Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 111 views

    York Notes Othello

    Uploaded by

    Henry JOhnson
    Women are presented as possessions in Othello. Brabantio views Desdemona's decision to elope as undermining the natural social order, as women were expected to obey male authority. Some critics see Desdemona as a victim, while others argue she is partly responsible for her fate. Feminist readings suggest Desdemona accepts her submissive role but is punished for being too independent by choosing her own husband. Marxist critics examine the symbolic importance of Desdemona's wedding sheets and handkerchief. New historicist critics argue female characters like Desdemona had to be destroyed for being subversive to the patriarchal social order. During the Renaissance, women were widely viewed as intellectually and

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    York Notes Othello

    Uploaded by

    Henry JOhnson
    111 views2 pages
    Women are presented as possessions in Othello. Brabantio views Desdemona's decision to elope as undermining the natural social order, as women were expected to obey male authority. Some critics see Desdemona as a victim, while others argue she is partly responsible for her fate. Feminist readings suggest Desdemona accepts her submissive role but is punished for being too independent by choosing her own husband. Marxist critics examine the symbolic importance of Desdemona's wedding sheets and handkerchief. New historicist critics argue female characters like Desdemona had to be destroyed for being subversive to the patriarchal social order. During the Renaissance, women were widely viewed as intellectually and

    Original Title

    304849957-York-Notes-Othello.docx

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Women are presented as possessions in Othello. Brabantio views Desdemona's decision to elope as undermining the natural social order, as women were expected to obey male authority. Some critics see Desdemona as a victim, while others argue she is partly responsible for her fate. Feminist readings suggest Desdemona accepts her submissive role but is punished for being too independent by choosing her own husband. Marxist critics examine the symbolic importance of Desdemona's wedding sheets and handkerchief. New historicist critics argue female characters like Desdemona had to be destroyed for being subversive to the patriarchal social order. During the Renaissance, women were widely viewed as intellectually and

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    111 views2 pages

    York Notes Othello

    Uploaded by

    Henry JOhnson
    Women are presented as possessions in Othello. Brabantio views Desdemona's decision to elope as undermining the natural social order, as women were expected to obey male authority. Some critics see Desdemona as a victim, while others argue she is partly responsible for her fate. Feminist readings suggest Desdemona accepts her submissive role but is punished for being too independent by choosing her own husband. Marxist critics examine the symbolic importance of Desdemona's wedding sheets and handkerchief. New historicist critics argue female characters like Desdemona had to be destroyed for being subversive to the patriarchal social order. During the Renaissance, women were widely viewed as intellectually and

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 2

    LITA4: Notes

    How are women presented in Othello, The Taming of the Shrew and the Miller’s 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
    culture’s 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’.

    You might also like