Typically, texts about husbands and wives present marriage from a male point of view.
In light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents ideas about marriage in this extract and
elsewhere in the play.
As the plot revolves around the fundamentals of marriage, and the levels of equality and trust that
exist within them, it could be argued that Shakespeare presents contrasting attitudes of marriage in
order to represent the struggle between good and evil onstage, perhaps challenging traditional
Jacobean values with the performance of a radical balance between husband and wife.
It can certainly be argued that the male view of marriage dominates ‘Othello’, especially when
considering the masculine majority of the cast – as only three women appear in the entire play, it is
perhaps only natural that their views are drowned within a sea of male voices that clamour to
prevail as the most dominant. The extract portrays the prevailing patriarchal ideas of marriage
through the villainous character Iago, whose male voice has the ability to preside over the protests
of Desdemona (‘O heavy ignorance’ and ‘O lame and most impotent conclusion!’). Praising the
‘worst best’, Iago vocalises his preference towards an imbalance of power between genders,
favouring the husband dominant, and depicts his vision of an ideal wife. The repetition of ‘never’
throughout his speech connotes the restrictions placed upon his wife, whose only purpose is to
serve and submit to his desires. The stereotypical ideals in a wife of submission, passivity,
respectability, and subservience are all desired by Iago, who hopes for humility in a beautiful, yet
inanimate and unaware woman who should possess qualities of intelligence, but will never seize the
opportunities to ‘disclose her mind’. Iago’s expectation of a silent wife indicates his belief that whilst
she should willingly and unquestioningly dedicate her existence to him, he will take no interest or
care in her emotions and thoughts. Additionally, this ‘ideal wife’ is subject wholly to her biological
abilities to procreate, and through a crude joke, Iago implies that a woman’s only worth is the
preservation of her virginity. These ideas are originally presented in the line ‘housewives’ in your
beds’, which describes a wife’s role as more objective than a faithful and loving partner. Whilst
Othello seeks order, advice and comfort in Desdemona, Iago focuses on her talents in the bedroom.
Whilst his complaints are hyperbolic in the efforts to amuse (e.g. ‘or else I am a Turk’), they could be
taken literally, given their speaker. For example, ‘Bells in your parlours’ depicts wives as an empty
vessel which produces repetitive, irritating sounds. He places them firmly in household positions-
‘your parlours’, ‘your kitchens’, ‘your housewifery’, ‘your beds’, presenting a particularly patriarchal
argument for where a woman should belong. The repetition of the pronoun ‘your’ is particularly
striking in his idealism of marriage- intended as a union of two partners, for him is a physical
separation between the genders. Iago finishes triumphantly with the notion that wives ‘go to bed to
work’, displaying his opinion that love, or lust performed through sexual acts is a wife’s primary duty.
Iago’s earlier soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 3 offers an equally valuable insight into his psychotic and
perverse mind, as he reduces the loving union of marriage into a crude, lust-driven weakness of the
will, a view typical of an antagonist. His character is mirrored in his attitude towards love: pragmatic,
cold, and shunning all emotion except lust and anger – ‘raging motions, our carnal desires, our
unbitted lusts’. These misogynistic ideas are perhaps to blame for the coldness he casts towards
love, believing that a man’s head should rule his actions, rather than his heart, ‘but we have / reason
to cool our raging motions…’. He can only understand love to be something of ‘sensuality’ and body,
therefore the ‘marriage of true mindes’ that Othello and Desdemona bewilders him- only plausible
in his view that she is a passive animal, dominated by a more forceful one shown in the lines ‘an old
black ram/ Is tupping your white ewe’. This emphasis of the body however does lead him to
conclude that a union such as Desdemona and Othello’s cannot last, as ‘when she is sated with his
In light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents ideas about marriage in this extract and
elsewhere in the play.
As the plot revolves around the fundamentals of marriage, and the levels of equality and trust that
exist within them, it could be argued that Shakespeare presents contrasting attitudes of marriage in
order to represent the struggle between good and evil onstage, perhaps challenging traditional
Jacobean values with the performance of a radical balance between husband and wife.
It can certainly be argued that the male view of marriage dominates ‘Othello’, especially when
considering the masculine majority of the cast – as only three women appear in the entire play, it is
perhaps only natural that their views are drowned within a sea of male voices that clamour to
prevail as the most dominant. The extract portrays the prevailing patriarchal ideas of marriage
through the villainous character Iago, whose male voice has the ability to preside over the protests
of Desdemona (‘O heavy ignorance’ and ‘O lame and most impotent conclusion!’). Praising the
‘worst best’, Iago vocalises his preference towards an imbalance of power between genders,
favouring the husband dominant, and depicts his vision of an ideal wife. The repetition of ‘never’
throughout his speech connotes the restrictions placed upon his wife, whose only purpose is to
serve and submit to his desires. The stereotypical ideals in a wife of submission, passivity,
respectability, and subservience are all desired by Iago, who hopes for humility in a beautiful, yet
inanimate and unaware woman who should possess qualities of intelligence, but will never seize the
opportunities to ‘disclose her mind’. Iago’s expectation of a silent wife indicates his belief that whilst
she should willingly and unquestioningly dedicate her existence to him, he will take no interest or
care in her emotions and thoughts. Additionally, this ‘ideal wife’ is subject wholly to her biological
abilities to procreate, and through a crude joke, Iago implies that a woman’s only worth is the
preservation of her virginity. These ideas are originally presented in the line ‘housewives’ in your
beds’, which describes a wife’s role as more objective than a faithful and loving partner. Whilst
Othello seeks order, advice and comfort in Desdemona, Iago focuses on her talents in the bedroom.
Whilst his complaints are hyperbolic in the efforts to amuse (e.g. ‘or else I am a Turk’), they could be
taken literally, given their speaker. For example, ‘Bells in your parlours’ depicts wives as an empty
vessel which produces repetitive, irritating sounds. He places them firmly in household positions-
‘your parlours’, ‘your kitchens’, ‘your housewifery’, ‘your beds’, presenting a particularly patriarchal
argument for where a woman should belong. The repetition of the pronoun ‘your’ is particularly
striking in his idealism of marriage- intended as a union of two partners, for him is a physical
separation between the genders. Iago finishes triumphantly with the notion that wives ‘go to bed to
work’, displaying his opinion that love, or lust performed through sexual acts is a wife’s primary duty.
Iago’s earlier soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 3 offers an equally valuable insight into his psychotic and
perverse mind, as he reduces the loving union of marriage into a crude, lust-driven weakness of the
will, a view typical of an antagonist. His character is mirrored in his attitude towards love: pragmatic,
cold, and shunning all emotion except lust and anger – ‘raging motions, our carnal desires, our
unbitted lusts’. These misogynistic ideas are perhaps to blame for the coldness he casts towards
love, believing that a man’s head should rule his actions, rather than his heart, ‘but we have / reason
to cool our raging motions…’. He can only understand love to be something of ‘sensuality’ and body,
therefore the ‘marriage of true mindes’ that Othello and Desdemona bewilders him- only plausible
in his view that she is a passive animal, dominated by a more forceful one shown in the lines ‘an old
black ram/ Is tupping your white ewe’. This emphasis of the body however does lead him to
conclude that a union such as Desdemona and Othello’s cannot last, as ‘when she is sated with his
