gender Flashcards
(34 cards)
1.1 IAGO “look to you house, your daughter, your bags! Thieves, thieves!”
Associating women as property of their father or husband, have to be kept in line like their possessions with no freedom
Seems to like disturbing peoples peace.
2.1 IAGO “you [emilia] are picture out of doors… players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds!”
Iago is insulting his wife saying she is inactive and silent, not opinionated or heard.
She is ineffective, unsexy and withdrawn. He is teasing them of being two faced like venetian women. AO3
2.1 IAGO “to suckle fools, and chronicle small beer”
After Iago describes his perfect woman who is impossible and he uses rhyming to imitate foolishness.
Thinks a woman should marry, make stupid children and be a housewife demonstrates his misogynistic behaviour.
3.3 “in venice they do let god see their pranks”
AO2 - Venetian women don’t care what god thinks as long as they stay unknown, iago is telling othello that as he is a soldier he doesnt know the city life or what he is getting himself into.
3.3 IAGO “in all things, nature tends - Foh! one may smell in such a will most rank, Foul disproportion thoughts unnatural.”
claims that when women fall, have a low social rank or decieve nature, they become disgusting
3.3 IAGO“how now! What do you here alone?”
Emilia “do not you chide, i have a thing for you -”
[snatching it]
Indicating that their relationship is unhealthy. She is asking him to not tell her off, submissive
Stage directions show that he is the dominant figure and is using her.
4.1 IAGO TO OTHELLO “bear your fortune like a man!…good sir, be a man…a passion most unsuiting such a man”
Iago is emasculating othello when he is most vulnerable and after his fit, possibly trying to continue his plan frustrating and stirring othello even more.
Iago is demonstrating the power he has over othello and what he has had from the start.
3.3OTHELLO “if i do prove her haggard, though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings, i’d whistle her off”
“O curse of marriage that we can call these delicate creatures ours and not their appetites!”
Speaks of desdemona like a dog on a leash (heartstrings) as he is controlling and whistles her off is a very zoomorphic approach. AO2
The haggard reference is like she is a bird also.
Complains of marriage as he controls his wife through law but not her sexual desires.
3.3 “villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore”
AO2 - Oxymoron of love and whore shows conflicted feelings, emphasises Madonna-whore complex and shows he is tormented of suspicion.
Villain is a word of Iago so shows he is getting uncontrollable and aggressive.
4.2 OTHELLO “Was this fair paper, this most goodly book made to write ‘whore’ upon? What commited!”
AO2 Othello is using metaphor to establish Desdemona’s life as a blank, boring piece of paper and its men who write their stories.
White = pure, virginity.
‘What committed’ alludes to the 10 commandments which god states you should never commit adultery.
Claims Desdemona has disobeyed god adding a disloyal biblical image.
4.2 OTHELLO “Impudent strumpet”
“i cry you mercy then, i took you for that cunning whore of venice that married othello”
Calling her a prostitute
He is disassociating himself with her, referring her to be associated as a promiscuous woman.
AO2 - Repetition of ‘whore’ - indicates how far he is removed from his noble, non-patriarchal attitude, he has been poisoned to view women in this way.
1.3 “I hither to your daughter. But here’s my husband:”
She is claiming to be equal with othello, she is confident and brave unlike women of the shakespearean era who have no say
3.4 DESDEMONA “nay, we must think men are not gods”
Interesting for desdemona to say this.
Very assertive and dutiful towards othello.
Echos her characterisation of her security but contrasts Her naive nature and innocence.
PROTO-FEMINIST - recognition of male superiority not being as powerful as presented
3.4 DESDEMONA “Heaven keep that monster from othello’s mind!”
male characters in Othello assume that all Venetian women are inherently promiscuous, which explains why female sexuality is a huge threat to men in the play
Desdemona knows the effect this will have on othello but why cant she see it?
4.2 DESDEMONA “upon my knees, what doth your speech import?”
Lower than othello, begging. Physical demonstration of her loss of power
4.2 when emilia is speaking violently of someone poisoning othello’s mind, DESDEMONA says “Heaven pardon him!”
This virtuous nature is contrasting her from emilia. Emilia is prompting for a deeper enquiry on the intrinsically sexist nature of renaissance society, she frequently convicts on gender inequality.
but desdemona is always under the rule of a man, she is trapped and cannot see/express these views the same
4.3 O: “get you to bed on the instant”
DESDEMINA“I will my lord”
She is still obeying othello, despite their recent distance
4.3 “she [her mothers maid] had a song of ‘willow’ an old thing ‘twas bit it expressed her fortune and she died singing it. That song tonight will not go from my mind”
“[sings] willow willow willow”
Willow has historically been used as a painkiller -modern-day aspirin comes from it. Remembering this song may imply Desdemona wants to numb the emotional pain she feels, and the physical pain that is coming.
perhaps this song is a form of therapy for Desdemona to help deal with the pain, like aspirin.
She cant get it out of her head, proleptic irony as she is going to die like the maid
ao3 - Perhaps it wasn’t just the atypical marriage that’ll cause her downfall, but it could also be the fact that ill-fate is almost hereditary in Desdemona’s family; she was destined for ill-fate. the Greek translation for Desdemona is along the lines of ill fate
AO4: ophelia in hamlet drowns whilst singing, women die
5.2 emilia: “who hath done this deed?”
[as a corpse DESDEMONA] “nobody. I myself. Farewell. Commend me to my kind lord - o farewell!”
She is too perfect for the world, she forgives him?!?
AO3 - reinforces the image of Venice as a patriarchal society where women were seen as property of their husband or father.
This is also demonstrated in the first act, when Brabantio says of his daughter Desdemona: “She is abused, stol’n from me”.
3.4 CASSIO to bianca “go to woman! Throw your vile guesses in the devil’s teeth”
AO2 - Dismissive imperatives, shows a change from how desdemona was spoken to. (madonna-whore complex) both powerless in their relationships. Contrast to desdemona’s virtuous nature.
4.1 “this is the own monkeys giving out. She is persuaded i will marry her”
“Another fitchew”
Monkey = sexual creature and cassio may be referring bianca to this as she is a prostitute.
But othello, thinks they are talking about desdemona so could be interpreting this completely differently.
This is quite harsh of cassio compared to the ‘divine desdemona’ when describing her, demonstrates the love vs lust, also animal imagery.
Fitchew = a dirty, smelly cat with a high sex drive.
3.3 EMILIA“i nothing but to please his fantasy”
Demonstrates the patriarchal venetian society. Is she only their to please him? Is this iago or emilia’s view?
3.4 EMILIA “they are all but stomachs, and we all but food: they eat us hungerly, and when they are full they belch us
Women serve to nourish men, men are driven by their appetites.
AO3 - This implicates the inscrutable behaviours of men in this society.
4.2 EMILIA “alas, iago, my lord hath so bewhored her
Men have the ability to characterise and define women
Noun to a verb, similar to a woman’s status being manipulated by men
Emilia is placing the blame on othello.
