Shakespeares Othello - Loving Desdemona :: Othello essays

Loving Desdemona William Shakespeare, in his tragic drama Othello, creates a most exquisite character in the person of Desdemona. Her many virtues clearly require that she be given elaborated consideration by every Christian member of the audience. David Bevington in William Shakespeare quaternity Tragedies describes the depth of virtue within this tragic heroine We believe her Desdemona when she says that she does not take down know what it means to be unfaithful the word whore is not in her vocabulary. She is defenseless against the charges brought against her because she does not even comprehend them, cannot believe that anyone would recall such things. Her love, both erotic and chaste, is of that transcendent wholesomeness common to several deeply Shakespearean heroines . . .. Her preferring Othello to her father, like Cordelias placing her duty to a husband out front that to a father, is not ungrateful but natural and proper. (221) Blanche Coles in Shakespeares Four Giants interprets the protagonists very meaningful four-word greeting to Desdemona which he utters upon disembarking in Cyprus Othellos four words, O, my souls joy, tell us that this beautiful Venetian girl has brought great joy, felicity, bliss to the very depths of his soul. This exquisitely beautiful love that has come to a thoughtful, earnest man is ineffably impressive. For him it is heaven on earth. And all the while, almost within arms length, stands Iago, the embodiment of evil, like the serpent in the Garden of Eden. (87) In title 1 Scene1, Iago persuades the rejected suitor of Desdemona, Roderigo, to accompany him to the home of Brabantio, Desdemonas father, in the middle of the night. Once there the two awaken him with loud shouts somewhat his daughters elopement with Othello. In response to Iagos vulgar descriptions of Desdemonas involvement with the general, Brabantio arises from bed and, with Roderigos help, gathers a search party to go and find Desdemona and br ing her home. The fathers attitude is that life without his Desdemona volition be much worse than before It is too true an evil gone she is And whats to come of my despised time Is nought but bitterness. (1.1) So obviously the senator has great respect for his daughter, or at least for the amenities which she has afforded him up the beginning of the play.