Later, when Othello hits Desdemona because he believes her support for Cassio is due to an affair, Desdemona simply responds by saying "I have not deserved this" before telling Othello that she "will not stay to offend" him (4.1.241, 247). Although Othello is in grips of his own ignorance and anger, his petulant, sarcastic criticisms of Desdemona actually help to demonstrate her own failure when he tells Lodovico that "she's obedient, as you say, obedient, / very obedient" (4.1.255-256). When Othello later calls Desdemona a strumpet and a whore, she almost begins to see the error of her blind subservience, to the point that she even tells Emilia that she has no lord (4.2.102). Even then, however, she remains woefully ignorant and entirely too self-effacing, stating that "those that do teach young babes / do it with gentle means and easy tasks: / he might have chid me so; for, in good faith, / I am a child to chiding" (4.2.111-114). This may be read as Desdemona attempting to justify her lack of assertion or confidence to the audience, and that she does this by calling herself dumb only makes her appear more despicably committed to a ridiculous notion of honor and duty. That her experience being beat and derided does not rouse something more than sadness and self-effacement in Desdemona demonstrates how fully she has devoted herself to maintaining the patriarchal social structure which allows her to be treated as terribly as Othello likes, and it is this devotion to prescribed social roles which ultimately leads to her death.
The conversation between Desdemona and Othello immediately before he kills her borders on farce, because even after Othello has beat her, derided her, and actually literally said that he is going to kill her, the best Desdemona can do is to respond "if you say so, I hope you will not kill me" (5.2.35). One cannot even begin to pity her, because she cannot even give a halfhearted attempt to save her own life. She is so fully committed to her husband that she makes no attempt to flee or fight, but rather asks to...
The most important feature of Iago is his permanent dissembling and his distortion of reality. This is the tool that he uses to deceive the others and to make them comply to his plan. Iago's permanent dissembling is very important for understanding the motivations behind his acts. Even from the first scene of Act I, Iago declares that he acts so as to reach his own goals, and he
Othello as Tragic Hero While Othello is not Greek and Shakespeare is not a Greek playwright, Othello embodies many characteristics of a tragic hero as outlined by Aristotle. What is a tragic hero? Person who is neither perfect in virtue and justice, nor someone who falls into misfortune through vice and depravity, but rather, one who succumbs through some miscalculation. Othello is manipulated by Iago to murder Desdemona Iago uses Othello's trusting nature against him Hero
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