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The Role of Women in Shakespea

 

             Throughout all time that humans exist, the males have always been dominant. It is only in the past century that females have become almost as significant and equal in society.There are many types of women in the world. They are born from different social classes and live in different standard of leisure. Despite their differences in lineage and social classes, women have similarities. Women have a lower status in society. Women are too tolerant and they have no control of their husbands. In Shakespeare's Othello, Emilia and Desdemona's personalities contribute to their fate.
             Women are considered as inferior than men. They are deemed to be the weaker sex. Iago cautions Brabantio when he says "Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul / Even now, now, very now, an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe" (I.i.84-86). These lines emphasize that fathers in Shakespeare's time, like Brabantio, consider their daughters as their possessions. Therefore, the ladies have to obey their fathers, to whom they owe their life and education. They have to marry the man their fathers choose for them. That is the reason why Brabantio is enraged when he learns that Desdemona married Othello. Desdemona does not only marry against her father's choosing, but marries a man from a different race. When a woman marries, she is now a property of her husband. Iago utters his scrutiny on women as " wildcats in your kitchens / Saints in your injuries, devils being offended / Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds" (II.i.109 - 111). These lines highlight women as servants to their husbands. They do the household chores and solve their husband's problems. Women are considered as object of lust. They exist to satisfy men's sexual pleasure. Men treat women as less intelligent and they do not appreciate the gifts and talents that women posses. This is shown when Emilia says "Let husbands know their wives have sense like them.


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