Does Shakespeare Present Desdemona As Tragic?

To what extent is Desdemona presented as a tragic figure in Act 4 Scene 3 and Act 5 Scene 2? How could an audience react to her death?

On the one hand, Desdemona is presented as a strong female event; publically defying her father by marrying Othello, arguing with Iago regarding the role of women and suspension free of the gender expectations of a woman in the sixteenth century by denying her privileged but sheltered breeding to marry a black man of her own choosing, a hugely rebellious act at a time when women were seen as lesser and were expected to obey their fathers and then husbands unconditionally.
However, on the other hand she is portrayed as naive, and full of doubts and fears. She does not stand up to Othello when it really matters, and accepts her own death farthermostther too easily, even to go as far as selecting the bed sheets she is to be murdered on. Dreher, in her essay supremacy and Defience; Fathers and Daughters in Shakespeare states that she is following conventional patterns of behaviour for wives and daughters, these women lose their autonomy and interest and do not achieve adulthood , meaning that Desdemona retreats into a state of childlike dependency when upset as a way of avoiding reality.




According to Aristotle, a tragic figure is delineate as a character of noble stature, who embodies legality as part of their innate character. They do have rough vices, which conquer the audience to relate to them, and have some kind of hamartia or tragic flaw, however their misfortune is undeserved, and their punishment far outweighs this flaw. Their end must evoke feelings of pity and fear inside the audience, and their death must be a sacrifice of some kind for a greater purpose.
This description is very accommodate of Desdemona, who, being daughter of the Senator is already of noble birth. Likewise, she possesses true virtue in that she is ever the optimist, seeing only the good in everyone and, somewhat naïvely, failing to see peoples negative sides. This is...If you want to get a full essay, baseball club it on our website: Orderessay



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