How Does Shakespeare Present The Treatment Of Women In Othello

The way in which Shakespeare portrayed women is solely based on the era he lived in and the general expectation of women and their actions. In Othello there are only three women: Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca. In general, men considered women as their possessions and the only power a women had was sexual power. However, towards the end of the play Shakespeare shows he has complete respect for women and we see them begin to gain more respect for themselves. There is a small sign they are beginning to stand up against men.

From the fist part of the play the audience gets the impression that a women’s only purpose is to give support and affection to their husbands or partners. Men in that society were expected to be strong and intelligent whereas
Iago also describes Bianca as a ‘strumpet’ or a ‘housewife’ . Throughout the play all the women are accused, at one point, of being prostitutes or of behaving inappropriately. Men seem to criticise women when they are having a bad day, giving us the impression it was accepted to put the blame on the women. Desdemona acts like being controlled is a normal occurrence for her. She addresses Othello in an extremely polite way ‘I will, my lord’ referring to him as lord shows she had a huge amount of respect for him and was willing to obey his commands. Our thoughts on this are confirmed as when she is killed she gives Othello an excuse ‘commend me to my kind lord’ , even when she was handed the opportunity to get him in trouble she stayed true to her expected role and supported him till she died. We get another glimpse of female power after Othello has murdered Desdemona, not once has Desdemona betrayed him she stays loyal to the very end. He however, was defeated and lost his temper. He could not bare the thought of her with another man. In the end, Othello is portrayed as a pathetic man and Desdemona is now the one who deserves
By saying this we can tell Emilia is clearly beginning to question the male authority. Another observation is the difference in how women act in front of men and how they act behind closed doors. Women play their roles perfectly when they are expected to but when they are in private they tend to express their true opinions. Out of all the three women Emilia is rather feisty. She is hugely opinionated and unusually honest. Iago massively underestimates her and as she is very intelligent she figures out exactly how men view women. She continues to make it her job to defend all women and we are able to see this through her loyalty to Desdemona. ‘They eat us hungrily, and when they are full, They belch us’ she describes them as greedy and that when they are bored of their wives or girlfriends they push them to the side.

Othello starts off by portraying women as objects. They are objectified and disrespected. However, as the play continues we see a rising confidence in the women especially in Emilia. Othello becomes increasingly more and more weak as he is affected by Iago's words, we start to view him as a fool. In the end women seem to have turned the table and are the victorious characters in terms of the amount of power they have. Through Othello shakespeare manages to make it clear that you should never underestimate women as they have the