Gender

Gender

1. Women

   • Cassio sees them as objects to love and worship
   • Subvert their own expectations
     • Meek and mild to progressive
   • Brabantio sees Desdemona as an object or possession "stol'n from me"
   • Strong relations between Emilia and Desdemona
   • Iago treats women like dirt
   • Often likened to possessions or objects
     • "Look to your house, your daughters and your bags"
   • Unmarried women are the property of their fathers
   • Desdemona shows her own free will and independence, uncommon among women

2. Men

   • Iago characterises Cassio as womanish
     • "One Michael Cassio, a florentine, a fellow almost damned in a fair wife"
   • Othello and Desdemona switch gender roles
     • "Our general's wife is now the general"
   • See themselves as higher or more superior, looking down on the women
     • "Impudent strumpet" and "foolish wife"