Women’s Submissive Roles to Men in Othello Essay Example

one-way relationship. Othello contains a lot of one-way love and one-sided relationships from the women’s side.

When Iago and Cassio are talking about Bianca and he she is telling people that she is getting married to Cassio, he laughs it off by saying “I marry her? What! A customer! … Ha, ha, ha! ” (Shakespeare, IV i, 119-121). This example of the one-way love shows he takes her and their relationship as a joke, while she takes it very seriously. Another example of the one-sided love is shown with Emilia’s love for Iago. When she finds the handkerchief, she is excited to give to him and to make him happy. When she gives it to him, one can see that she is the only one contributing to their relationship, since Iago was never thinking about her, only the handkerchief.

The one-sided love in this play again shows that women are meant to be mere tools to their partners. The final way to show the submissiveness of women in the play is Desdemona. Looking at the character of Desdemona is the best way to show the submissiveness of women to men in this play. She is shown to be submissive to Othello, her husband, from the very beginning of the play. At the beginning, it is shown that she chooses to be with Othello over her own father as she says, “ I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband … that I may profess due to the Moor my lord” (Shakespeare, I iii, 183-187).

When she says that, she establishes the theme related to women being submissive to their husbands and partners.

Desdemona continues to be submissive to Othello throughout the play and even when he is about to kill her. At the end, when Othello decides to kill her, she asks for more time but ends up letting him murder her. She continues to be faithful to him even when she comes back alive and replies to Emilia’s question of who has killed her by saying “ Nobody; I myself. Farewell” (Shakespeare, V ii, 125).

This ultimately shows that she has been submissive and loyal to her husband even after him killing her. Her loyalty to her husband shows that women in the play are submissive to men. The obedience of women to men, along with the one-sided love and Desdemona’s actions prove that women in Othello are submissive. These points show that women are weak compared to men and are therefore submissive to them. The actions of all these women establish the theme that women are weaker than men in the play. However, times have since changed and women are not regarded as weak beings anymore.