Custom Written Term Papers: Othello’s Feminine Perspective

Othello’s Feminine Perspective  Ã‚        Ã‚   The audience finds in Othello, Shakespeare’s tragic drama, the feminine perspective on life in general and on various aspects of life. These feminine perspectives from the three lady-characters are not consistent and uniform among the ladies. Let’s consider them in this paper.    Alvin Kernan’s â€Å"Othello: an Introduction† explains the protagonist’s delayed conversion to the feminine perspective:    His willingness to speak of what he has done – in contrast to Iago’s sullen silence – is a willingness to recognize the meaning of Desdemona’s faith and chastity, to acknowledge that innocence and love do exist, and that therefore The City can stand, though his life is required to validate the truth and justice on which it is built. (81)    At the outset of the play only the male perspective is given: Iago persuades the rejected suitor of Desdemona, Roderigo, to accompany him to the home of Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, in the middle of the night. Once there the two awaken the senator with loud shouts about his daughter’s elopement with Othello. In response to the noise and Iago’s vulgar descriptions of Desdemona’s involvement with the general, Brabantio arises from bed. With Roderigo’s help, he gathers a search party to go and find Desdemona and bring her home. The father’s attitude is that life without his Desdemona will be much worse than before:    It is too true an evil: gone she is;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   And what's to come of my despised time   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Is nought but bitterness. (1.1)    Brabantio is the old father, and he hates to lose the comforting services of his Desdemona. The daughter’s husband Othello expresses his sentiments to Iago regarding his relationship... ...llo: A Tragedy of Beauty and Fortune.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from â€Å"The Noble Moor.† British Academy Lectures, no. 9, 1955.    Heilman, Robert B. â€Å"Wit and Witchcraft: an Approach to Othello.† Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. Rev. Ed. Rpt. from The Sewanee Review, LXIV, 1 (Winter 1956), 1-4, 8-10; and Arizona Quarterly (Spring 1956), pp.5-16.    Kernan, Alvin. â€Å"Othello: and Introduction.† Shakespeare: The Tragedies. Ed. Alfred Harbage. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1964.    Muir, Kenneth. Introduction. William Shakespeare: Othello. New York: Penguin Books, 1968.    Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.