Beth Rauch

Othello and Jealousy: The Reason Behind the Spousal Abuse Beth Rauch Doctor Meg Clark LIT-519 March 24, 2017 Carpenter, 2 Othello and Jealousy: The Reason Behind the Spousal Abuse Spousal abuse is a topic that was seemingly just as important during Shakespeare’s time as it is today. The Bard touches on how women were treated in his plays, ranging from the shrew in The Taming of the Shrew to the lovesick maiden in Romeo & Juliet. He also touches on the effects of spousal abuse on a woman – whether physical, verbal or psychological – in Othello. Jealousy of one spouse to the other is typical in an abusive relationship. This paper looks at how Iago’s hatred of Othello and his jealousy of Desdemona – who she was, what she did for Othello, her interactions with other players – triggered the abuse at Othello’s hands. Feminist theory framework works well with this play and helps show in a robust analysis that the female characters in Shakespeare’s works were not just pretty faces or property that the hero – or even anti-hero – owned. We have seen that women throughout Shakespeare’s plays are strong and influential, such as Cordelia in King Lear, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, and Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra. These women were strong and provided valuable advice to the men in their lives. When we look at Desdemona, we see another strong woman, yet she is undermined by the stronger, masculine characters in the play. This undermining is made worse by the treatment she faces at the hands of her husband. Many of Shakespeare’s plays show women as being “suppressed, oppressed, or limited (Clark, Module Two)” when viewed through the feminist theory framework. However, this framework also reviews the role of gender in a piece of literature. Othello, as a story of jealousy leading to spousal abuse, lends itself well to analysis of not only how women were viewed and treated during Elizabethan England, but also how men were expected to act towards those around them. Carpenter, 3 Othello is pitted against Iago, the antagonist of the play. Iago makes it clear from the start of the play that he does not like Othello, his commanding officer, setting the man up for failure. I hate the Moor; And it is thought abroad that twist my sheets He has done my office. I know not it’t be true; But I, for mere suspicion in that kind, Will do as if for surety. He holds me well; The better shall my purpose work on him. Cassio’s a proper man. Let me see now: To get his place and plume up my will In double knavery – How, how? – Let’s see: After some time, to abuse Othello’s ear The he is too familiar with his wife. He hath a person and smooth dispose To be suspected, framed to make women false. -) The source of Iago’s jealousy? Referred to as “Othello’s second wife (Bartels 424),” when his actions are examined, it is apparent that Iago is finding his role of being one of Othello’s closest companions usurped by the Moor’s new wife not to his liking. Add to that the fact that Othello appoints Cassio as his second instead of Iago – a man with considerably more experience on the field of battle – a proverbial can of worms has been unknowingly opened by our title character. Carpenter, 4 Iago does not hide his machinations from the audience, speaking his inner thoughts directly to the audience. It is the breaking of the fourth-wall, which we see actor Kenneth Branagh do very well in his portrayal of Iago in Oliver Parker’s production. What is interesting is that this production is so well-acted that it displays Iago’s jealousy very clearly. Branagh brings Iago to life and his performance, from his diction in the lines to his facial expressions, sparks Othello’s jealousy of his wife’s confidence, beauty and the attention others pay to her even though his jealousy is misplaced. He is truly the villain. In addition to making Iago’s goals clear from the first scene of the play, Shakespeare also utilizes societal norms of Venice during that era to show how Desdemona’s betrayal by Iago allowed Othello to commit spousal abuse without recrimination. Iago is well-versed in the customs of Venice and as someone who has Othello’s complete confidence, he can “use male camaraderie and a soldier's sense of honor (Gruesser 101)” to destroy Othello. Why was it so easy for Othello to listen to Iago and question his wife’s loyalty? Was he jealous of Desdemona’s underlying strength of character? Was he jealous of her status as a white woman in Venetian society? Mary Laughlin Fawcett discussed the prevailing thought on women’s speech and chastity in Elizabethan England stating, “Males who claimed the right to define or prescribe women’s speech habits sound as if they are concealing from themselves fears about female dominance, sexuality and resistance to authority (162).” In her paper, "Power Versus Feminist Theories of Wife Abuse," Rhonda Lenton observes that men “abuse women in order to maintain dominance and control (2)” due to stressing factors in the relationship, such as women not living up to their role as a good wife. She continues with the following observations: Carpenter, 5 “Dobash and Dobash (1988: 57) maintain that'[m]en learn violent techniques and the appropriate contexts for their use through a male culture that condones and encourages violence."(10)...This provides further justification for the batterers' behaviour. (2)” Since we do not know more about Othello’s background other than he is a military man, we have no idea if his violent tendencies are born from some childhood encounter or, as Lenton points out, he learned these “violent techniques” because of his involvement with the military in a male dominant culture. Lenton continues with: “In support of the feminist position, Bowker (1983) found that the severity and frequency of beatings increased in proportion to the amount of time that the batterer spent with male friends (although no evidence was cited showing that those friends actually approved of wife beating). Bowker concluded that a male patriarchal subculture of wife beaters socializes its members into the ideology of male dominance, including the prerogative to use force to keep wives in line. (2).” Venice and Cyprus at the time Shakespeare wrote Othello – and the world in general – was a male dominated world. Othello spends a great deal of time with Iago and other members of his forces. He didn’t hesitate to leave for Cyprus upon the request of the courts and Gruesser, in his paper "Say Die and I Will Die": Betraying the Other, Controlling Female Desire, and Legally Destroying Women in “Wide Sargesso Sea” and Othello,” backs the claims of Lenton with the following observation: Carpenter, 6 “Iago correctly surmises that if he can show the General that things are not as they seem, Othello will respond as a warrior whose honor has been insulted and perhaps even revert to his erstwhile non-Christian beliefs. And he knows that nothing will better serve to destroy Othello's sense of himself as a loyal servant of imperial Venice advantageously married to a member of one of its leading families than for him to kill his wife in the mistaken belief that she has cuckolded him (101).” While it is Othello’s jealousy that ultimately undoes him, it is Iago’s jealousy that sparks the flames. He is not in a position of command. He has been set aside as second in command by Cassio. As mentioned before, he is Othello’s other wife and in an effort to get out of that socalled marriage “…since he feels that he has been discriminated against…all his actions are meant to ruin both Othello and Desdemona, who appears to him to have been seduced to marriage only out of beastly lust (Tosi188).” Iago continues his plot to rid himself of Desdemona, and in turn Othello, and enlists Emilia’s help to do so, getting her to retrieve something of Desdemona’s, in this case a handkerchief Othello had gifted to her: IAGO: I good wench, give it (the handkerchief) me. EMILIA: What will you do with ‘t, that you have been so earnest to have me filch it? IAGO: Why, what is that to you? EMILIA: If it be not for some purpose of import, Carpenter, Give't me again. Poor lady, she'll run mad When she shall lack it. IAGO: Be not acknown on 't: I have use for it. Go, leave me. (3.3) When Othello suspects Desdemona of her infidelity with Cassio, he asks her to present a handkerchief he gave her as gift. When she cannot, the tension continues to build until the first explosion of Othello’s anger appears in 4.1. He strikes her, claiming, Oh, devil, devil! If that the earth could teem with woman’s tears, Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile. Out of my sight! With Iago whispering in his ear about Desdemona’s unfaithfulness, Desdemona’s own urging of Othello to speak with Cassio and the fact that she cannot produce the handkerchief he gave her, Othello is losing control. His jealousy is beginning to consume him, just as Iago had hoped, just as Iago’s jealousy of Othello’s position and rank had consumed him from the start of the play. Part of the problem with Othello himself is the way he views Desdemona. He sees her as a possession. R. Rappoport, in his paper “The Theme Of Personal Integrity In Othello," clearly outlines exactly how Othello views his wife. 7 Carpenter, 8 “Possessions, however, do not demand the flexibility and changing response which people, especially in relationships of any intimacy, demand. In the army static relationships are possible and even necessary. An officer must be obeyed, whatever his subordinates may think of him. But the hold which an officer has over his men is incomplete. It extends as far as the soldier's need to obey. To that extent he can be used as though he were owned by his superior. But, as Iago well knows, there are limits to this obedience. Desdemona's obedience is total. Othello's assumption that she can be wholly possessed, as in a more limited relationship the soldier is possessed by his officer, falsifies his relationship with Desdemona to such an extent that when she finds herself in a situation in which she knows she cannot obey him, she lies and tries to evade his questions and commands (3).” Rappoport’s observation about Desdemona being a possession is taken a step further by John E. Seaman in his paper “Othello’s Pearl” in which he looks at Desdemona’s role in Othello’s fall by utilizing Christian symbolism, something that would easily have appeared in Shakespeare’s plays of the time. Instead of comparing Othello to the Bible’s Adam – for which “Desdemona becomes a puzzle, for which she fits no traditional conception of Eve (Seaman 81)” – the author takes a different tack. He looks at the parable of the merchant and uses that parable to discuss the relationship between Othello and Desdemona, and the ultimate fall of them both. When looking at the parable, Seaman offers the reader an analysis of what the parable is attempting to tell us: “The basic situation is a double test: the merchant had to be willing to risk everything to obtain the pearl, and he had to be right in his valuation of it-capable of distinguishing the gold from the dross, the permanent from the transient, the good from the Carpenter, 9 mediocre (82).” As one delves deeper into the story of Othello, the reader can see the similarities to the parable. “One of the chief themes of the parable - the moral perception of the merchant - is implicit in Othello's judgment of Desdemona. Is she unblemished or is she a subtle Venetian? This is the central issue of the play. Othello must decide, and on that decision, rests the fate of his soul (Seaman 82).” It is from this statement the author continues to build the claim and support it, describing each character and the role they play in turn. He points out key places in the play where a character’s comments reflect the value of the pearl – in this case, Desdemona – and how they lost it or did not truly understand what they had. He points out how Iago mocks the value of Desdemona, how Roderigo completely misses her worth, and how Othello is given the pearl, but underestimates it’s worth until the very end. Seaman talks of the role Desdemona plays in the context of Shakespeare’s plays, comparing her to other strong, capable women who have helped their other halves learn a lesson: “Desdemona is much like Shakespeare's heroines of comedy-Portia, Rosalind, or Viola. Her pure love and chaste character are capable of ennobling and transforming the rough character of Othello into something finer… (Seaman 83).” If Desdemona’s love was such to turn Othello into something finer, why did it turn his love into jealous hatred? Why was Iago able to so easily sway Othello’s thoughts of love to hatred by simply slandering the Moor and painting vivid images in his head or deeds that were not done by Cassio and Desdemona? How was the recounting of a simple dream, Cassio’s, to Othello such a catalyst? In his paper, “Slander and Skepticism in Othello,” Gross touches on this exact question: “Whatever one's intuitions about Iago as a demonic agent, a picture of motiveless evil, or an Carpenter, 10 entropic will to power, one tends to assume that he works on a willing or complicitous victim: something must be in place in Othello for his jealous rage to blossom so quickly on the basis of such farcically slight evidences (822).” While we can watch various productions of the play where this question is answered simply by the veracity of the actor’s performance as Iago (Branagh truly brings this to life in the Parker production), the reader of the play cannot find an answer. It is not there. It does bring up another facet of spousal abuse that is commonly seen manifesting in school age children before they are able to truly understand what goes into spousal abuse: bullying. “Bullying is commonly defined as negative acts that occur repeatedly and involve an imbalance of power (Olweus 413),” is the definition used in the paper “Beyond Bullying: Pairing Classics and Media Literacy” by Angela Beumer Johnson, Linda Augustus and Christa Preston Agiro. By analyzing literary classics such as Othello, students are able to learn about bullying and abuse in all its forms: psychological, emotional, verbal and physical. In this case of Iago, verbal abuse is prevalent albeit subversively. Iago basically bullies Othello into his way of thinking in an effort to rid himself of the Moor and his Venetian wife. And in turn, Othello bullies Desdemona, a common occurrence when people who are the victims of bullying turns into a bully themselves. So, where is Desdemona in all of this? Why is her voice so silenced, even when she attempts to defend herself against Othello’s obligations? In the role of an obedient wife during Elizabethan England, it was her duty to remain “in subjection to their husbands (Fitz 2).” According to Fitz’s paper, ““What Says The Married Woman?”: Marriage Theory and Feminism in the English Renaissance,” the role of women was marriage-oriented even though feminism itself has its roots during this time. Even though Desdemona started out as “a fully sexual Carpenter, 11 “woman capable of ‘downright violence’ (1.3.249) (Bartels 424),” she ends as “A maiden, never bold (1.3.94) (424).” In other words, her husband’s accusations have silenced her into submission, his violence confirming that she was in the wrong even though she had done nothing to deserve his treatment or the ruining of her reputation. It is the slow domination of Desdemona – Othello’s abuse, verbally and physically – that takes her from a woman who stands by her husband in Cyprus to a quiet, obedience that causes her to fall. While the play itself seems to take only the course of a short period of time, the message is still very clear: jealousy leads to unbecoming behavior between lovers, that behavior drifting to physical abuse. She has learned, as has many other women through history, that “outspokenness may hurt her and obedience will not help (Bartels 428).” It is truly a Catch-22 situation. While woman of today’s society has options available to them to get out of such a predicament, women of Elizabethan England were expected to remain and make the best of it. Or, in Desdemona’s case, be the victim of the abuse that led to her untimely death. In Lenton’s look at gender studies, she observes that “gender roles may mediate the translation of childhood experiences into adult aggression, teaching women to be victims and men to be perpetrators of violence. In her (Walker) view, women with rigid, traditional sexrole socialization learn to be helpless when they perceive a lack of control over their environment. This presumably increases their vulnerability to violence in adult relationships (2).” This explains Desdemona’s lack of defense when accused of adultery and her comment to Emilia as she is basically preparing for her death: DESDEMONA: Alas the day, I never gave him cause. EMILIA: But jealous souls will not be answered so; Carpenter, 12 They are not ever jealous for the cause, But jealous, for they're jealous. (3.4) There is one last observation that could put a spin on Iago’s jealousy that, while not readily acted on, could be a motive for his own jealousy and the need to take down Othello and his wife. In 2.1, Iago, speaking to the audience, makes the final pronouncement about Cassio and Desdemona: That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it, That she loves him, ’tis apt and of great credit. The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not, Is of a constant, loving, noble nature, And I dare think he’ll prove to Desdemona A most dear husband. Now I do love her too, Not out of absolute lust – though peradventure I stand accountant for as great a sin – But partly led to diet my revenge, For that I do suspect the lusty Moor Hath leaped into my seat, the thought whereof Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards… (284–95) Line 289 has Iago professing his love for Desdemona as a motive for his revenge. Throughout the play, Iago is consistently making lewd comments or referring to love and sexual Carpenter, 13 encounters with the mindset of a schoolboy. He feeds these lewd thoughts into Othello’s head. It needs to be reminded here that Iago is a married man. Is his desire for Desdemona due to his own failed relationship with Emilia? Or is he simply the type that feels that if he cannot have something, then no one else should? Is it possible that prior to the start of the play, the marriage between Desdemona and Othello, that Iago witnessed her being unfaithful or was possibly unfaithful to Othello with Iago himself? In 3.3, Iago utters, I know our country disposition well: In Venice, they do let God see the pranks They dare not show their husbands. Their best conscience Is not to leave't undone, but keep 't unknown. (3.3) To say that Iago is a master manipulator is sugar-coating the true nature of the man and his own jealousy of Othello. His knowledge of Othello prior to his marriage to Desdemona is uncertain other than he is one of the Moor’s closest confidants. Iago even attampts in the beginning of the play to put an end to the marriage by waking Brabantio and annoucing through Roderigo the marriage. Jealousy is clearly his motive. Jealousy of his spurned position, jealousy of the fact that Othello has married Desdemona, and, quite potentially, jealousy of the relationships he sees others having – Cassio and Bianaca to name another – that he does not have with his own wife. Othello is a complex play that, when studied, offers the reader a glimpse into Venetian society during the time of William Shakespeare. It is a time from the modern world, yet the play Carpenter, 14 carries many issues that are still prevalent in today’s society. Jealousy and spousal abuse, when viewed through the feminist theory framework, shows exactly how women were suppressed during this time in history, shows how they were limited in their choices, especially when it came to marriage. In the case of Desdemona, she had to elope to marry the man she loved. The patriarchal society in which she lived forced her to defend her position to the courts and took away her right to defense when her reputation was slandered. Jealousy is a major theme in this play and when analyzed across the feminist theory framework, we see how detrimental is to not only the women involved in the play – Desdemona first and foremost, Emilia and to some extent Bianca for she, too, loses, Cassio – but also all of the men involved. Jealousy, in its most innocent form – lewd banter between friends – is a viable catalyst for the spousal abuse Desdemona endures at the hands of her husband. And a viable catalyst for bullying that may not otherwise have happened. The study of Othello from this perspective is important still today due to issues of spousal abuse – both on the part of men abusing women and vice versa. Society still plays a large part in the allowance of any form of abuse. Venice and Cyprus of Shakespeare’s day may have made it hard for women to be saved from death or other bodily harm, but some of these same values are still in place today throughout the world. Lenton points out in her observations on gender roles and power, “…in the least egalitarian states men use violence to keep women in their place and women have few alternatives to remaining in abusive relationships. In the most egalitarian states, men are frustrated and threatened by the breakdown of traditional sex roles (2).” Although we did not see this frustration (or did we if we view Iago as a jealous wife in a non traditional role?) in Othello, Carpenter, 15 we see it in today’s world. Dominance is still there when men lose control. And even in the modern world, patriarchal societies still exist. Thanks to Iago’s jealousy, Othello lost control. And then he lost his most precious possession, Desdemona, killing her with the “green-eyed monster” of jealousy upon him. It is a story for a the ages. It is one we still see all too often and read about in the papers. 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