The female characters are objectified by the men, prized for their beauty or derided as whores

Compare Cassio’s attitude and behaviour towards Desdemona and Emilia with Iago’s expressed views
on women. What is the difference between them? What is Iago’s view of women?

Cassio and Iago express divergent views on the nature of women. While Cassio sees women as being
virtuous and good, Iago is insistent that women are deceptive, manipulative and selfish. This emerges
during a conversation with Emilia and Desdemona when Iago comments on Cassio’s respectful greeting
toward Emilia as he kisses her, which is a Florentine custom. Iago warns Cassio that Emilia may appear
to be polite and modest in public, but speaks too much when she is at home with him. He sees women
as being ‘pictures out of doors’, meaning that women are agreeable and respectful in public (II.i.109–
110). By contrast, he describes women as being ‘wild-cats in your kitchens’ and ‘players in your
housewifery’, suggesting that women are difficult and manipulative when in their homes (II.i.109–110).
Iago’s views demonstrate a highly misogynistic view of women, indicating that Othello is a play that
more broadly deals with prejudice toward minority groups, which includes women.

What are Desdemona and Emilia’s expressed views on women in Scene 3? Write an analytical
paragraph that compares and contrasts their perspectives using direct quotes.

In Scene 3 of Act IV, Desdemona and Emilia present contrasting views on love and women. Desdemona,
confused by Othello’s behaviour, asks Emilia whether ‘there by women do abuse their husbands in such
gross kind’ (IV.iii.59–60). But while Emilia believes women are capable of being selfish and manipulative,
Desdemona maintains ‘I do not think there is any such woman’, emphasising her naivety (81). Emilia
suggests that it is the fault of the husbands ‘if wives do fall’, suggesting that women are treated poorly
by their husbands in Venetian society and act out accordingly to fulfil their personal needs and desires.

Othello, Act 2, Scene 1

Iago is then critical of women in general, telling Emilia and Desdemona that “you are pictures out of
doors, bells in your parlours, wild-cats in your kitchens, saints in your injuries, devils being offended,
players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds”

Women appear virtuous in public, but prostitutes in private, silent in public, aggressive defender of their
territories. They imitate the saints when complaining, they act like devils when offended. They are
deceivers in their domestic duties and prostitutes in their beds. Iago describes women as unchaste,
deceitful, lacking virtue with no sense of duty.

Iago’s honest misogyny

Iago provides a list of the faults that women in general do possess. Therefore, according to Iago, they
are proud, nagging, vain, overdressed, either frigid (having no lust at all) or full of lust, revengeful,
stupid, unable to keep a secret, and always staring at man. Deeply cynical view of the world where lust,
vanity and stupidity are universal.

Virtue and vice among women is a central theme of this tragedy