Feminist Approach

Q: A Feminist Approach: Female Characters

Feminist criticism of _Othello_ would also explore the female characters and consider how women are presented in the story.

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A Feminist Approach: Male Characters

Feminist literary criticism may well be able to offer you an insight on Love through the Ages and upon Tragedy. There are several strands of the play which are useful to consider in the light of this.

Feminism and Othello

Feminist criticism focuses on how a work of literature either challenges or supports the idea that the world is a male-dominated place, referred to as the patriarchy.
A feminist approach to Othello would therefore explore how the different characters either reflect or challenge the values of the patriarchy.

Othello

Shakespeare presents Othello as a character who would like to think he is supportive of women, but as the play continues, he becomes more and more repressive, and more and more suspicious of them.
Therefore, he effectively restricts female freedom, and this could be seen as part of his downfall.

Iago

Iago represents traditional patriarchal values in the society of the play.
He has a negative view of women and connives to present them in certain ways.
He is particularly derogatory towards Desdemona.

Brabantio

Brabantio is clearly a patriarchal character who aims to control women.
He is presented as a typical father figure during this period, who wishes to manipulate the marriage and future direction of his daughter.

Male control

To this extent, Desdemona does resist and rage against this control by marrying Othello.
However, having completed this result she seems to then fit back into the patriarchal order with Othello, swapping one male controller for another.

A Feminist Approach: Female Characters

Feminist criticism of Othello would also explore the female characters and consider how women are presented in the story.

Women in Othello

Overwhelmingly, the women presented in Othello are controlled by men.
They tend to be limited in what they wish to achieve beyond a happy marriage and relationship.

Bianca

Bianca can be seen as a subservient character.
She is easily manipulated by money.
However, she is forced to operate in a society which values women in this way.
Prostitution is most often a profession where men manipulate women by money.

Emilia

Emilia might be considered to be a slightly more liberated character.
She is outspoken and at times, assertive.
- For example, she stands up to both Othello and Iago in the final scene of the play.
We may question if the character is killed because of her outspoken nature.

Reading the text

Feminist literary criticism can offer you a unique and very interesting reading of the play which reads against the grain of traditional patriarchal criticism.
In viewing the text from this perspective, you may begin to see a range of alternative readings which will be helpful in considering AO5 (listed later).