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

given name can be seen as indicative of at least a certain amount of
acknowledgment of Desdemona as an individuated person. “What is at stake in
her defiance is the fact that women were not allowed to be desiring subjects
within the reigning gender of Shakespeare’s Venice—and of Renaissance
England”(Singh 147). Othello’s treatment of Desdemona, allowing her to
behave as a desiring subject is as much a transgression as Desdemona’s, perhaps
more of one.
But, as Butler has told us, there is no escape from the matrix of power.
This can be seen in Othello’s perception of Desdemona’s transgression by
eloping with him. Here we have a perfect example of how society shapes sexual
desires and expectations; even when an individual chooses to overstep the
boundaries of societal expectation, it is virtually impossible to escape “the matrix
of power”. For proof of this, we must look to Brabantio’s parting words to his
unwanted son in law, and then turn attention to Act III, when a father’s
distraught words come home with a vengeance: “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast
eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee” (I.iii.317-318). Othello,
who is occupied with matters of war, responds with a firm statement of his belief
in Desdemona’s honor, “My life upon her faith” (I.iii.319). However, it is this
idea that Iago uses to first make Othello doubt Desdemona’s “faith” in Act III.iii.
Othello is secure in his wife who “is fair, feeds well, loves company,” for “she
had eyes, and chose me”(III.iii.211, 217) Iago repeats Brabantio’s parting words
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