Women In Charles Mee's Big Love
Throughout most of history women generally received fewer legal rights and opportunities than men. Many women still hold the traditional roles of wife and mother. Still in many cultures, women continue to face struggles prohibiting them from living up to their full potential. The Suppliant Women, the first extant play in Western European Literature, inspired Charles Mee to write the story of Big Love. Mee introduces many social issues into his modernized version of the thousand year old drama. In the play, Big Love, fifty sisters prepare for their arranged marriages set by their father. Out of the fifty sisters, Mee presents three main sisters: Lydia, Thyona, and Olympia. The three sisters embody different types of women and their view
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Desdemona's mistakes in breaking the gender rules cause her to lose everything she has. The Desdemona's true nature shows early in the play when she says, "I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband, and so much duty as my mother showed to you, preferring you before her father, so much I challenge that I may profess" (I.iii.203-205). Desdemona disregards her father’s love and care for her as if they meant nothing. Although Desdemona mentions Brabantio as a "noble father" (Othello I.iii.198) and how she respects him, she makes up her mind and abandons her father. Desdemona tries to justify her actions despite everything her father does for her when she says, "Nor would I reside, to put my father in impatient thoughts by being in his eye" (I.iii.263-265). Although Desdemona tries to comfort her dad, she only makes things worse by refusing to stay with him and going with Othello. The idea of gender rules comes back to haunt Desdemona when she tries to help Cassio recover his position. Shakespeare writes the women of Othello into stereotypical roles, but behind people’s backs play much stronger types. Desdemona, goes against her father’s orders and marries a moor. Bianca innocently takes part in Desdemona's death. Emilia has an opportunity to save Desdemona yet she remains silent. These three women in the play were portrayed as less superior than men. Desdemona, daughter of the Venetian Senator Brabantio married a moor against her father’s wishes "The marriage seems to be monstrous- in the sense that it represents a deviation from that which is natural. How else, Brabantio asks, would Desdemona, so carefully, have brought such scandal upon herself and her father by shunning, the wealthy curled darlings of our nation"(I.ii.68). Desdemona arrives and resolves the dispute by acknowledging split loyalties to her father and to her new
Desdemona's mistakes in breaking the gender rules cause her to lose everything she has. The Desdemona's true nature shows early in the play when she says, "I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband, and so much duty as my mother showed to you, preferring you before her father, so much I challenge that I may profess" (I.iii.203-205). Desdemona disregards her father’s love and care for her as if they meant nothing. Although Desdemona mentions Brabantio as a "noble father" (Othello I.iii.198) and how she respects him, she makes up her mind and abandons her father. Desdemona tries to justify her actions despite everything her father does for her when she says, "Nor would I reside, to put my father in impatient thoughts by being in his eye" (I.iii.263-265). Although Desdemona tries to comfort her dad, she only makes things worse by refusing to stay with him and going with Othello. The idea of gender rules comes back to haunt Desdemona when she tries to help Cassio recover his position. Shakespeare writes the women of Othello into stereotypical roles, but behind people’s backs play much stronger types. Desdemona, goes against her father’s orders and marries a moor. Bianca innocently takes part in Desdemona's death. Emilia has an opportunity to save Desdemona yet she remains silent. These three women in the play were portrayed as less superior than men. Desdemona, daughter of the Venetian Senator Brabantio married a moor against her father’s wishes "The marriage seems to be monstrous- in the sense that it represents a deviation from that which is natural. How else, Brabantio asks, would Desdemona, so carefully, have brought such scandal upon herself and her father by shunning, the wealthy curled darlings of our nation"(I.ii.68). Desdemona arrives and resolves the dispute by acknowledging split loyalties to her father and to her new