context of the play.
Marilyn French explores the masculine value system at work in O. In spite of her
assertiveness in choosing her own husband, French suggests Desdemona accepts her
cultures dictum that she must be obedient to males and is self-denying in the extreme when
she dies.
Lisa Jardine shares above viewpoint about the misogyny of Othello. She suggests that the
stage world of Jacobean drama is wholly masculine and argues that there is only a male
viewpoint on offer.
Jardine asserts the view that Des proves to be too-knowing, too-independent because of her
waywardness she is punished by patriarchy. She suggests Desdemona becomes a stereotype of
female passivity.

Marxist:

Dympna Callaghan considers the cultural significanceof Des wedding sheets and the
handkerchief, commenting on how these objects have economic and symbolic value in the
Renaissance.
Handkerchief miniture of the nuptial linens crucially important to the stability of the
marriage of Othello and Desdemona.

New Historicist:

Othello context importance.

Violence against female characters, Leonard Tennenhouse asserts the view that Jacobean
tragedies offer up their scenes of excessive punishment as if mutilating the female could
somehow correct political corruption. The female in question may be completely innocent
yet in play after play she demands her own death or else claims responsibility for her murder.
He suggests that Des has to be destroyed because she is subversive.
Unlike many female critics he suggests that Des is the embodiment of power when she
appears in Act 1 and defends her right to choose her own husband.

Orson Welles version portray Des as overly innocent.

Men and Women York Notes: P64

LITA4: Notes

During the Renaissance many people believed that men were intellectually and morally
superior to women because of Christian teachings. John Knox, Protestnat clergymen wrote: a
woman ought to serve her husband as unto God, affirming that in nothing has woman equal
power with man.