Male Dominance or Female Elegance

We all can agree that Shakespeare has always had a way with creating different roles for males and females. Look back on Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and even Othello—who died first? Exactly, a woman. What does he mean by this, who knows, but we do know that woman always seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to Shakespeare. We see men represented as dominant figures, honored by the society surrounding them. Women are presented to be honored by their beauty and grace—obeying their husbands and following orders.

In Othello, we start out by learning Desdemona is a beautiful young woman who is honored by many other men for her loveliness. Desdemona is married to the famous, General Othello, who is highly regarded by many. Shakespeare gives Othello this really long monologue explaining all he has been through—which, may we add, is very impressive. So, now we have this very positive look on Othello, but what do we really know about Desdemona? She is beautiful, betrayed her father, and went and married Othello with knowing him for a very short amount of time. Not exactly a great way to be presented.

Let’s switch characters for a second and talk about Iago and Emilia. Throughout the whole play, Iago has this incredibly brilliant, impressive plan. For awhile, it is just him and Roderigo—of course, we don’t really think anything of it. Roderigo doesn’t fully understand what he got himself into, and we are just blown away at how Iago’s plan is playing out. But when Emilia jumps into play, and she picks up the handkerchief and gives it to Othello, we can’t stand her! We think things like, “how could she do that, she’s a backstabber, and now we pretty much hate her for her betrayal”. Even though, what Iago was doing was way worse than the one thing Emilia did. Shakespeare just has a way with making us understand things in certain ways.

Cheating. Isn’t it crazy that cheating goes all the way back to “Shakespeare Times?” What was really interesting though is, Iago suspected Emilia cheated on him with Othello and Othello suspected Desdemona cheated on him with Cassio. Why is it only men suspecting their wives are unloyal? Why isn’t it the other way around? These women have total trust in their husbands, and the if the husbands suspect their wives are cheating they just want to kill them. Shakespeare also has the men talking terribly about their wives. Othello several times in the play says things like, “Ay, let her rot and perish and be damned tonight, for she shall not live” (Act 4 Scene 1, lines 200-201). Desdemona never says one rotten word to Othello. Othello even continues with, “I will chop her into messes” (Act 4 Scene 1, line 219)! He even strikes her at one point during the play. What is hard to understand, is how someone could think and say such horrible things when he hasn’t even spoken to his wife to find out if it is 100% true that she cheated on him.

Shakespeare even had Desdemona and Emilia talking about cheating on their husbands. Desdemona questions, “Dost thou in conscious think—tell me, Emilia—that there be such women do abuse their husbands in such gross time” (Act 4 SCene 3, lines 67-69)? We are given evidence here that Desdemona would never do such a thing to her beloved Othello, but yet Othello still wants her dead. We also see Bianca who is known as Cassio’s “strumpet” or “whore” in the play. Women are represented as “strumpets” while men are represented as brilliant schemers and killers.

The gender roles in Othello are quite interesting. Shakespeare gives us so many to think about. Why he does it still remains an important question. It does add a certain flame to the storyline; it draws attention to important factors he wants us to see. Maybe Shakespeare's gender roles were the start of many more in literature throughout the years. Maybe gender roles is what makes literature great.