"Desdemona is an innocent victim, and the embodiment of goodness inthe play."

Authors Avatar

Stephanie Gordon                April 2005

English Literature

“Desdemona is an innocent victim, and the embodiment of goodness in the play.”

“Desdemona is a sensual, mature and rebellious woman who knows her own mind.”  To what extent do you agree with each of these views of Desdemona?  How do you see her?

In Act One, Scene Three when we first hear of Desdemona through her father Brabantio, the image of a small, shy and innocent young girl comes to mind.  When Brabantio tells the Duke of his daughter he calls her ‘A maiden never bold; / of spirit so still and quiet’ and the only reason she married Othello is because ‘she feared to look on’ him.  Brabantio seems sure that this is the daughter he knows so well and he believes that she must have been ‘wrought upon’ as he does not think it is possible that she would disobey him and marry behind his back.  We see Desdemona as an innocent victim through Brabantio’s eyes, however the Desdemona that presents herself later on in Scene Three is not what we expect after hearing Brabantio.

Desdemona’s entrance is bold and the words that she first speaks sound like the words of a person who certainly knows their mind.  She speaks to her father respectfully, ‘you are lord of all my duty, I am hitherto you daughter.’  However, she then goes on to boldly state, ‘But here’s my husband’ and it is her husband that she argues she must now put first.  This confession put forward by Desdemona shows how independent and strongwilled she is compared to the Desdemona that we learn of through Brabantio.  It seems that either there must be two sides to Desdemona or her father has completely underestimated her.  Shakespeare presents Desdemona in her first entrance as a mature and rebellious woman who seems to know her own mind rather than as an innocent victim at this point.  

Join now!

From hearing Othello’s description of his courtship with Desdemona and her entrance shortly afterwards, it seems that she was indeed ‘half the wooer’ and continues to show her womanly strength by insisting that she should go to war with her husband and that she ‘did love the Moor to be with him’.  Desdemona claims she cannot stay put as ‘a moth of peace’, the marriage has not yet been consummated and she does not want to be hidden away from the man that she loves.  This strong sense of will Desdemona shows in Act One contrasts to her actions ...

This is a preview of the whole essay