Othello (Vol. 35) | Irene G. Dash (essay date 1981)
Irene G. Dash (essay date 1981)
SOURCE: "A Woman Tamed: Othello," in Wooing, Wedding, and Power: Women in Shakespeare's Plays, 1981, pp. 103-30.
[In the following essay, Dash discusses Desdemona's character and Shakespeare's treatment of marriage.]
"Be as your fancies teach you;
What e'er you be, I am obedient."
(III.iii.88-89)
Married to Othello before the drama opens, Desdemona is a woman slowly tamed in the crucible of marriage. Bright, intelligent, and courageous, she is endowed with qualities that should assure her success. Nevertheless, these strengths become handicaps when she seeks to adjust to a new role. Continuing where Romeo and Juliet ended, Othello raises questions left unanswered by the swift deaths of those youthful star-crossed lovers. It asks whether the...
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