The way the attitudes and values of Elizabethan England are represented through gender is based on the portrayal of women in the text. he three women in the text are Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca. And together they construct a well rounded view of women in society. From Angel through realist to whore. The other way women are portrayed is through the portrayal of them by other characters. The characters who offer the most notable portrayals are Iago, Brabantio, and Emilia.
The character of Emelia is an even harder one to evaluate. This is because she is the smartest woman character, but nonetheless men still seem to find a way to treat her poorly. When Emilia goes out of her way to help her husband Iago do evil, he barely even thanks her.
Emilia within this book had the most respect for Desdemona. In Act 5, Emilia shows one last act of loyalty to Desdemona.
‘Lay me by my mistress’s side and sing the willow song’
Emilia shows herself as strong women arguing with Othello,
‘What such a fool do with so good a wife’
Here we can see the comparison of both her good and strong side.
At one stage of the play Emila gives Iago Desdemona’s handkerchief to please her husband and make him happy with her. It also was the way women were expected to behave.
Inevitably emila dies at the end. It is foreseeable that the way in which iago treats her throughout the play.
‘so speaking as I think,I die,I die’
Everyone including her husband, Cassio, treats the character of Bianca unfairly. This is because Bianca is really in love with Cassio, however he can only see the relationship as being a physical one. Due to this, Cassio has no problem making fun of Bianca behind her back when she leaves, and then wooing her when she returns again.
‘tis but a little what that I can bring you, for I attend here; but ill see you soon.’
Desdemona is the last of the characters to evaluate, however she is also the most important. Desdemona is treated very unfairly because she is a faithful wife, who loves her husband very much. However, through the help of Iago, her husband, and Othello suspects Desdemona is cheating on him. This is not true, but still Othello believes his friend long before he would listen to the woman who loves him. Othello then, instead of treating Desdemona fairly in return for her love, argues with and makes fun of her. How society felt about women is shown by their influences on Othello's behaviour and who he believes about Desdemona’s infidelity. Othello believes Iago over Desdemona, who is his ‘wife’.
The women in this play don't seem to possess very much power, but in fact they have much more power and control than most people think. They hold the play together like glue to paper. If Desdemona never had the power to commit adultery then it would never have been thought of and Othello would never have fallen.
Othello is a perfect example of where the women are made to seem inferior to the men through the use of stylistic techniques, plot, and use of language. But why is this so important?
It is important because women in "Othello" make up the backbone of the play. Without them there to antagonize the men and generate intense feelings of love, hatred and jealousy, the play could not and would not exist.
The supposed inferiority of women follows from the fact that human societies have been dominated by men.
The willow song however sung by Desdemona foreshadows her own death.
Desdemona tells the story of her mother’s maid, Barbary, and her sad fate. “She was in love, and he she lov’d prov’d mad, / And did forsake her: she had a song of ‘willow,’ / An old thing ’twas, but it express’d her fortune, / And she died singing it”. Barbary is a parallel for Desdemona herself: her mother’s maid is something like her mother’s daughter, a girl under her mother’s care and protection. This is the only time Desdemona mentions her mother, and she speaks of her in the distant past, as if she were dead. Desdemona’s mother plays no part in the story of the courtship and marriage to Othello, and Desdemona speaks and acts as a woman alone, who takes full responsibility for her decisions.
Desdemona sings the “Willow Song,” and, in this indirect way, she faces the real possibility that Othello is going mad and will desert her and that she may die of a broken heart. Ironically after saying this story to the maid she dies herself.
Emilia and Desdemona make a clear contrast in their approach to marriage and fidelity. Desdemona is a romantic who has married for love and values loyalty absolutely. Emilia has a practical intelligence and assesses each situation to decide which the best course of action is. She thinks that a wife’s infidelity is a serious matter, only to be undertaken for good solid reasons of advantage: “who would not make her husband a cuckold, to make him a monarch?” The other reason for a wife to be unfaithful is in reaction to the husband’s misbehavior or maltreatment: “But I do think it is their husbands’ faults / If wives do fall”
Emilia’s speech at the end of Act IV on the faults of husbands neatly balances Iago’s speech in Act II on the faults of wives. Both speeches were heard by Desdemona, who dismisses them as not relating to her and her love.
