Desdemona

is a figure possessed of soft simplicity and confident merit; she is unconscious of her innocence, her artless perseverance in her suit, and her slowness to suspect that she can be suspected.

The soft simplicity of Desdemona, confident merit, unconscious of her innocence, her artless perseverance in her suit, and her slowness to suspect that she can be suspected.'

Desdemona received a great deal of critical attention. Some commentators suggested she is a goddess and a saint, others saw her as a representative of goodness and purity. Many critics commented on Desdemona's commitment to love.

is a representative of goodness and purity.

Desdemona is 'a silly woman' whose virtue was suspect.

is in need of being destroyed because she is subversive. She is the embodiment of power in defending her right to choose her husband.

Commenting on violence against female characters in drama of the Jacobean period, he asserts that view that 'Jacobean tragedies offer up their scenes of excessive punishments as if mutilating the female could somehow correct political corruption. The female in correction may be completely innocent... yet in play after play she demands her own death or else claims responsibility for her murder.' He suggests Desdemona has to be destroyed because she is subversive. Unlike many feminist critics, Tennenhouse suggests that Desdemona is the 'embodiment of power' when she appears in Act 1 and defends her right to choose her own husband.

is like any country kitchen-maid with her sweetheart.

Desdemona was behaving like 'any country kitchen-maid with her sweetheart' during her vulgar conversation with Iago.

is love's martyr. By dying she wins Othello's love again.

Desdemona is 'love's martyr' - by dying she wins Othello's love again.

is the strongest, the most heroic person in the play.

It is possible to see Desdemona as 'the strongest, the most heroic person in the play.'

desdemona, n.Definitions

desdemona