Othello- Gender Quotes

‘thieves, thieves, thieves! Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!’ Iago-presents Desdemona as an object owned by her father, almost irrelevant in list of stolen objects.[A1S1]
‘the old black ram is tupping your white ewe!’ Iago-Desdemona is seen as property ‘your’ but also sexualised, her choice to be with Othello is seen as a violation. Desdemona as beautiful daughter is seen as prized possession. [A1S1]
‘And so much duty as my mother showedTo you, preferring you before her father’ Desdemona- irony that Desdemona, who disobeys her father and subverts patriarchal norms is in fact an upholder of tradition and is what a wife should be, faithful to her husband[A1S3]
‘Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:She has deceived her father, and may thee.’ Brabantio- Line is in form of couplet, gives a poetic and almost foreshadowing quality, Desdemona’s subversion of patriarchy tarnishes her name and forever will shed doubt.[A1S3]
‘She did deceive her father, marrying you,’ Iago- Iago casts back to shed doubt in Othello’s mind and manipulate social anxieties of womens faith, that in disobeying her father and marrying Othello, Desdemona has the capacity to betray Othello.[A3S3]
‘I know our country disposition well;In Venice they do let God see the pranks’ Iago- Contextual, ties into Elizabethan/Jacobean belief in the looseness of Venetian women, known for lax social attitudes and infamous for its courtesans. In this way, Iago taps into social anxieties to further cast doubt into Othello, Othello as an outsider to Venice presumably unaware of Venetian women.[A3S3]
‘let nobody blame him, his scorn i approve’ Desdemona- Foreshadowing, shows Desdemona’s loyalty and love of Othello, foreshadows later actions and shows her undying love and affection.[A4S3]
‘Who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch’ Emilia- Contrasts Desdemona’s naive idealism with pragmatic assertion.[A4S3]
‘But i do think it is their husbands faultsIf wives do fall. Say that they slack their duties’ Emilia-revolutionary, contradicts patriarchal, jacobean norm of wifes unconditional loyalty, that upheld by Desdemona.
‘I will chop her into messes! Cuckold me?’ Othello-Reflects on Jacobean beliefs that should a woman cheat or defy husband, masculinity is destroyed, Othello enraged at this slight. Shakespeare may offer an indictment of this socially entrenched notion of masculinity, that Othello would fly into such a rage when there is no real proof.[A4S1]
‘Oh my fair warrior’ Othello-Defies Patriarchal norm in juxtaposing Desdemona’s beauty with the rank of a warrior, shows her as his true equal and possessing of strength. Love transcends social expectation.[A2S1]
‘The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue;The profit’s yet to come ‘tween me and you’ Othello- Sex, this is interrupted by Cassio’s drunken actions, arguably Desdemona and Othello never consummate- testament to the forces of society that doom their love to failure. [A2S3]
July 24, 2019