Othello and Oedipus Othello&oedipus Rex Essay

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It is as if his sense of male control and dominance prescribed by the norms of the society is blinding him to her true nature. He judges her in terms of the norms of assumed female weakness. This aspect is summarized in the following quotation.

Gender relations are pretty antagonistic in Othello. Unmarried women are regarded as their fathers' property and the play's two marriages are marked by male jealousy and cruelty (both wives are murdered by their own husbands). Most male characters in Othello assume that all Venetian women are inherently promiscuous, which explains why female sexuality is a huge threat to men in the play. Othello is easily convinced his wife is cheating on him and feels emasculated and humiliated as a result

(Othello: Theme of Gender)

In a similar sense in King Oedipus, the inferior status or societal position of women can be seen in the fact the mother of Oedipus is ordered to kill her own son, as the King fears a prophesy that his son would murder him. It is therefore clear that women have a lower status than men and that men makes the decisions and determine the direction of life in the society.

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The ideal of the male hero is also prominent in this play as is the case in Othello.

A central critique of the place of women in this play is that women are seen as inferior in terms of their sense of justice in comparison to men. (Fisher and Silber 222) In other words, from this perspective the female characters in the play are seen as being morally inferior to the men. This is a very similar to the critique of the view of Desdemona and Venetian women that was discussed above.

In conclusion, it is clear that while there are many differences in social and cultural background to these two plays, in terms of their general views on gender roles there are many close similarities......

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