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Summary A* AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE OTHELLO ESSAY - ‘Desdemona is an innocent victim who is saintly, yet at the same time tender and human.’$6.04
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Othello quote bank organised into themes without analysis - all acts included
Othello revision booklet AQA A Level English Lit B
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English Literature B
Aspects of Tragedy
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‘Desdemona is an innocent victim who is
saintly, yet at the same time tender and
human.ʼ
‘Desdemona is an innocent victim who is saintly, yet at the same time tender and human.ʼ
The male characters worldly descriptions of her dramatising the failure of any woman ever
being completely pure and innocent. She is not seen as human but ‘super-humanʼ with
Othello viewing her as a statue with skin like “alabaster” and Cassio alluding her to
“heaven”.
Through a 16th century perspective her subversion of traditional gender roles presenting
her as abnormal. Her position in the Great Chain of Being as equal to Othello and animals.
She is presented as unhuman, and Shakespeareʼs tragedies show the tragic
consequences when a marriage has equals.
Iagoʼs exploitation of her innocent nature to Othello and Roderigo – “did you not see her
paddle with the palm of his hand?”.
Her human nature exhibited in how she pesters Othello to make Cassio lieutenant again.
Atypically to Aristotleʼs Poetics, Shakespeare introduced a new element of ‘collateral damageʼ
to his tragedies where instead of the tragic hero being the main victim, focus was also given to
the numerous tragic victims such as Desdemona. This enabled a form of interaction from the
audience where the tragic heroes whose fate already seems decided is less interesting than the
effect that he will have on all those around him. Desdemona is one of these clear victims in
Othello, where the tragedy appears more as a psychological horror from her perspective. In this
essay I will therefore discuss to what extent ‘Desdemona is an innocent victim who is saintly, yet
at the same time tender and human.ʼ
As we are first introduced to Desdemona in Act I her characterisation of innocence, purity, and
association with the colour “white”, is presented in direct contrast to Othelloʼs “lascivious”
nature and blackness. Through this her character is immediately associated with all that is
elevated in the audiences minds. The characters continuously referring to her as being the
“divine Desdemona” and with a face as fresh as “Dianeʼs visage”. These representations of
Desdemona are what mark her through the rest of the play forcing her to become “a stereotype
of female passivity” (Foss) which ultimately leads to her tragedy. It therefore does not help that
Desdemona also views herself in this ‘super-humanʼ light, which is encouraged by the men
around her. Desdemona continuously alludes to “heaven” and innocence within her language
which evokes a sense of naivety when registered to modern audiences as she asks Emilia in Act
IV if there are really such “women who do abuse their husbands in such gross kind?”. Through
this her innocence seems exaggerated as she denies that women like men are capable of
committing wrongs. Her depictions of saintliness become almost too saint-like as she presents
any womanʼs inability to be completely innocent and saintly in the 16th century. She dramatises
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