Women In Othello And Macbeth

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Women of Othello and Macbeth Women play a vital role in many of William Shakespeare’s plays. In the plays Othello and Macbeth, the female characters are presented as strong and confident individuals who have a major affect on the plot. This was very unusual for the Elizabethan time period, and Shakespeare broke the stereotypical perception of a woman. In Macbeth, Shakespeare introduces the deceitful and frightening Lady Macbeth. She controls the major events of the story by manipulating her husband. Shakespeare creates a different type of female character in Othello. Desdemona represents innocence and is a confident and decisive woman. The female characters of these famous plays display strength in women and how that strength leads to a tragic downfall by the end. However, they do so in different character forms and personalities. The women of these Shakespearean plays all change the course of the plot in different ways. They have their own character traits, and own roles leading to the tragedy. The three female characters of Othello are Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca. They are all Venetian women who are stereotyped and slightly dependent on their companion. From the beginning of the story, the audience can assume Desdemona is a brave and courageous woman. She falls in love with Othello, a black man her father disapproves of. She is captivated by Othello’s adventurous stories, seeing “Othello’s visage in his mind and to his honors and valiant parts…” (I, iii, 247) rejecting other possible men like Rodrigo. The audience then sees how bold Desdemona is when she marries Othello, despite the accusations of being involved in witchcraft from Iago and her father. This shows how Desdemona is not afraid to make choices for herself, something women did rarely in those times. However, as the story progresses and Iago tries to manipulate Othello, Desdemona starts to
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