What Is The Unprotectedness Of Women In Othello

Ruth Vanita, the author of “Proper” Men and “Fallen” Women: The Unprotectedness of Wives in Othello, explains how Elizabethan and Jacobean writers included the murder of an adulterous wife by her husband in a majority of their plays. She attempts to prove that Desdemona and Emilia both died as victims of spousal abuse due to their alleged infidelity. According to the accepted social norms, both Desdemona and Emilia deserved their murders because of their infidelity to their husbands. Emilia betrayed Iago by blatantly defying him in order to prove Desdemona’s innocence; while Desdemona, although always faithful, betrayed Othello through her supposed infidelity with Cassio. Since men regarded their wives as property, they had to discipline them and could resort to violence in order to teach them a lesson.
Next, Ruth Vanita demotes the argument that Desdemona’s
According to the article, Desdemona fights for her life to the best of her ability. Desdemona did not do so, but rather accepted her fate as shown when she exclaimed to Emilia “Mine eyes do itch, doth that bode weeping?” (4.3.42-43) She senses a bad omen. Had Desdemona honestly tried to fight for her life using all the resources available to her, she would not have dismissed Emilia from her bedroom, or she would have run away. Willingly submitting herself to Othello, Desdemona attempts to preserve his reputation when she refuses to say he murdered her. For this reason, she accepted her death because she had no other alternatives. Barbantio disowned Desdemona; therefore, she had nowhere to turn to if she ran away. As a result, Vanita contradicts herself when she says that Desdemona fought for her life to the best of her ability because she later writes that Desdemona had nowhere to go and could either accept her fate or run away and turn to