Othello is among the most tragic of Shakespeare’s dramas and so are its characters including the heroine Desdemona and her lover Othello, ‘The Moor’. Emilia explains why she feels lucky to have found Desdemona’s handkerchief: Her husband, Iago, has been pestering her to snatch it for some time, and although she doesn’t know why he wants it, she’s happy to finally do as he asks. Similarly, critics who argue that Desdemona’s slightly bizarre bawdy The play has been published by Dramatists Play Service and is a fascinating read. The handkerchief is the most important in the play. so powerful. Desdemona replies that she believes that Othello doesn’t harbor such an emotion, that the “sun where he was born / Drew all such humors from him.” Ironically, Iago’s jealous machinations turn the handkerchief, once a symbol of love and fidelity, into a tool of deception “proving” Desdemona’s trumped up affair with Cassio. He hopes that the handkerchief in Cassio’s possession will serve as proof of Desdemona’s infidelity and somehow lead to the destruction of both Cassio and Othello, the two men he hates with a passion. all odds to convince Othello that she is not too independent. The handkerchief, a gift to Desdemona from Othello, symbolizes so much more than a mere token of affection. The handkerchief initially is a gift given to Desdemona by Othello as a love token. Arguments that see Desdemona That song tonight / Will not go from my mind” (IV.iii.27–30). Emilia is loyal to Desdemona, but she is loyal to Iago. Desdemona is a more plausible, well-rounded figure than lines, Desdemona has seemed capable of meeting or even rising above those / And she died O, farewell” (V.ii.133–134). The symbols of the play are the handkerchief, and the song “willow”. Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief by Paula Vogel November 9 - 25, 2018 . Desdemona Desdemona is the daughter of the Venetian Senator Brabantio. The last time we see Desdemona before she awakens to find Othello The handkerchief, a gift to Desdemona from Othello, symbolizes so much more than a mere token of affection. When Desdemona cannot produce the handkerchief he wants to see, Othello explains the handkerchiefs histo… The manner in which Desdemona is murdered—smothered by a pillow He admires and loves his wife, but he can't believe that she would be in love with him. In stock on October 17, 2020. Othello asks point-blank if the handkerchief is lost. It helps weave the entire story together. From these two plays, we get the tragedy of Othello, delivered from perspectives of different genders. Othello by William Shakespeare Summary Lisa Jardine (1996) focuses on the significance of the historical and cultural background for the interpretation of the position and role of women in the Renaissance by emphasizing that obedience, passivity and silence represent their mainfeatures. independent person, but midway through she must struggle against She is caught between her conscience and her responsibilities as both a wife and Desdemona’s attendant. A CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF DESDEMONA. Mentioned over 30 times within the text, the item is both distinct in design — white, and dotted with images of strawberries — and imbued with a deep history. then, depicts Desdemona contradictorily as a self-effacing, faithful of her first speech (“My noble father, / I do perceive here a divided Desdemona is young, sexual, and recently married. Desdemona insists to Emilia that Othello is not a jealous man. The discussion over the handkerchief escalates into a huge fight. After handing over Desdemona’s handkerchief to Iago, Emilia explains that Desdemona will become extremely upset once she notices the object is missing, so unless the handkerchief serves some important purpose, she would like to return it to her mistress. after defending her choice of marriage to her father in Act I, scene She later displays as well. Title of Work and its Form: Desdemona: a play about a handkerchief, play Author: Paula Vogel (on Twitter: @VogelPaula) Date of Work: 1993 Where the Work Can Be Found: The play was first produced in by Circle Repertory Company and featured the amazing Cherry Jones in the role of Bianca. Harlem Duet by Djanet Sears Paperback $15.95. He then asks her to lend him her handkerchief. Her forgiveness of Othello may help the audience to forgive him to Emilia’s question, “O, who hath done this deed?” Desdemona’s final The first symbol of the handkerchief is Desdemona’s marital fidelity. OTHELLO : Fetch't, let me see't. handkerchief may appear to be an insignificant object, but throughout the play the way its symbolic importance is revealed, shows that it is really very significant. She is surely faithful to Iago when she gives him Desdemona’s handkerchief, regardless of her impulse to return it to Desdemona. She begins the play as a supremely much criticism has given her credit for. Othello enters and tells Desdemona to give him her hand. Othello gave it to Desdemona for the same reason, to represent her fidelity to Othello just as his mother did with his father. In vain, Desdemona tries to deflect his questions about the handkerchief, speaking again of Cassio. It is subsequently symbolically transformed into The first symbol of the handkerchief is Desdemona’s marital fidelity. Here, Othello explains to Desdemona the significance of the handkerchief: He was told the handkerchief is charmed, and that whoever possesses it will have a faithful spouse, but should the object get lost or be given away, the once loyal spouse would search for love outside of the marriage. wife and as a bold, independent personality. Later in play he throws a tantrum because Desdemona does not know where the handkerchief is. The plot of the play hinges on the loss of a handkerchief Othello gave to Desdemona. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. In response Most characters in the novel meet an undeserved fate. The reluctantly loyal Emilia pesters Desdemona about a military promotion for her. In the end, Othello stifles the speech that made Desdemona The main themes of the play include love, an inconsistency of the military heroism, and fear of isolation. Of all the deaths that happen in Othello, Desdemona’s is the most tragic and undeserved. August 2, 2015 Harry. As the clown departs, Desdemona wonders to Emilia where her handkerchief might be. She makes a playful reference to Othello’s origins, suggesting that the sun in his native land made him impervious to jealousy, and therefore he is an exception to the typical Venetian tendency to be suspicious of women’s behavior. She, not Othello, asks Emilia to put her wedding sheets on the bed, Her speeches are not as lengthy as those of the men, but with Desdemona, every word counts. A beautiful, happy girl, she has rejected all Venetian suitors, but is conquered by Othello’s tales of his life, and absconds from her father’s her to elope with him. In this scene, the handkerchief may represent Desdemona's desire to heal Othello of his distress. after Othello strikes her (“I have not deserved this” [IV.i.236]). Okay, so maybe an outright lie. Othello may be impressive on the battlefield, but his own personal insecurity leads to the tragic end of the story. lord. Iago understands that a gift such as a handkerchief might be a mere trinket to some, but bear profound meaning to others. learned from her mother’s maid: “She was in love; and he proved mad She had a song of willow. singing it. The 2011 play arose from a collaboration between Morrison, director Peter Sellars, and musician Rokia Traoré, and revolves around Desdemona's relationship with the African nurse who raised her. Farewell. The Handkerchief. / And did forsake her. Tragically, Desdemona is apparently aware of her imminent death. She does so, and he chastises her for her hands moistness, which suggests sexual promiscuity. In handing over the handkerchief, she obeys Iago’s commands, but in doing so she betrays Desdemona and plays an unwitting role in Iago’s plan to destroy Othello and all he loves. suffocated beneath the demands put on her fidelity. Paula Vogel’s 1987 three-hander, Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief, is not a play about a handkerchief. words are, “Nobody, I myself. Only 7 left in stock (more on the way). that she is “guiltless,” Desdemona also forgives her husband (V.ii.133). At the end of the play, Emilia refers to the handkerchief as a “trifle” (5.2.228); this trifle is the center of catastrophe in the play. Desdemona is at times a submissive character, most notably may be intentional, meant to portray the way Desdemona herself feels In this soliloquy, Iago shares his evil plan for Desdemona’s handkerchief: He will place it in Cassio’s room as “evidence” that Desdemona and Cassio have been having an affair. . not written by Shakespeare or a mere vulgarity ignore the fact that The handkerchief appears in Act III of the play and is a particularly important part in the plot of the play. Though she maintains to the end For those who, like the 17th century essayist quoted in the program of “Desdemona,” find Shakespeare’s “Tragedy of Othello” to be just so much sturm und drang about a handkerchief, Paula Vogel… Othello gives Desdemona handkerchief as a symbol of his love to her because his father had given the same handkerchief to his mother. In spite of the fact that Emilia was beforehand blamed for taking part in an extramarital affair with Othello, her activities all through the play depict a steadfast and legitimate lady. DESDEMONA : I say, it is not lost. her fidelity to her husband. This is a trick to put me from my suit: Pray you, let Cassio be received again. The handkerchief symbolizes different things to different characters. 3) Why does Othello care about Desdemona... Othello first explains that he has a sentimental attachment to Desdemona’s handkerchief because it was the first gift he ever gave to Desdemona: “I gave her such a one; ’twas my first gift” (3.3). This contradiction At least, she did until playwright Paula Vogel asked, "Do we really know she was innocent?" Summary. Like the audience, Desdemona seems able only to watch as her husband Iago manipulates the handkerchief so that Othello comes to see it as a symbol of Desdemona herself—her faith and chastity. Two little deceptions – Emilia's stealing of the handkerchief and Desdemona's lie to Othello that it is not lost – cement Desdemona's doom. Othello Analysis . Othello is clearly manipulating Desdemona, for even though he believes she has been unfaithful to him, his words seem to threaten that if she loses the handkerchief, he will cheat on her. Morrison's play marks the third major play focusing on Shakespeare's Desdemona composed by a modern … iii, and then almost immediately being put in the position of defending Desdemona orders the clown to find Cassio and bring him the message that she has made her suit to Othello. is driven insane with jealousy. As if she can’t believe what she is hearing—perhaps based on her own experiences with her jealous husband, Iago—Emilia asks if Othello ever gets jealous. It helps weave the entire story together. Unable to produce it, Desdemona can’t convince Othello that his suspicions are unfounded and thereby save her marriage. THE HANDKERCHIEF IN OTHELLO: MEANING & SYMBOLISM In William Shakespeare’s play, Othello, the symbolism of Desdemona’s handkerchief is central to the play’s tragic dénouement. To Othello, the handkerchief symbolizes fidelity and his giving it to Desdemona represents a promise that he will be true to her, and a request that she stay true to him. . Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Othello is a play about sexual jealousy, and how one man can convince another man, who loves his wife dearly, that she has been unfaithful to him when she hasn’t.But Shakespeare does several very interesting, and artistically quite bold, things … and she asks Emilia to bury her in these sheets should she die first. as stereotypically weak and submissive ignore the conviction and authority the same chiding, almost mischievous wit in Act III, scene iii, As a jealous man, Othello invests the handkerchief with great meaning. duty” [I.iii.179–180]) and her terse fury Iago, understanding the object’s significance, plans to turn the token of love into a tool of destruction. in a bed covered in her wedding sheets—is symbolic: she is literally When Desdemona drops the handkerchief in Act III, Scene 3, she unknowingly signals the point of the play at which she begins to lose Othello to blind jealousy. Since the handkerchief was the first gift Desdemona received from Othello, she keeps it about her constantly as a symbol of Othello’s love. demands. However, the heroine of Paula Vogel’s Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief is, to quote Britney Spears, not that innocent. Now the handkerchief symbolizes the health of the marriage as a whole, rather than just one partner’s loyalty. The play, then, depicts Desdemona contradictorily as a self-effacing, faithful wife and as a bold, independent personality. in her willingness to take credit for her own murder. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. The play, then, depicts Desdemona contradictorily as a self-effacing, faithful wife and as a bold, independent personality. Othello: analysis. OTHELLO : Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives. "It is not lost," she says (3.4.81.3). Since her first Desdemona hesitates, and then tells something of a lie. This item: Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief by Paula Vogel Paperback $10.00. Desdemona is one of Shakespeare's most boring female leads. In this scene, Emilia’s loyalties—to her husband, Iago, and to her mistress, Desdemona—come into conflict. jesting with Iago in Act II, scene i, is either an interpolation The title character of the play is Desdemona, the wife of the title character in Shakespeare's Othello. In Shakespeare’s original play, Othello kills Desdemona, when a handkerchief he gave her is found on his lieutenant, Cassio. "Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief", by Paula Vogel, is Spicy Witch’s sister production to their all-female production of "Othello", both of which are running in rep at the Clemente Soto Velez Center. Othello to forgive Cassio. The play has been published by Dramatists Play … As a picture of domestic abuse, the play could have been poignant, but unlike the masterpiece that is How I Learned to Drive, this play just doesn't measure up to Vogel's usual delivery. To make Othello believe that Desdemona has been unfaithful, Iago talks Emilia into giving him Desdemona’s handkerchief so that he may plant it in Cassio’s quarters. To Othello, the handkerchief symbolizes fidelity and his giving it to Desdemona represents a promise that he will be true to her, and a request that she stay true to him. DESDEMONA : Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now. The play, / . The pure and innocent victim of Iago's villainy, her husband Othello's jealousy and a series of extraordinary, handkerchief-related coincidences, she seems more typical of a nineteenth-century melodrama than of Shakespeare's imagination. Order it now. In Paula Vogel’s bawdy, thunderingly ironic take on Othello, the bride of the Moor is everything Iago pretended she was.Well, worse, actually, Desdemona is a bored, promiscuous aristocrat who delights in talking like a fishwife and whiles away idle hours in Cyprus by substituting for the local prostitute. When Othello enters, he claims a headache and asks her for a handkerchief to bind his head, but he will have only the embroidered strawberry handkerchief. lines 61–84, when she attempts to persuade The action takes place in, so to speak, the interstices of Shakespeare’s Othello, showing what that play’s three women get up to in the household laundry while the Shakespeare plot takes place offstage elsewhere. Desdemona is a lady of spirit and intelligence. standing over her with murder in his eyes, she sings a song she The handkerchief symbolizes Othello’s love and trust to Desdemona and Desdemona’s marital fidelity to Othello. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. The handkerchief appears in Act III of the play and is a particularly important part in the plot of the play. Iago recognizes that his lies have already poisoned Othello’s mind with doubts about Desdemona’s fidelity. 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