Desdemona Essay Examples

In my opinion ‘The Winter’s Tale’ is a play about human error. It is about the mistakes that people can make and how hard it is to forgive oneself for making them. Most of all it about how time can bring healing change. Leontes is the character who best exemplifies all of these themes throughout […]

The strong influential themes of race and women in Shakespeare’s Othello are consistently portrayed in Jeoffery Sax’s contemporary film version of Othello, however the themes are greatly contrasted through the influential changes in society which undermine the values and purposes of these themes. The changes in values of these themes are expressed vividly in both […]

There is no doubt that when Professor F. R Leavis discusses Shakespeare’s Othello as a tale of self-destruction, and not of simple manipulation that he is indeed correct. The story of Othello is pivotal on the flaw of character embodied in the antagonist, and it can be recognised by any audience that is his selfishness, […]

“The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose” (Stevenson, Robert). In play Othello identity is a topic that appears throughout the play. In Shakespeare Othello all the women, Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca have no separate identity all three are defined by who they are or not married to or […]

William Shakespeare based his drama “Othello” on a narrative called “Hecatommithi” by Giraldi Cinthio’s. This was a aggregation of a 100 narratives that was printed in Italy in the 16th century. It is thought that Shakespeare read the original Italian version and got inspired to compose his ain. In composing his ain version. Shakespeare kept […]

For the first sections of both literatures, the authors William Shakespeare and Graham Greene, both introduce the setting, the characters and the attitudes in aim to set the scenery and themes that will be displayed throughout the book or performance. Brighton Rock and Othello contrast mainly through the themes of wealth and violence. However, the […]

The opening statement is “It is the cause, it is the cause” This shows that Othello believes strangling his own wife for being deceitful is justified. He believes that Desdemona deserves what is about to happen to her.However, the audience are plagued with the knowledge that it is not justified and she is innocent. Yet […]

The ‘stereotypes’ that this question addresses are initially supported quite well when the female characters are first introduced in the play, however when the play develops we see complexities to the female characters emerge, thus the ‘stereotype’ that each of the character has been assigned does not fit comfortably with the presentation Shakespeare gives us […]

In Othello, a play dominated by strong, high-ranked combatant males, female characters are the minority. Critics have argued that Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca are mostly, if not only, seen in their relationships with men, whereas the male characters are also seen in their professional roles. This feeds the view that the women in Othello are […]

Honour is defined as the evaluation of a person’s social status as judged by that individual’s community. To be put simply, Margaret Visser observes that in an honour-based society “a person is what he or she is in the eyes of other people. ” To argue whether Othello’s murder of Desdemona was indeed intended to […]

At the start of this scene the stage is crowded with ‘gentlemen of Venice’, Emilia, Desdemona and Othello and just before the characters file out to leave the solitary two women; we catch a brief, cold exchange between Desdemona and Othello. Othello’s blunt authoritative tone and words are chilling, but the audience feels the impact […]

This short story is based on two love triangles, at the apex of both being Phyllis, a secluded young woman who lives alone with her father, a failed doctor in an isolated farmhouse outside Weymouth. It is described as an “obscure island nook” which encapsulates the fact that there was no fresh work for the […]

This only is the witchcraft I have used. ” –Othello (act 1, scene 3, 167-169) Othello and Desdemona’s manifestly love-filled relationship was somewhat shielded by society’s views of the age, social position and race differences, that would evidently cause implications. In the late sixteenth century, the time in which Othello is based, it was disreputable […]

One of William Shakespeare’s many attributes as a playwright of the late 16th century was his character development. Shakespeare’s seamless use of indirect characterization sets his works apart from the other playwrights and authors of his time. In Othello, the Shakespearian tragedy about the newlywed Othello and Desdemona, Shakespeare uses character foils to emphasize the […]

In certain works of literature, there are characters which are often misunderstood and considered as insignificant. Desdemona from the William Shakespeare’s play “Othello” is one of them. In reality, Desdemona is a relevant and complex character which offers a lesson to those who live in modern day society. Though she may appear irrelevant in Othello, […]

Could one ordinary woman be more intelligent than several highly skilled male warriors? In William Shakespeare’s Othello, although Emilia plays a small role, she makes a powerful impact. Her omnipotent bravado brings us to the conclusion that she is the reincarnation of Esther from the Bible and that she is a mirror image of today’s […]

If any character in Othello embodies goodness, it is Desdemona. In simple terms, she appears to be the antithesis of all the evil and malice that is represented by Iago. Yet she is not a completely ‘flat’ character – Shakespeare gives to her certain characteristics and human qualities that result in her being a far […]

The peripeteia in Shakespeare’s Othello occurs when the protagonist decides on whom to lay his trust and questions his own previous actions. This happens in Act 3, Scene 3 when Othello tells Iago that he plans to kill his wife, Desdemona, in effect declaring that he has elected to believe him. Like in his other […]

Many of William Shakespeare’s tragedies portray characters that eventually experience misfortune by the end of the play. Othello is a prime example of depicting various characters that each come to their own downfall because of a critical weakness. In the play, Othello’s mislead insecurities in his wife’s love for him, Roderigo’s foolish trusting nature, and […]

In William Shakespeare’s Othello, we witness the tragedy of a man tormented by the fabrications of his own mind. Originally, Othello is tempted by Iago to believe in his wife’s infidelity. Following a relatively brief period of temptation, Othello marries the devil himself. From this point on, Othello has made up his mind and will […]

l ‘Be a man’, how are ideas of masculinity presented in Othello. Othello is set during the Elizabethan era, where men were considered to be the leaders and women their inferiors. Women were often regarded as the ‘weaker sex’. This patriarchal society and theme of male superiority is portrayed throughout the play. These themes are […]

Oedipus the King Jocasta is Oedipus’s wife and mother, and Creon’s sister. In her first words, she attempts to make peace between Oedipus and Creon, pleading with Oedipus not to banish Creon. She is comforting to her husband and calmly tries to urge him to reject Tiresias’s terrifying prophecies as false. Jocasta solves the riddle […]