Desdemona Strong Woman Essay - 904 Words

Desdemona: Strong and Relentless Gurmehar Sodhi Mansoor, U ENG 3U0 March 29th, 2011 Words: 870 According to the general hierarchy when Shakespeare wrote his play, men were deemed to be more able than women. Instead in Othello, Shakespeare emphasizes the strength of Desdemona despite the stereotypical views about women. Desdemona is portrayed to be more able than the women and as able as the men in the Venetian society. Unlike other women in Othello, Desdemona proves to be very strong and relentless in her beliefs and love. In Othello, Desdemona proves to be very strong and liberated. Since the beginning of the play Desdemona is portrayed to be strong and independent. Desdemona makes her own decision to wed Othello denying her†¦show more content†¦Othello insults and strikes Desdemona in public and Desdemona being horrified by these actions says that â€Å"I have not deserved this† (4.1.241). Desdemona finds Othello to be incorrect in his actions and she expresses her feelings to Othello. This proves Desdemona to be ahead of the time the play was written since unlike other women Desdemona defends herself and her beliefs strongly. Therefore, Desdemona is shown as an all-around powerful woman. In Othello, Desdemona has a relentless nature which allows her to love and care unconditionally. Throughout the play, Desdemona has a determined attitude towards her beliefs and she does not believe other’s opinions. This is shown when Desdemona and Emilia were having a conversation. Emilia tells Desdemona that Othello shows jealously but Desdemona immediately disagrees with Emilia telling her to â€Å"Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse/Full of crusadoes And but my noble Moor/ Is true of mind, and made of no such baseness/As jealous creatures are, it were enough/To put him to ill thinking† (3.4.24-29). Desdemona is relentless in her love for Othello and claims Othello to be too noble to be jealous. Her relentless nature makes her love for Othello so unconditional that she cannot see the clear jealousy Othello harbours. Desdemona then shows that she is not only relentless but determined when she makes a promise with Cassio. After being harshly fired, Desdemona promises Cassio that she will convinceShow MoreRelatedDesdemona in William Shakespeares Othello Essay858 Words   |  4 PagesDesdemona in William Shakespeares Othello In Act One, Scene Three when we first hear of Desdemona through her father Brabantio, the image of a small, shy and innocent young girl comes to mind. When Brabantio tells the Duke of his daughter he calls her ‘A maiden never bold; / of spirit so still and quiet’ and the only reason she married Othello is because ‘she feared to look on’ him. Brabantio seems sure that this is the daughter he knows so well and he believesRead MoreEssay On Desdemonas View Of Women In Othello919 Words   |  4 Pagesthroughout their life are regarded as respectful. Henceforth he disrespects Desdemona as she married against her father’s wish. He questions her character saying that she is a desperate woman who could not control her emotions. He not only distrusts his wife, but form opinions on other women as well. According to him if Desdemona has married Othello against the wish of her father, then she is not a valuable woman with uncontrollable sexual desires. One cannot find any proof of Emilia cheatingRead MoreLady of Bath vs. Desdemona1394 Words   |  6 Pagesthat men in the centuries leading up to the twentieth believed a woman must be â€Å"seen but not heard,† is a fair statement. Women during the times of Chaucer and Shakespeare were second class citizens with little rights. They were considered properties of their masters (fathers and husbands), and had no use other than birthing and mothering. A woman was supposed to be meek, chaste, and have no opinion. However, the characters Desdemona in William Shakespeare’s Othello and Dame Alison from The WifeRead MoreEssay On Women In Othello And Wilsons Fences1386 Words   |  6 PagesIn both Shakespeare’s play Othello and Wilson’s Fences women can be seen as victims to men but have their strong moments, however men’s identities are sometimes dependent of their women. Focusing around the main women in these two plays you can see the strong similarities in the societal perspective on women. In Othello and Fences both marriages of the main characters face a demise, but in both relationships the women were the back bone of the marriage not caring about their husband’s backgroundsRead MoreExaming the Interracial Marriage of Othello and Desdemona Essay1105 Words   |  5 PagesCenturies ago in Elizabethan England there were many traditions about marriage and the treatment of women. One strong tradition of these times was the practice of marriage between races. Interracial marriages were considered extremely taboo. (High Beam). In this era marriages were arranged by the parents with strong help from the local church. The individuals had little choice as to who they would marry. (Elizabethan England Life). Yet another example of these traditions was the respectable treatmentRead MoreEssay about Eulogy: Love and Long Remember Desdemona665 Words   |  3 PagesEulogy for Desdemona I would like to start by thanking Desdemona’s family who have travelled from Venice to be here today, and to all her loyal friends here in Cyprus for your unwavering support during this difficult time. Many of you may be offended by my appearance here today, but to that I will say, I was blinded by my intense love for Desdemona and that love is as strong now as it was the day I married her. We will all long remember Desdemona as a generous and devoted wife and friend. SheRead MoreDiction of Othello1473 Words   |  6 Pagesdiction is effective because in addition to having merely an idea of what is going on the reader can have a mental picture as well. These strong bouts of imagery are beneficial to the work as a whole because they give strong pictures in which the general action of the work can be amplified, which is something Shakespeare strives for. The women in the story: Desdemona and Emilia, play an important role in the theme of the story. It is possible to establish a clear relation behind Shakespeare’s dictionRead MoreAnalysis Of Shakespeare s Romeo And Juliet 868 Words   |  4 Pageswas undeniable. Women were property and were utterly controlled by men. They ha d to look a certain way. act a certain way and most of all be obedient to the men closest to them. The most attractive trait a woman had back in Shakespearean times was being loyal. Today the idea of loyalty for a woman is to be faithful to her man and to look out for his best interests. In Shakespeare, loyalty mostly pertained to the woman’s family. While many would argue that women in Shakespeare are bound to their loveRead MoreWomen in Othello/ Elizabethan Times1608 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose† (Stevenson, Robert).In play Othello identity is a topic that appears throughout the play. In Shakespeare Othello all the women, Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca have no separate identity all three are defined by who they are or not married to or the male characters they are connected with. â€Å"According to the Elizabethan times that the play was written in and the general hierarchies within Venetian society men hold all the power andRead MoreThe Real Victims Of Othello1197 Words   |  5 PagesShakespeare explores the ideas of Othello’s actions toward Desdemona, their relationship, but forgets an important detail: her side of the story. Desdemona, along with the other women in the play contrast each other tremendously. All three women show victimization in their own way, but how far will each woman let it go? Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca all have very different viewpoints on society and how women should be treated. Desdemona throughout the whole play is seen as the weaker figure. She

Moral Development In Anthony Burgesss A Clockwork Orange

When first published in 1961, the American edition of Anthony Burgess’s novel, A Clockwork Orange was published without it’s twenty-first chapter, outraging it’s author. But what, one might ask, could be so important in a single chapter to cause such an outrage? The answer is blatantly obvious. Omitting the final chapter of any book would likely cause much dismay to the author. But in the case of A Clockwork Orange, the final twenty-first chapter completely shapes the entire meaning of the novel by the hand of a single concept: moral development. Omitting the twenty-first chapter, there is not a sliver of it. Burgess himself says in the 1987 introduction that there is, in fact â€Å"not much point in writing a novel unless you can show the†¦show more content†¦This group is the closest thing Alex has to a real family, his real parents offering little more than a physical presence in his life. Living together in the seedy and dilapidated Municipal Flatbl ock 18A, Alex’s parents scarcely give orders around the house, and instead seem have been conditioned by Alex to act the way he wants them to act: â€Å"pee and em in their bedroom next door had learnt how not to knock on the wall with complaints of what they call noise.† What concerns they do express for Alex come through only in dreams, his father recalls a vivid dream of Alex lying in the street, beaten by teenage delinquents. â€Å"You were like helpless in your blood and you couldn’t fight back†(54). Alex, rather than trying to absolve his father’s fears, simply gives him money to him for Scotch instead, and sends all away â€Å"with loving smiles all around†(54). Because of his lack of any real parental influence, this leaves Alex’s droogs to play that role, a â€Å"pseudo-family† of sorts, a cheap imitation of the real thing. Unlike real family, (blood or otherwise) the pseudo-family provides only an illusion of genuine loving and caring, and most importantly, some twisted sense of belonging. It is the false families such as this that are the cause of the creation of Alex’s false identity, or his â€Å"pseudo-self,† or â€Å"individuals who remain unable to remain unable to maintain any real stasis between theirShow MoreRelatedTriumph of Free Will in Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange Essay2638 Words   |  11 PagesTriumph of Free Will in A Clockwork Orange  Ã‚     Ã‚   Amidst a population composed of perfectly conditioned automatons, is a picture of a society that is slowly rotting from within. Alex, the Faustian protagonist of A Clockwork Orange, and a sadistic and depraved gang leader, preys on the weak and the innocent. Although perhaps misguided, his conscientiousness of his evil nature indicates his capacity to understand morality and deny its practice. When society attempts to force goodness upon AlexRead MoreA Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess1960 Words   |  8 PagesAnthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange has been placed under much scrutiny by literary critics and readers everywhere. Furthermore, this highly criticized novel contains a myriad of ways to engage with the work, whether it is from the psychological or ethical perspective. Through College Literature Journal’s article â€Å"O My Brothers†, the unnamed author draws interesting connections between the main character’s development and how pseud o-families and pseudo- self plays a part on this said development

Kant Theory and Justice Free Essays

Immanuel Kant concerns himself with deontology, and as a deontologist, he believes that the rightness of an action depends in part on things other than the goodness of its consequences, and so, actions should be judged based on an intrinsic moral law that says whether the action is right or wrong – period. Kant introduced the Categorical Imperative which is the central philosophy of his theory of morality, and an understandable approach to this moral law. It is divided into three formulations. We will write a custom essay sample on Kant Theory and Justice or any similar topic only for you Order Now The first formulation of Kant’s Categorical Imperative states that one should â€Å"always act in such a way that the maxim of your action can be willed as a universal law of humanity†; an act is either right or wrong based on its ability to be universalized. This belief is part of the â€Å"universal law theory† and states that to determine if an action is essentially â€Å"good† or â€Å"bad,† one must essentially imagine a world in which everyone performed that same action constantly, and imagine if this would be a desirable world to live in. If not, then it is not okay to perform the action. He believes that this â€Å"universal law† lives within us; it is not something that is imposed on us from the outside. For example if one kills oneself out of self-love, it is logically contradictory because self-love refers to respect for one’s self as a rational being and rationality is based on objective (undistorted by emotion or personal bias). So, one can never justify suicide. The maxim of killing oneself cannot possibly exist as a universal law. The second formulation states that one must â€Å"treat humanity whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as means only. For example, if I were to lie to a girl so that she would choose to go out with me then I, in effect, use her. Kant would say that I treated her as a means to achieve my end, and he specifically prohibits manipulating or deceiving a person for the purposes of achieving a personal end. According to Kant, only people are valuable as ends. Any action tha t disregards this is in clear violation of Kantian morality, and purports to reduce an individual’s autonomy; this consequently undermines a person’s rational capability and reduces him/her to a thing. This implies that if someone robs you and takes your wallet, he is treating you as a thing and not as a person. The third and last formulation requires that one sees oneself as the source of all moral law. This simply emphasizes the fact that the moral agent is the one who chooses to act morally. This third formulation tells us to imagine ourselves as the sole lawmaker in a society, and to choose the best possible set of laws that the society of rational beings would live by. Kant believes that we all have reason within us, but some choose to respond and act upon it while others do not. We can reason the way things ought to be, and based on that is how we should act, which explains Kant’s view that a moral action must be chosen through moral reason. For example, one does not cheat on a test because one’s reason tells him or her that it is wrong, not the consequences that follow if one gets caught. Another example is that we do not need the law to tell us not to steal because it is immoral; we simply have to access our ability to reason to rationalize this. In a world where each individual recognizes his/her moral dignity and freely chooses to adopt the same universalizable moral law, all actions become good. In opposition to the Categorical Imperative is Kant’s Hypothetical Imperative, which states that a particular action is necessary as a means to some purpose. Kant believes that these actions are not always moral because they are not performed out of â€Å"pure good will† (pure duty), which is the only thing in the world that is unambiguously good. In the case of the ethical credibility of the principles of affirmative action, Kant’s Categorical Imperative provides for the basis of approval. It is primarily out of a sense of duty that a society would seek to assist its struggling members who are in need of help. The action so far seems good, but we must test its universality. Can we imagine ourselves living in a world in which all societies seek to aid the underprivileged and the disadvantaged at the slight expense of others? Absolutely yes. It is important for one to bear in mind, however, that it is the very action of helping that is being judged as inherently good or bad, and not the action’s admirable or overbearing surrounding consequences. Secondly, we must test that the action is regarding everyone involved as ends and not as means to any particular purpose. Since the aim of affirmative action is to help the current predicaments of those people who were victimized in the past, focus is placed on respecting every individual’s autonomy. In this way, we can see that affirmative action is not a devious plan that seeks to manipulate, but one that seeks to compensate by adjusting the means (circumstances) and not the ends (individuals). Lastly, we must see if the action is establishing a universal law governing others in similar situations; one should behave as if one is the absolute moral authority of the universe. Is completing this action consistent with the application of moral law? If so, the affirmative action passes these three tests and the action is good. In his â€Å"Objections to Affirmative Action†, James Sterba talks about why he believes that Affirmative Action is morally wrong. He argues that a person’s race shouldn’t control his or her point of interest. Sterba argues that Affirmative Action leads to injustice and it is unfair to the white nonminority males because â€Å"it deprives them of equal opportunity by selecting or appointing women or minority candidates over more qualified nonminority male candidates. He believes that the job of the government is to eliminate all kinds of discriminatory policies. He thinks that â€Å"alternative programs are preferable. † Thus, the government should instead promote equal opportunities through programs within agencies and departments instead of through Affirmative Action which he believes is a fancy word for discrimination. He argues that it is not fair to those who are more qualified for certain opportunities and cannot receive them either because they are not women or because they are not part of the minority. In his First Objection, he argues that Affirmative Action â€Å"is not required to compensate for unjust institutions in the distant past. † He talks about Morris’ argument that what occurred in the past is not the primary issue that puts all present-day African Americans at an unfair disadvantage; it is more about the issues of more recent origin. He makes a point that discrimination today could very well be the source of the disadvantaged disposition of African Americans and other minority groups, and it is certainly something that society could do without. The question remains that in attempting to â€Å"level the playing field† and eliminate present-day discrimination in America, is Affirmative Action a practical approach and should such a program be endorsed? The Fourth Objection goes on to say that Affirmative Action â€Å"hurts those who receive it† because in many ways the people benefitting from it would not see the need to work as hard, and it places â€Å"women and minorities in positions for which they are not qualified. Sterba proposes that one of the solutions to this problem could be the installation education enhancement programs to compensate for any lack of skills. He believes that this will in a short time ensure that minorities are appropriately qualified for a position. In response to Sterba’s First Objection, Kant would agree that the rightness of Affirmative Action should be based upon the circumstances of the present situation and not what had occurred in the past; this is evident mainly through his a priori form of philosophical deductive reasoning that judges an action before the experience, or â€Å"in the moment. However, Kant would disagree with Sterba’s Fourth Objection because in my opinion, Kant’s deontological theory correlates with the correctness of the affirmative action in its very aim toward helping â€Å"the right† people. Affirmative action has not significantly diminished gender, racial, and all other forms of discrimination, but the action has promoted equality and diversity to a large extent. In a world where everyone performs the â€Å"good will,† there is justice; and the installation of this program only serves to come closer to this justice. Discrimination is wrong because it violates a person’s basic and intrinsic moral rights. Thus, in itself the adoption of this program is an action that is good because without Affirmative Action it is true in many ways that minorities would remain at a disadvantaged position in the educational system and not be allowed the opportunity to exercise their true potential. Kant would argue that it is a duty out of â€Å"good will† to treat people equally. The concepts of equality and autonomy are emphasized in the nature of this program because it strives to treat everyone as a free person equal to everyone else. According to Kant, one should be treated as ends not as mere means. It can be argued that African Americans at a disadvantaged position were being treated as means by the dominant culture to achieve its own ends in the system. Discrimination cannot exist as a system of nature because those who discriminate would not want to be similarly discriminated against if things were reversed, and so Affirmative Action is justified because it aims to open the door of opportunities to those who have been oppressed for years. That being said, Kant would examine the action itself and not the consequences of the action. When making decisions, one has to put oneself into other people’s shoes and see if one wants to be treated the same way others have been treated; it is a duty to treat others as we ourselves want to be treated. Affirmative Action not necessarily needed in this society to reduce the inherent inequalities that are still existent, but it can certainly be used to assist in leveling the playing field. Affirmative Action has been successful on a short term basis, that is, in ncreasing the representation of minorities (including women) in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded. However, on the long term basis it can be argued that the program only serves to perpetuate a cycle of need. Kant advocates the idea of equality through his deontological theory by saying that all people deserve equal treatment as rational ends in themselves and th at this should never be compromised by the flaws in any social system. 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