Explain Feminist Criticism in Othello by Shakespeare.
Explain Feminist Criticism in Othello by Shakespeare.
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Lucifer
Othello, from Shakespeare’s Canon, remains one of the most significant plays for its treatment of women. The character of Desdemona in the play offers us a subversive and radical perspective that Shakespeare has to offer.
In the beginning of the play we see Desdemona falling in love with a Moor, a black man, Othello. Despite her father being against her decision to marry Othello, Desdemona married him. Today, marrying against one’s father’s agreement might seem relatively easy but back in sixteenth-century, such was not the case.
Therefore, looking from a feminist perspective, Shakespeare’s Othello presents a pro-feminism view at the beginning of the play. However, by the end, one sees the undercutting of that theme as Desdemona becomes a victim of a man’s blindness, doubt and foolishness.
Read the summary of the play.