A summary of the presentation of women in Othello

Shakespeare’s Division of Experience – Summary of Othello Essay.

Venice is dominated by reason. Reason is a form of control – control over others is power and self-control makes you invulnerable. Even the underbelly/ unsavoury side of Venetian culture has a masculine obsession with control. Cyprus is used as an example of a place without proper control in place; the Venetians need to subdue it. In Cyprus there is no reason, so control is imposed by killing.
Othello is demonstrates admirable self-control and control over others early in the paly. He represents Venice’s cultured side. Iago is controlled and entirely logical, but in a destructive way, he represents Venice’s underside. Roderigo demonstrates the consequences of a lack of self-control when he makes a fool of himself in the council scene.
Control allows one to transcend nature, an essentially masculine principle which is misogynistic. Women are owned and controlled by men, and feminine traits, particularly emotion are despised. Iago criticises Othello for choosing Cassio “by affection” as this suggests an emotional decision. Love, sex and emotion are seen as feminine, and Iago uses foul language to describe all of them.
Othello also despises the feminine principle, although he disguises it better. “I do confess the vices of my blood – How I did thrive in this Lady’s love”. He associates love with vice. He tries to separate sex and love and idealise love. Iago also separates sex from love by demeaning sex – both men try to control sexuality.
Women are only acceptable id they are utterly idealised. Cassio describes Desdemona as almost immortal, as does Othello. However Iago cannot do this, he criticises Emilia and uses her perceived faults to build a wider criticism of all women. To him they are not much better than beasts, they simply function as childbearers. Both these attitudes are extremely dangerous for the real, imperfect women in the paly, who are neither Madonna nor whore. They do not submit to either form of masculine control, they are not perfect or imperfect enough.
The tiniest suggestion from Iago of Desdemona’s “inconstancy” is enough to tip Othello into despising her, she is tarnished. Iago now leads Othello into believing that Desdemona is one of the other type of women – sexual and therefore subhuman. He feels that she seduced him into love, a feminine emotional principle, and therefore this means he is also less of a soldier – she has damaged his whole career. The language becomes cruder and full of animal imagery As Othello follows Iago into believing that women are beasts.
The situation is untenable. He has to kill her in order to follow his guiding principle of asserting control.
There appears to be three types of women in “Othello”. Desdemona, who is superhuman, Emilia who is from the realistic world, and Bianca who is from the subhuman level. They all meet an unfortunate fate, because they cannot be controlled.
Desdemona remains overarchingly obedient throughout the paly. She blames herself for her own murder, and sees Othello as part of herself, without whom she could not exist. However, she is also shown as having free will, and is presented as a sexual being. She is idealised by Othello, Brabantio, Roderigo and initially Cassio, but demeaned by Iago. It is this “failure” to submit to the control of men’s contrasting expectations which lead to her downfall.
Bianca, as a courtesan is treated with open contempt even by Cassio. The crude discussion of her, which Othello mistakes as being about Desdemona, demonstrates how changed his opinion of Desdemona has become. Bianca is instrumental in sealing Desdemona’s fate by providing the handkerchief; a sexual woman undoing an idealised woman.
Emilia represents the reality of womanhood, and she also speaks for all the women in the play. She is one of the “realest” women in Shakespeare, obedient through necessity and pragmatism, a friend to other women but not utterly faithful to them. She understands that men’s’ perceptions of women outweigh the importance of reality. She understands that women are human, and not superhuman. Her long speech which justifies the inconstancy of women is strange, because Desdemona has not been inconstant. It makes the audience question what they would have wanted to happen to Desdemona if she had been inconstant. This in turn makes the audience question how far they are controlled by male principles.