When a person thinks about the treatment of women in Shakespeare’s Othello in historical terms, that thinking would lead us to the understanding of the role of women in the time and context that the play was written, in Elizabethan England, where women were subservient to men, who ran the society. Even during the time of the play’s first production, women were barred from being actors and men played those characters. There is a marginalization of both women, and of minorities within the play and Othello is rife with instances of it both being portrayed.
It is important to understand that this age in England had great advances in science and art. Reason rather than religion became the guiding rule of human behavior. It was also a time that coincided with the invention of printing, production of book increased and people had more access to knowledge. This however, did not coincide with feelings of women being accepted as equal to men. It was still a place of both racism and sexism (Scarsi, 23).
Wikipedia defines sexism as “prejudice or discrimination based on a person's sex. Sexist attitudes may stem from traditional stereotypes of gender roles and may include the belief that a person of one sex is intrinsically superior to a person of the other.”
Interesting enough, Othello, who Iago is not considers to have is full rights as a non-black man, suffers from some of the same prejudices leveled subconsciously women. Arthur L. Little, Jr. has an interesting take on the fact that Othello is black in the play. He sees it a way for Shakespeare to make a powerful meta character development. Shakespeare wants to portray his otherness in order to lead the audience to suspect that there is something “other” within him. Little writes, “Othello’s literal blackness should not be read as ocular proof of Othello’s metaphorical blackness.” He goes on to suggest that “Like Othello’s search for Desdemona’s honor, the play probes into his blackness, always scrutinizing and presumably moving towards the origin and essence of his black presence” (Little, 1).
Honor, was everything a women had un Elizabethan England, and to lose that was basically to lose everything, even though there is a clear double standard since men in the play have mistresses and this is not considered as horrible an offense as women having an affair.
Shakespeare, is “always wary of women and careful to give them respect.” But the society is one that is dominated by men. They rule the politics and the military of the times. Men have their own honor code, and are expected to be loyal and live up to their reputations of having a strong character that is consistent. Women though, are not expected, or even believed to be capable of similar. They are seen as weak, and second-class citizens, even as “defective males.” (123Helpme.com, 2)
This is clear from the way women speak of men and of their own role within the play. Emilia says, “I am nothing but to please his fantasy” (Othello, 3.3.14). In essence women are not even struggling against the marginalization that the society at large has given to them, but they are accepting as having a subservient place in life to men. They believe as the men do that they are secondary and not deserving as an equal place in life. While this is easy to look at from a present day perspective and judge it is important to remember that this was a much different time where this was generally accepted as such.
Quotations of women deferring to men abound in the play, while the opposite simply does not exists. At the very beginning of the play, Desdemona tells Cassio, “Be though assured, good Cassio, I will do All my abilities on they behalf (Othello 1.1)
The play shows a prejudice, or even contempt, in Elizabethan times to outsiders and women. It was a time when the country was doing economically very well, and this likely spurred increased trade from the outside. If we read the attitudes in Othello as telling of the time, than the British people might not have been very receptive to such outsiders in the same way that they were oppressive towards women.
An Essay titled “Gender and Race In Othello” from the University of North Carolina Press, by Ed Evans says that “gender and race are the central conflicts of the play.” He lists the varied ways that male characters view women. Cassio, is perhaps the most liberated from the belief that women are secondary to men. He idealizes Desdemona, and often praises her good characteristics, even called her a “perfection.” But despite that perfection, his attitude seems to be a reverence that one would reserve for a flower, but he does not consider her to be an intellectual equal.
This contrasts vastly with Iago’s view of women, which is very negative and often critical, both not understanding them and not trusting them. At one point he tells Emilia that women are “Pictures out of doors. Bells in your parlors, wildcats in your kitchens. Saints in your injuries, devils being offended. Players in your huswifery, and huswives in your beds (Othello 2.1). Later on in the play he sees them as being both foolish and unfaithful. Evans sees Othello’s attitudes towards women as the most complex of the play. He loves and praises Desdemona. He also tells Iago that, “But that I love the gentle Desdemona, I would not my unjust free condition Put into circumscription and confine for the sea’s worth.” It is clear that she means the world to him. But yet, as soon as he suspects that she is being unfaithful, he loses his head, and his attitude towards her changes dramatically. He does not give her a chance to explain what is a misunderstanding. Instead he is mean and cruel to her, and calls her a “strumpet” before murdering her for what Evans calls a “perceived infidelity.” Evans says he goes from “idealization to hatred.” (Evans, 1).
Evan, as have other authors writing on the subject of gender and race in Othello, makes a connection between the racism and the mistreatment of women. Both are not of the “ruling race and gender” and are therefore outsiders. (Evans, 1)
The first part that could be read as racist comes out in the first act of the play. Iago is speaking and says, “Even now, now, very now, and old black ram Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise; Awake the snorting citizens with the bell Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you.” (Othello, 1.1.9).
Women were considered of “lower intellect” than men. Othello is older than his wife Desdemona, who is a white woman, and Iago here is portraying him as a black ram and saying that Brabantio should be with his wife, by calling her a white ewe.
While this is overtly racist, this is not characteristic of racism today. I can recall many recent incidents of hearing about in the news racist’s crimes, but no one of them entailed a plot to steal someone’s wife. (Responses to Shakespeare, 1)
Something considered extremely racist today would be to characterize a black person as having animal characteristics. His does this by using a ram to portray Othello, and he does it again in the same conversation with Brabantio referring to Othello as a Barbary horse.
I believe that the sexism, in the racism in Othello, was a result of the times. It was not that Shakespeare was more racist or sexist than other people at the time, it was that people’s understandings of equality were different then than they are today.
References
Evans, Ed . "Gender and Race in Othello."The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Aug. 2013. <http://www.unc.edu/~edevans/othello.html>.
Scarsi, Selen Farnham, “Translating women in early modern England
“ England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2010.
"Shakespeare's Portrayal of Women in Othello." 123HelpMe.com. 26 Aug 2013 <http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=20114>.
Little, Arthur L., Jr. “‘An essence that's not seen’: The Primal Scene of Racism in Othello.” Shakespeare Quarterly 44 (fall 1993): 304-24.
Flipping the prejudices around. "Responses to Shakespeare: Racism and Sexism in Othello and Elizabethan England."Responses to Shakespeare. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 July 2013. <http://responsestoshakespeare.blogspot.com/2011/04/racism-in-othello-and-elizabethan.html>.
Shakespeare, William, and Norman Sanders. Othello. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1984. Print.
Nimbus. "Racism in Shakespeare s Othello - Research Papers - | StudyMode.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 July 2013. <http://www.studymode.com/essays/Racism-In-Shakespeare-s-Othello-410038.html>.
