Obedience
Bill Long
Justice, Submission and Women in 3.4
For the first time in the play, three women are given important speaking roles in one scene. All of them are bothered by something to do with men; all of them resolve their concerns in different ways; all of them end up being obedient to the men in their lives. Nevertheless, through this scene Shakespeare prepares us for the touching conversation between Desdemona and Emilia in 4.3 and Emilia's heroic and unexpected performance in 5.2. By the end of the play we will have two dramatically different portrayals of a feminine role: that of obedience even to death (Desdemona) and that of speaking the truth "as liberal as the north (5.2.220--Emilia)."
Emilia--Fickleness at First
We have not heard much from her before this scene. In the only two extended speeches she has before 3.4 she appears in a derivative and obedient role. When Cassio has been cashiered and seeks an appointment with Desdemona to sue for reinstatement, Emilia first talks to him and informs him about his chances for restoration (3.1.41-50). Then, in 3.3, when her mistress' handkerchief fell to the ground, she gathered it up and gave it to her husband Iago with the explanation that her "wayward husband" had petitioned her "a hundred times" to "steal it" for him (3.3.290-299). Nothing prepares us for the more major role she will begin to play in Acts IV and V.
Her appearance in 3.4 is not without some contradictions. When Desdemona, searching for her handkerchief, asks her, "Where should I lose the handkerchief, Emilia?" she responds with a misleading, "I know not, madam (3.4.23-24)." Of course she knows, but her loyalty is to her husband Iago, and honesty here would bring him and her down. Yet, near the end of the scene, as she continues to encourage Desdemona to consider Othello's conduct as indicative of jealousy, she gives her evaluation of men:
"'Tis not a year or two shows us a man:/ They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;/ They eat us hungerly, and when they are full/ They belch us (3.4.103-106)."
She doesn't seem to say this with a bitterness or a desire to reciprocate men's "belching"; it shows us, however, that there is a deeply rooted level of skepticism in her character, a skepticism that will be further developed in 4.3 and then will break out to open defiance in 5.2. But, for now, even with her comment on men's dietary practices, she is the obedient spouse of Iago.
Desdemona
As the play develops, her character becomes more and more focused as an obedient spouse despite the attacks and abuse she suffers from her husband. However, Desdemona will not suffer the verbal (and, in 4.1, the physical) abuse without complaint. After Othello tries to wear her down with his insistent questioning on where she put the handkerchief, she says, "I' faith, you are to blame (3.4.97--you are blameworthy for pursuing this line of thinking/questioning)." Later, after Othello strikes her, all she says is, "I have not deserv'd this (4.1.241)." Any scholars who decry Desdemona's obedience as a sign of weakness must come to grips not only with the fact that there can sometimes be a lot of strength in obedience but also that her brief comments after being abused give her a silent dignity that is impossible to ignore.
Yet, as I noted in a previous essay, she purchases her obedience at the cost of ignoring signs of her husband's jealousy. Her precise use of the legal metaphor to show that she was mistaken in blaming Othello for his unkindness (3.4.152-154) stands in great contrast to the perverted use of justice by Othello as he tries to catch her in her speech. Othello acts as prosecuting attorney, judge, jury and cross-examiner as he tries to pin on her the realization that her losing the handkerchief is tantamount to infidelity. Yet she doesn't recognize why he is insistent, nor does she ask him to try to explain himself. While he thinks he is going in for the kill by saying "handkerchief" and "fetch" six times in ten lines (3.4.85-95), to trap her in his splenetic fury, she can only unwittingly stoke the blaze by mentioning the "sufficiency" of Cassio. If Othello's use of "liberal" and "frank" when taking her hand suggest her sexual licence, Desdemona's use of "sufficient" to describe Cassio likewise connotes his sexual "competence." So, Desdemona is the obedient wife, who at this point is more confused than hurt by her husband's outbursts.
Bianca
Finally, there is Bianca, Cassio's mistress. She has tracked him down because he hasn't been to see her in at least a week, and she would like an explanation. All Cassio can say to her, other than calling her "Sweet Bianca" (an address that will be belied by his cutting laughter and vivid language at her expense in 4.1) is to say that "I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd (3.4.177)," and that he would "in a more continuate time/ Strike off this score of absence (3.4.178-179)." Yet she takes umbrage at Cassio's suggestion that she make him a copy of the handkerchief that was planted in his lodging by Iago. She interprets this as a "token from a newer friend," an indication of Cassio's own infidelty. Surely the handkerchief is doing its mischief even in the lives of the lesser characters in the play. But then, when all is said and done, Cassio asks her to leave and she obediently complies, with the promise that he will see her soon (3.4.198).
Conclusion
And so the themes of women and men and fidelity and misperception and submission and suspicion continue. Nothing is solved at this point. But Othello's outrage and resolve will now become the focus of the play as we turn to Act IV.
Copyright © 2004-2007 William R. Long |