Similarities Between Othello And A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Women are Objects Men are expected to be stronger than, conquer, and provide for the women in their lives. If women are financially or socially independent, it threatens the manhood of their husbands, fathers, or even brothers. Women seek to get away from controlling and abusive fathers by getting married only to fall into another abusive and controlling relationship with their husbands. Fathers and husbands still today, like in Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, use the threat or act of physical violence in an attempt to dominate women. In both plays controlling fathers deny their daughters wishes to marry the man of their choosing; in result, the daughters marry in secret outside of the laws of the city. In A Midsummer…show more content… He says he can even kill her if she doesn’t do what he wants. To Athens and to Egeus, Hermia is like a dog. It’s Egeus’ responsibility to take care of his dog, but as his property he can kill it if he wants. Because she is less than human it would not be murder to kill her it, which is why it is not illegal in Athens to kill your daughter. This idea continues in Othello when Brabantio says “foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?” (1.2.282) He calls Othello a thief because thieves steal property which is what Desdemona is to him. Othello is being accused of stowing away Desdemona like a thief would jewels. Barbantio is not concerned with the well-being or safety of his daughter; he is instead concerned about the loss of his possession. In both cases these fathers treat their daughters a sub-humans. They believe they are incapable of making their own decisions or taking care of themselves and that a man has to do it for them. As the man in charge of them, it’s their duty to find a new man to take care of them once they are of age to marry. If they do not obey their father, it’s seen as theft and may punish their daughters with…show more content… When Othello believes Desdemona is cheating on him, he has such little respect for her that he doesn’t bother to ask her if it’s true. When he finally accuses her of adultery, he believes an evil conniving man that’s plotting against him over his own wife. Othello believes it’s his right to kill Desdemona for cheating on him, and that he must do it or “else she'll betray more men.” (5.2.3307) Othello believes that he should smother the only person who really loved him, because she cheated on him, but also he has to do it to protect men everywhere. Othello is trying to pretend that the cold-blooded murder of his wife was not only justified, but noble in that now she can no longer do this to any other man. In reality he’s just a small insecure man that is threaten by even the smallest hint that there might be another man in his wife’s life, which as the audience knows is untrue. The idea that husbands should dominate and have the right to punish their wives continues in A Midsummer Night’s Dream when Oberon torments Titania for not giving him the changeling child and manipulates her in to giving the child to him. Oberon never cares about how this affects Titania or the child. This is shown when he says “I had at my pleasure taunted her.” (4.1.60) He made her fall in love with a man with an ass for a head just to get back at Titania and he found joy in