the trouble with gender in othello - Auburn University Electronic ...

Section Two:
Othello in the Matrix
We will now turn our attention away from Desdemona’s disruption of the
patriarchy, and turn to Othello’s. It is not only the fact of Desdemona’s
disobedience to her father, her violation of The Law of the Father, which is
represented as offensive in her relationship with Othello. To begin to explicate
how Othello’s initial treatment of Desdemona is an encouragement of her gender
transgressions, as well as transgressive of his own scripted gender performance,
we must begin by looking at the words of Brabantio. Brabantio never refers to
Desdemona by name. “My daughter! My Daughter! She is abused, stolen from
me, corrupted!” (I.iii.65, 68) None in the gathering of city fathers even considers
asking Desdemona if she voluntarily ran away with Othello. It takes Othello to
suggest this radical idea: “I do beseech you, send for the lady to the Sagittary and
let her speak” (I.iii.128-130) although, when speaking to Brabantio and the Duke,
Othello does refer to Desdemona as “his(Brabantio’s) daughter”, it is Othello
who refers to her the most as Desdemona. In all of Act I, Desdemona is called by
name six times, four of them by Othello (the only other person to refer to her by
name is the Duke). While Othello is, of course, not free completely of the
patriarchal ownership idea of possession of wife or daughter, that Brabantio
only refers to her as “my daughter” can be viewed as indicative that he only
views Desdemona as a possession, while Othello’s more frequent use of her
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