Emilia is introduced in Act II being ridiculed by her husband Iago. Iago makes a mockery of her in saying " . . . you are pictures out of door, / Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens, / Saints in your injuries, devils being offended, /Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds" (II.i.108-111). Emilia's bitterness is due to this poor treatment that she receives from her husband Iago. This frequent abuse that she endures makes her bold and direct. She tells Desdemona, '"'Tis not a year or two shows us a man: / They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;/ To eat us hungrily, and when they are full,/ They belch us."
The females are always dependant on male roles to give them support and backing for almost every single action. They look up to their husbands with lordly admiration, which seems endearing but results in the women being abused and unfairly represented, “You are the lord of duty” This again would have been normal in Elizabethan times but seems very backward and primitive to a modern days, more liberal and equality minded population. Living in a world which sees women competing with men for jobs, salaries, and positions of stature and respect, it is hard to imagine such an unquestioned bias towards the males of society. Some might say living in a society in which men are no longer the dominant species, but are being selectively removed from the natural process for which they were created.
Othello, of all of Shakespeare's works, is perhaps the one most devoted to probing sexism and the relationships between the sexes. Although any sexism in the first act is subtle and vague, the battle between the sexes begins slowly in Act II and gradually builds into the play's ugly climax. Iago gives audiences their first clue into the Venetian men's narrow view of females when he arrives in Cyprus. He sings a song to describe the perfect woman which begins "If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit / The one's for use, the other useth it" (II, i, 144-145). His narrow view may stem from previous experiences that having his way over women was always easy. Emilia obeys all of Iago’s commands, even stealing Desdemona’s handkerchief without even questioning the reason for this crime.
Women were seen as lower class in the play, and in the period in general. They addressed the male figures normally as “my lord” or a certain term of given stature and respect. However the men are free to express themselves liberally and often make explicit sexual references towards women, notably Iago towards Desdemona when he is talking to Roderigo.
Undoubtedly women are victims in the play. They are the main targets (obviously Desdemona’s murder) but the debate revolves around the blame, or who made them victims. Partly I believe that the women themselves are largely to blame for their own poor position in society, and therefore creating their own helplessness. If they had rebelled hundreds of years before, when the class system was established, and fought for a respectable position, then they would not have been persecuted. This may be a fairly controversial view, but none the less I think it is justified.
Desdemona has actually no part in her downfall (no guilty part so to say), she merely displays a kind heart, and is not afraid to express her feelings. The same is displayed with Emilia’s supposed fornication’s with Cassio. “And it is thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets, H’as done my office. I know not if’t be true, But I for mere suspicion in that kind, Will do as if for surety.” Iago shows the lack of trust, respect and power which women are given perfectly in one speech. The women are given this image, and cannot shake it off, no matter how much they protest.
