Othello - Women

In the play Othello, Shakespeare instills the gender rules for women, but toys with the idea of women breaking the rules. Desdemona becomes the victim of her own decision in disobeying the rules. Desdemona suffers before she dies consequently for her actions. Desdemona appears to follow the gender rules, but she makes the fatal decision of breaking one rule, which lead to more broken rules. Desdemona's mistakes in breaking the gender rules cause her to …

…keeping Othello and Iago from killing everyone, she causes Othello to commit suicide and Emilia to die at the hands of Iago. Desdemona's brings the entire society down because she disobeys the gender roles and class structure. The punishment changes the peaceful Cyprus to turn into a war zone worse than the Turkish attacks. Society fails when the gender roles are disobeyed. Desdemona pays dearly with her life and her innocence for breaking the rule.