Providentialism Othello

RESPONSE PARAGRAPH
(5% OF FINAL GRADE EACH)


Answer the following questions on the secondary readings of Othello and King Lear (10 lines maximum each piece,typed, font Times New Roman, size 12). Please hand in your answer together with the Self-Assessment Questionnaire on the Response Paragraphs.


QUESTION ONE (onAlan Sinfield’s “Cultural Materialism, Othello, and the Politics of Plausibility”, to be handed in on 4 December).

- To what extent does Desdemona (and/orEmilia) re-present a contradiction in the Early Modern discourse on gender and sexuality? (see pp. 42-47)

Acording to gender and sexuality discourses of the earlymodern stage, women must be obedient, caste and silent. Talking about Desdemona we can say that she represents a contradiction. On the one hand, she escapes withOthello, an older black man that belongs to a different social class but then she thinks back to her father. This kind of relationship was unthinkable in this epochbecause she not only disobeys her father who want her to marriage with a rich white man, she also challenges society because it disapproves interracial marriagesand sex. On the other hand, Desdemona talks too much makes she seems sexual because this fact is a reflect of sexuality. Male characters of the play think thatwomen are promiscuous, that explains why they are acused of sexual infidelity, and why they are seen like a sexual and sensual symbol. Women tend to be obedient andDesdemona breaks the rules. The most important aspect of Emilia is that she argues that women should have an equal right and this was not common in this society.