Oppression
Purpose of marriage (transition of ownership)
Othello buying into the racist ideas
Contrast between Emilia and Desdemona (response to injustice)
In Act IV, he crumbles. Othello discusses his race throughout the play—usually in response to something a white Venetian says—but here he makes his first negative reference to it, suggesting that perhaps his Blackness is to blame for his lack of conversational ability. It is a quiet moment, but a hugely significant one. It marks a turning point: Othello has fallen victim to the same racist logic (or illogic) that rules the thinking of people such as Iago and Roderigo. Like those men, Othello wants to place the blame for his feelings of inferiority somewhere and winds up laying that blame not where it belongs (in this case, at Iago’s feet), but on his own skin. The floodgates have opened, and now Othello is in danger of believing all of Iago’s racist nonsense. In the next lines, Othello compares himself to a toad living in a dungeon, as if he has begun to suspect that his Blackness makes him a loathsome animal, somehow less than human.
When Othello feels his wife's supposed sexual infidelity has soiled his good reputation, he compares his once good name to his "begrimed and black" face. In other words, Othello associates the blackness of his own skin with something dirty and stained, which is exactly the kind of thing that the racist Venetian characters (like Brabantio) have been saying all along.
By this moment in the play, Othello seems to have internalized the racist ideologies of other characters. He sees himself as a soiled (and soiling) black man.
Some versions of the play read "Her name, that was as fresh / as Dian's visage is now begrimed and black / as my own face." This substitution may oppose the idea that Othello is buying into the racist insults.
Only when Othello buys into the absurd idea that his race inherently makes him dangerous does he begin to creep toward the possibility of doing violence to his wife. When he sees himself through society’s eyes, as a barbaric interloper, Othello begins to despise himself, and it is that self-hatred that allows him to kill what he loves most.
Othello is the only man in Venice with a different color skin, so he feels insecure about being born black. Othello knows he lived in a world where the white people are the majority of the population. He is worried about what others will think him marring Desdemona, so they eloped at the beginning of the play. Othello believes Iago so easily about Desdemona is cheating on him because he does not know why she chose him over a man that is her own skin color. Othello says “Haply, for I am black,”
For much of the play, Othello resists, ignores, or seems indifferent to the racism that dogs him. But eventually he internalizes Iago’s and others’ idea that his Blackness makes him barbarous. This belief, as much as his conviction of Desdemona’s guilt, allows Othello to kill his wife. When he turns the race weapon against himself, he dooms both himself and Desdemona.
The institution of marriage was considered a public affair between two families, positioning the necessity of family reputation above love. During the Renaissance era, this traditional and narrow view of marriage remained. The Venetian society in which Othello is set reinforces these views, as the interracial marriage between Othello and Desdemona would be regarded as immoral, unnatural, and scandalous. This is a reflection of the social values of Elizabethan society where the play was performed, which Shakespeare projects onto the play’s setting.
The power dynamic within marriages was also usually unbalanced, as the husband ruled over the wife. This included treating the wife as a property, passed down from her father to the husband. For example, Desdemona claims "I am hitherto your daughter. But here's my husband" (Act I Scene III), suggesting the prevalence of deeply patriarchal power structures that women internalise, seeing themselves as products of ownership. Desdemona is commodified and treated as an object they can be passed from man to man. It suggests marriage acts as a transaction from father to husband.
The structuralist theorist Claude Levi-Strauss calls this an exchange, whereby patriarchal society treats women as objects to be transferred from one dominant male to another in order to build alliances. This is achieved through weddings where the woman is passed from the father to the groom. For example, before consummating their marriage, Othello says "My dear love, the purchase made, the fruits are to ensue" (Act II Scene III). The word ‘purchase’ is significant, as it depicts an internalised patriarchal view Othello has by viewing Desdemona as an object that he purchased from her father.
Lisa Jardine suggests that the stage world of Jacobean drama is wholly masculine and argues that there is only a male viewpoint on offer. This implies that the masculine dominance of the time is reflected in their control over marriage and women in general.
Othello and Desdemona’s relationship begins as a companionate marriage, as they choose each other, but she still asserts her "duty" (Act I Scene III) to him. This suggests that they view their marriage differently. For Desdemona, Othello becomes part of her identity "I saw Othello’s visage in my mind, / And to his honors and his valiant parts / Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate" (Act I Scene III). As a result, she submerges herself within him, choosing to be faithful and submissive.
The play is a product of its time, which means that it is inherently influenced by social taboos regarding marriage and women. Feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft state that "the divine right of husbands is like the divine right of kings" (A Vindication of the Rights of Women), suggesting that men within marriage are treated like gods that are served by women. The subservient way in which women were expected to behave towards both men in general and their husbands can be observed in Desdemona's behaviour towards Othello. She is passive, meek and submissive - traits that were expected from wives.
Emilia may be seen as a proto-feminist, speaking of marriage as an institution in which equal responsibility should be taken for its success or failure "But I do think it is their husbands' faults / If wives do fall" (Act IV Scene III). She claims that marriage should be based on equal responsibility rather than accusing and marginalising women for wrongdoings.
Desdemona asks whether Emilia would ever cheat on Iago, and Emilia, much older and more cynical, tells her that plenty of women cheat. She says you could justify cheating in lots of different ways. Desdemona declares again that she can't believe there's a single woman in the world who would cheat on her husband.
Unlike Desdemona, who cannot believe that women can ever be unfaithful to their husbands, Emilia suggests adultery is a "small vice". However, we know Emilia is actually a virtuous woman because she says she would not commit adultery for "a joint-ring". Desdemona proves herself to be faithful when she says, “Beshrew me if I did such a wrong for the whole world”. Desdemona is basically saying that she would never cheat, not even if she was offered the whole world.
The passive Desdemona and the defiant Emilia foil each other, since, in the patriacrhal society, the former stoops to conpromise, while the latter revolts against oppressors. However, their unjust deaths suggest that there is no match for the oppression of power, the tragic consequences for women are inevitable, whether they are obedient or rebellious under the society in which men are seen as superior.
Desdemona takes credit for her husband's death, instead of denouncing Othello's crimes of killing her. She talks about the murder to Emilia, saying "Nobody. I myself. Farewell" which shows that she remains loyal to Othello by defending his reputation, even thought he murdered her out of jealousy. However, Emilia dares to defy Iago by revealing his plot against Othello. She says that she will "speak as liberal as the north". Emilia is outspoken in her criticism of Iago's scheme as he indirectly murdered Desdemona. She rebels against her husband rather than caring about her required obedience. Hence, the opposite reactions to their husband's offences means that Desdemona covers the reality while Emilia discloses the truth.
Differing attitudes towards the idea of objectifying women. These attitudes are the concrete manifestation of their different levels of female consciousness. Desdemona is voluntarily constrained by the social framework through being the property of men and regarding this servility as part of her marriage. She fulfilled her duty as a daughter, until marrying Othello, and tells her father "To you I am bound for life" and says he is "the lord of duty". She regards her father as superior and doesn't doubt the subordination of women to men. She is a typical product of patriarchy as she is willingly burdened with a patriarchal system, fulfilling the duty of being obedient to men. However, Emilia questions the objectification of women and criticises the gender inequality of the era. Emilia criticises male-domination by saying "let husbands know their wives have sense like them". She suggests women are equal to men on the basis of humanity.
Peter Hollindale about Desdemona “Desdemona is not sexually naïve”. Desdemona is extremely naïve, but we can believe that she has been faithful and has never thought of straying from her husband. When Desdemona says “Dost thou in conscience think-tell me Emilia-that there be woman do abuse their husbands in such gross kind?”. This is very naïve of her.
Encompassing all the good traits, a lady of spirit, intelligent, devoted, a loving wife, but she fails to justify her love to her husband and is murdered by her husband in a fit of jealous rage. Desdemona is one of the most direct and honest speakers throughout the whole play. However, she gets involved in flirtatious behaviour, which may be considered impure and experienced, rather than innocent and naive.