Cultural Context in Othello - Characters challenging aspects of the Cultural Context.

 2. “Central characters can be successful or unsuccessful in challenging aspects of the cultural context in texts.”

 (a) Discuss the extent to which at least one central character is successful or unsuccessful in challenging at least one aspect of the cultural context in one text on your comparative course. Support your answer with reference to the text.

In the play Othello, I believe the central characters are both successful and unsuccessful in making challenges against aspects of the cultural context in this play.

In the play Othello, I think that Desdemona is successful in challenging the cultural context of the possession of daughters by their fathers, as was normal at the time. In the time when Othello was set, it was traditional in society that a father should decide what happens to his daughter, as she was ‘his possession’. When the daughter is married, she then becomes ‘her husband’s possession’. In Act 1:1, Brabantio is told by Iago (and Roderigo) that ‘an old black ram is tupping your white ewe’, describing in a foul way the choice Desdemona made to run away with a ‘lascivious Moor’, without her father’s permission. This shows how she is successful in challenging her father’s possession of her.

However, I believe that Desdemona is unsuccessful in challenging the possession of a husband over his wife, as can be seen in the examples below. I believe her to be unsuccessful because, throughout the play, Desdemona is anything but rebelling when it comes to being obedient to Othello. This obedience is seen in scenes such as Act 1:3, where Desdemona says to Brabantio ‘I am hitherto your daughter; but here’s my husband . . . . So much I challenge that I may profess / Due to the Moor, my lord.’. This obedience is also seen in Act 3:3:87 where it is said by Desdemona ‘Shall I deny you? No. Farewell, my lord’ and once more in Act 4:3 when Desdemona readily obeys Othello’s order to go to bed, ‘Get you to bed on the instant . . . . I will, my lord.’. Based on the evidence above, I believe Desdemona is unsuccessful in challenging that which is the norm (a wife’s obedience to her husband) in her society at the time Othello was written.

My final point is about Iago and the class structure in Venice. In those times, there were two classes of people; the wealthy nobles (the Duke & Senate & Council) and the poorer lower class (which Iago and his wife Emilia are part of. Emilia is a lady’s maid). I think Iago is unsuccessful in challenging the class structure in Venice, though he tries (by attempting to get the position as Othello’s lieutenant). His challenge against the class structure is seen in Act1:1, whereby he says ‘I know my price; I am worth no worse a place'. This, in my opinion, is him saying that he knows he is in the lower class, but that should not affect the decision. Once it is seen in the play that Iago has failed to secure the position of lieutenant, I see that he has been unsuccessful in challenging the Venetian class structure.lace’.

Based on the points made above, I believe central characters in the play Othello have been both successful and unsuccessful in their challenges against aspects of the cultural context at that time.