This essay examines the conflicting roles of women in Shakespeare's Othello, arguing that the play juxtaposes traditional female submission with an emerging independence. Drawing on the characters of Desdemona and Emilia, the paper explores how male characters enforce rigid gender norms and how each woman responds differently to those pressures. Desdemona's passive acceptance of her role as her husband's possession ultimately leads to her death, while Emilia's willingness to defy her husband and assert her own voice represents a proto-feminist alternative. The essay concludes that, despite both women dying, Shakespeare suggests that blind obedience to outdated gender norms is more destructive than resistance.
In Shakespeare's Othello, women occupy a state of turmoil. On one hand, the women in the play must remain obedient to the subservient standards of life as a female in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe. On the other hand, signs of a new, strong, and independent female are emerging within Shakespeare's characters. In Othello, Shakespeare juxtaposes the characteristics of the traditional, obedient woman with those of a new, more independent one. Desdemona's willing death at the hand of her husband illustrates Shakespeare's suggestion that strictly following outdated gender norms leads only to individual destruction, while Emilia's more independent ways show her standing up against her husband's ill will.
To understand the role of women in the play, it is first important to see how they are viewed by the men. From a male perspective, the women of Othello are reduced to two extremes: they are either beautiful creatures to be idealized, as Cassio does with Desdemona, or spiteful demons to be hated, as Iago appears to view all women. Iago goes so far as to say 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 housewifery, and housewives in your beds" (Shakespeare 2.1.111–114).
When women behave as expected, the male characters are content with them. Othello is pleased with his new wife as long as he believes she is fulfilling her proper role. Yet when women stray too far from those expectations, the men turn against them fiercely. Othello goes as far as to murder his wife when he believes she has cheated on him and brought shame to his name. After killing her, he declares: "O curse marriage, that we can call these delicate creatures and not their appetites! I had rather be a toad and live upon the vapor of a dungeon than keep a corner in the thing I love for others' uses. Yet 'tis the plague of great ones; prerogative are they less than base. 'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death" (Shakespeare 3.3.272–279).
The male characters of the play are therefore threatened by the new, more powerful female role that develops throughout. Iago's extreme hatred of women, especially Desdemona, reflects an insecure masculinity threatened by an evolving female identity. Rather than embracing these developments, both Iago and Othello act out against them, unable to cope with a female role that is growing more independent.
The female role in the play is thus in constant conflict. According to Evans, "women in Othello are portrayed with complexity and an obvious tension between feminist and anti-feminist ideals" (1). There are moments of emerging independence alongside a troubling reliance on male dominance, and no character experiences this conflict more acutely than Desdemona. She is widely seen as "the ideal woman" (Evans 1): her beauty, intelligence, and manners lead her to embody the perfect female archetype of the period. Cassio calls her "the divine Desdemona" (2.1.74) and praises her as "perfection" (2.3.25).
In some respects, Desdemona is more independent than other female figures in Shakespeare's plays. She defies her father to follow her heart and marry Othello, despite her father's reservations about Othello's race. She is strong and intelligent, choosing her own husband out of genuine love. Yet from a feminist perspective, Desdemona still embraces the position of the subjugated woman. She is passive and obedient in her marriage, accepting the role of property — first belonging to her father, then transferred to her husband. She articulates this explicitly when she tells her father: "My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty. To you I am bound for life and education. My life and education both do learn me how to respect you. You are the lord of my duty, I am hitherto your daughter. But here's my husband, and so much duty as my mother showed to you, preferring you before her father, so much I challenge that I may profess due to the Moor my lord" (1.3.183–191).
Despite her obvious intelligence and passion, Desdemona surrenders herself entirely to gender stereotype, becoming her husband's possession. When Othello believes that possession has been tarnished, she offers herself — and her life — to him so that he may reclaim his mastery. Her submissiveness proves to be her ultimate downfall. She puts up no fight when Othello comes to kill her, even though she knows she is innocent and has never committed adultery. Playing the submissive wife to the very end, she does not object to her husband's decision to punish her for a transgression she never committed. Her passivity, in this sense, destroys her.
At the other extreme stands Emilia, Iago's wife. She too navigates the conflict between proper wifely conduct and her own moral sense, but she refuses to bow entirely to her husband's desires simply because he is her husband. She is not without loyalty: she reluctantly gives Iago the handkerchief, and she acknowledges that he is "wayward" even as she feels bound to obey him to a degree (Shakespeare 3.3.308). However, unlike Desdemona, Emilia is willing to draw a firm line around her obedience, and this ultimately preserves her dignity even as it cannot save her life. She speaks back to her husband and asserts herself with far greater force than Desdemona ever manages.
"Emilia's defiance as proto-feminist alternative"
Ultimately, as a tragedy, no one really survives to benefit and prosper after the events of the play unfold. Both Desdemona and Emilia die at the hands of their husbands, but at least Emilia put up a good fight. In the conflicting roles presented in Othello, women are forced to choose between the ideal prescribed role — subservient obedience — and acting on their own free will, as Emilia does. Shakespeare does not offer his female characters an easy escape, but he does seem to suggest that the woman who remains wholly compliant in the face of injustice condemns herself more completely than the one who dares to resist.
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