William Shakespeare s Othello And Glaspell s Trifles

Throughout history great writers have brought women’s struggle under male dominance to light. Shakespeare’s Othello and Glaspell’s Trifles bring great female characters to the stage that share similarities. Both Glaspell and Shakespeare follow the same theme, while using both foreshadowing and irony to illustrate that Desdemona, Emilia, Bianca, Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Hale live under similar oppressive conditions. Both authors write about Patriarchal dominance. Shakespeare reveals his theme through Bianca’s relationship with Cassio, Emilia’s relationship with Iago, and Desdemona’s relationship with both her father and Othello. In Othello, Bianca loves Cassio; however, she finds herself forced to accept his philandering ways, saying, â€Å"Tis very good, I must be circumstanced† (III.iv.198). Hereby, conceding to Victorian society, which allows men to be promiscuous but never women. Likewise, in Othello, Emilia professes being used as an object, stating men â€Å". . . eat us hungerly and when they are full / They belch us.† (III.iv.101-102). This theme of male dominance begins at an early age, as is shown in Othello, when Brabantio says his daughter cannot abandon him, because it is â€Å"against all rules of nature† (I.iii.103). And, similarly in Trifles, when Mrs. Peters remembers being a child and a boy attacked her kitten: â€Å"there was a boy to ok a hatchet, and before my eyes – and before I could get there,â€Å" (Glaspell 904) he killed her pet. The heroine in Othello, Desdemona,