Bound to Speak: Women’s Speech and the Role of Interrogatives in Othello

Introduction

Othello considers questions about how women’s speech is understood by their male counterparts, the social perversion of women speaking in the public sphere, and how women’s speech is violently annihilated by those whose power is threatened by their tongues. The rhetorical influence of the two central women, Desdemona and Emilia, shifts dramatically as the play progresses. The loss of Desdemona’s rhetorical power is directly proportional to the sullying of her character through slander regarding her potential infidelity. The syntactical structure of Desdemona’s lines shift from primarily imperative to primarily interrogative as Iago’s slander works to undercut her rhetorical credibility. Emilia engages in the interrogative mode in a similar way, but blurs the lines of how the interrogative can be used to reinforce rhetorical power to a much greater extent. Both of the women’s speech displays their rhetorical deviance, eventually resulting in each of their violent silencing.

A close examination of the changes that occur in Emilia and Desdemona’s speech throughout Othello provides readers with a better understanding of how women’s voices are impacted, and sometimes eliminated, by misogynistic forces. Both Desdemona and Emilia acted in rhetorically deviant ways: speaking openly in court, commanding others through imperatives, and challenging the narratives that men proposed regarding Desdemona’s chastity. The ending of the play illuminates the violence that such deviance incurs in misogynist frames, as both women’s deaths were provoked by speech. The shift between interrogative and imperative modes illustrates the certainty with which the women understood their place in society. While the dominant motions of transformation differ between the characters, with Desdemona’s moving from imperative to interrogative and Emilia’s moving conversely, they meet similar ends: in violence from male characters. Their fates may be disapproved of by other characters onstage, but the conclusion remains. Shakespeare warns that rhetorical deviance from women results in bloody ends, regardless of how he and others may resent this fact.

“Alas! she has no speech”: Historical Backdrop

Popular beliefs about the inherent corruption of women cast a significant shadow on the reliability of women’s integrity, affecting perceptions of the reliability of their speech by extent. Women’s virtue has historically been grounded in demonstrations of silence, modesty, and chastity. The overvaluation of restraint in women has roots all the way back to ancient Greek philosophy, as women were thought to be more influenced by appetite than their male counterparts. This conception influenced the way that women were perceived in a variety of ways. They were believed to be less rational and thought to occupy a place between animals and men¹. Partially due to this lack of rationality, women were viewed as defective and love of them was considered corruption of male perfection². In early modern society, many of these ideas were either extended through patriarchal systems or re-endorsed with the revival of interest in classical culture. One figure, Gasparo, parrots this stance directly in Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier: “When a woman is born, it is a defect or mistake of nature” (213). While Gasparo often takes the more critical view of women in his dialogue, he nonetheless reflects at least one aspect of popular conceptions about women.

The distinctly Christian culture of early modern England enforced its own set of damaging interpretations of what it meant to be a woman. In many Christian sects, women were aligned with deception and corruption due to Eve’s primary role in disobeying [the biblical] God³. She became aligned with temptation as she offered the fruit to her husband, becoming akin to the serpent itself. Eve’s mythological origin also became a source of defending misogynistic frameworks through religion. Eve came to occupy a place below Adam because she was said to be formed from his rib⁴. Joseph Swetnam writes in his misogynist pamphlet “The Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women”: “A rib is a crooked thing good for nothing else, and women are crooked by nature, for small occasion will cause them to be angry” (ch. 1). Biblical connections between women and corruption extend beyond Eve. Anxieties about women’s power to undo men manifested also in diagnoses of women as Delilahs or Jezebels⁵. The fusion of Christian and classical frameworks that early modern society operated within had significant effects on the way that women were both perceived and treated.

Doubts about the credibility of women’s speech stem from doubts about women’s chastity and sexuality. As in the case of Delilah and Jezebel, much of the perceived corruption of women was rooted in their sexuality. Women’s sexuality threatened cultural upheaval. Firstly, women’s beauty and desirability afforded them power to seemingly destroy men. Gasparo in The Book of the Courtier states that:

Women…seek to have as many lovers as they can and would have them all burn…and even though they are in love, still they relish the torment of their lover, because they think that…by their beauty they can make men miserable or happy, and bestow life and death upon them as they choose. (Castiglione 278-279)

Women’s desirability places men in a position of relative powerlessness, as they are not able to control if the woman they desire returns their affections. Infidelity from women also threatens social normativity. There was (and perhaps still is) an unequal valuation of chastity in women. Castiglione writes that: “[f]rom women’s incontinence countless evils arise, as they do not from men’s” (240). Within the early modern context, the threat of cuckoldry meant the threat of a wife becoming pregnant with another man’s child, casting doubt on the legitimacy of bloodlines. They are also believed to be more prone to infidelity due to the belief that they are more controlled by passions and appetites⁶. Women’s supposed connection to deception also kept their motivations in question regardless of how virtuous they were in action. Because of the suspicious lens from which their speech was received, women were left much more susceptible to slander than their male counterparts. Castiglione notes this through Magnifico when he says: “a woman has not so many ways of defending herself against false calumnies as a man has” (206). Accusations of breeches of chastity were not only difficult to overcome; they could lead to overt danger. Shakespeare incorporates these social dynamics throughout many of his plays, but Othello portrays the worst ways in which mistrust of women manifests in violence against them.

“Let her speak”: Desdemona and the Imperative Mode

In 1.2, Desdemona acknowledges the social upheaval she enacts in asserting herself rhetorically through open speech in court. Othello is accused of using “foul charms” to marry Desdemona, he calls her forth in order to “let her speak” and substantiate the story that he told about the origin of their love (1.2.73, 1.3.117⁷). He welcomes her speech as holding enough power to validate his claims and is willing to stake his reputation on her tongue. From her first line, she steps into a rhetorically deviant role. Her second line of the play features a double imperative: “To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear / And let me find a charter in your voice / T’assist my simpleness” (1.3.245-247). She speaks boldly, challenging the social expectations for women’s speech. These lines are attentive to the rhetorical and political valences of her speech, both in noting the act of lending ears and the use of “charter.” Charter can be read as both granting rights and granting pardon⁸. Desdemona uses speech to gain the former herself, and request the latter of the men around her. She continues to identify the upheaval her actions have caused soon after, stating: “That I did love the Moor to live with him, / My downright violence and scorn of fortunes / May trumpet to the world” (1.3.246-248). She classifies her actions as violent and scornful, reflecting knowledge that she is overtly challenging societal expectations. The use of trumpet here is also illuminating, as it implies that her voice is loud, unashamed, and potentially grating. The sound of a trumpet asserts audible power as well as connoting military movements⁹, emphasizing the violence of her deviance further. These initial lines set the tone for the perception of women’s speech throughout the remainder of the play: as rhetorically deviant and socially dangerous.

The reception of Desdemona’s subversive speech by other characters onstage reflects a pre-established doubt in her character. Desdemona enters the play as untoward, having chosen a marriage against her father’s wishes and speaking openly to men in positions of power. Othello is similarly subversive in marrying Desdemona before gaining permission from her father. As Othello and Desdemona prepare themselves to depart for Cyprus, Brabantio warns that “She has deceived her father, and may thee” (1.3.294). This warning seems to be coming from a place of felt betrayal, but still reflects what he perceives to be an actualization of a common potential for women’s deception. Othello acts as a cultural counterbalance in this scene, offering an alternative perception of women’s speech by asserting full belief in her honesty. He challenges questions of her virtue by pledging his “life upon her faith” (1.3.295). Having Othello be the only one to affirm Desdemona’s honesty reinforces the social deviance that comes with trusting a woman’s word, as Othello often operates outside of venicean social conventions.

The beginning of the play continues to establish the cultural subversion of Desdemona through the prevalence of imperatives in her early lines. Most of her speech remains in the imperative or declarative mode¹⁰. Her dual imperative in lines 1.3.245-247 is her first command, followed soon after with imploring that the political leaders “let [her] go with him” (1.3.294). In 3.3 she affirms her ability to bring Cassio back into Othello’s favor. The majority of her lines are imperative, commanding Cassio to “be assured” and “not doubt” (3.3.1, 5-7, 12-14, 20, 21). She also commands Cassio to “be merry,” “stay, hear me speak,” and “do your discretion” (3.3.28, 33, 36). She then moves immediately to trying to reconcile Cassio in Othello’s eyes, stating that: “If I have any power to move you…I prithee call him back” (3.3.49, 55). The prevalence of the imperative mode reflects a recognition of the power that her speech has to “move” Othello (3.3.46). While she uses the interrogative occasionally in the early sections of the play, her speech is dominated by commands.

“There be some such, no question”: Slander and the Interrogative

The introduction of Iago’s slander against Desdemona’s chastity coincides with the shift of her speech from imperative to interrogative. After Desdemona works to “move” Othello, Iago sows doubt in his mind of her faithfulness. He asks if Cassio was familiar with Desdemona before their marriage, casting doubt on both of their character. He confesses that: “oft my jealousy / Shapes faults that are not” and artfully avoids Othello’s questioning of what he implies (3.3.150-151). Iago affirms that he has no proof of infidelity but tells him simply to “observe her well with Cassio” (3.3.199- 200). Iago recalls her previous deception of her father and notes her ability to “give out such a seeming…[that her father] thought ‘twas witchcraft” (3.3.212, 214). He claims this “honesty” comes from a place of love, but audiences are aware of how Iago is using his rhetorical power to destroy Othello’s happiness in marriage (3.3.220-221). Within the scene, Iago is able to move Othello from a place of love to being willing to “tear [Desdemona] all to pieces!” (3.3.433). Iago sows the seeds for the violence that will soon be done against her through implying her lack of chastity. Much of her dialogue throughout the remainder of the play moves away from the imperative mode, demonstrating the loss of her rhetorical influence in light of the doubt cast upon her character.

The effectiveness of Desdemona’s imperative statements diminishes as her trustworthiness is called into question. In the beginning of 3.4, Desdemona asks that Cassio be informed that she “ha[s] moved [her] lord on his behalf” (3.4.19). She is unaware of the doubt that has been cast on her virtue and aims to initiate conversation between Othello and Cassio. Her persistence to mend the relationship between Cassio and her husband works to build suspicion of her infidelity, aided by Othello’s concern regarding her recently lost handkerchief. Desdemona’s dialogue shifts between interrogative and imperative modes depending on her rhetorical confidence. She retains the imperative when trying once more to restore Cassio in her husband’s eyes, pushing Othello to “let Cassio be received again” and “talk me of Cassio” (3.4.90, 94). When discussing Cassio, she maintains confidence in her rhetorical ability. When they discuss the handkerchief, however, her speech shifts to interrogative. She asks a series of questions, first about the truth of the mythos of the handkerchief, then about the tone of Othello’s speech (3.4.70, 77, 81, 85). She begins to recognize that her speech is losing its power to “move” Othello. After wondering what “hath puddled his clear spirit”, she calls on heaven to keep jealousy away: “Heaven keep that monster from Othello’s mind!” (3.4.144, 163). Her call on divine powers proves ineffective as the following scene unfolds.

The shift in syntactical structure from imperative to interrogative reflects Desdemona’s awareness of how her integrity is being rewritten through the rhetorical force of the men around her. Her lines become increasingly interrogative in tandem with Othello’s increasing jealousy. When commenting on the recent strife between her husband and Cassio, she is met with anger from Othello. She responds to his anger with five questions, four of which are “My lord?” (4.1.249, 257, 265, 281). Desdemona questions Othello’s sudden shift in character, and states that “I have not deserved this” in response to him striking her (4.1.240). Her rhetorical power diminishes while doubt in her faithfulness and violence against her grow. Othello diagnoses her tears at his strike as crocodile despite Desdemona’s lack of guilt (4.1.245). This interpretation of her pain shows how Othello has bought into popular misogynist beliefs of women’s deceptive nature with Iago’s influence. Shakespeare offers an example of how an audience should view Othello’s actions through Lodovico. He witnesses the assault and condemns it, first stating that its report would not be believed and then questioning reports of Othello’s supposedly noble character (4.1.241, 264-268). Lodovico models the disgust and shock that audiences ought to feel in light of the violence Othello deals. The interrogative mode retains dominance in Desdemona and Othello’s following interaction. Within fourteen of Desdemona’s lines, She asks eight questions¹¹ (4.2.24, 25, 26, 31, 41, 43, 44, 72). The continued prevalence of the interrogative mode shows how Desdemona resorts to a defensive state in light of how her narrative is being overtaken by the men around her. Paige Reynolds identifies how this recognition occurs for Desdemona both in the language of the play and the person enacting her role: “Both character and actor may reveal…an awareness of ‘these men’ who determine Desdemona’s destiny, ‘these men’ who dictate which bodies are ‘made to write whore upon’ (4.2.73), ‘these men’ who craft the cultural stories about women” (21). This sharp shift towards the interrogative primarily affects her public speech, though it is still evident in private discussions with Emilia.

“Charm your tongue”: Emilia’s Speech and Textual History

By engaging in the interrogative mode but providing her own answers to the questions she poses, Emilia blends socially acceptable and socially deviant forms of women’s speech. In 4.3, she uses the interrogative mode to assert rhetorical power rather than relent it. It is a crucial scene regarding women's speech, as both Emilia and Desdemona talk openly about the troubles involved in their societal place as women. Emilia spends much of the scene “unpinning” Desdemona, or preparing her for bed. The dialogue hints that Desdemona knows of the danger of her coming demise (4.3.21-23, 28-29). She sings “a song of willow” before asking Emilia if “there be women do abuse their husbands / In such gross kind?” (4.3.61-62). Emilia affirms that there are, and asks why Desdemona would not do such things for the whole world. She continues by talking of the power that could be gained in betrayal, asking: “Who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch?” (4.3.74-75). She subverts the popular cultural narrative regarding the value of women’s chastity in a radical claim that power matters more. Her speech at the end of the scene is one of her most well known, and uses the interrogative mode in a fascinating way:

What is it that they do 95

When they change us for others? Is it sport?

I think it is. And doth affection breed it?

I think it doth. Is ’t frailty that thus errs?

It is so too. And have not we affections,

Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have? 100

Then let them use us well. Else let them know,

The ills we do, their ills instruct us so. (4.3.95-102)

The conclusion of this speech is littered with questions which are all immediately answered by Emilia. She uses the interrogative mode not as a way to shy away from rhetorical power by avoiding command or explanation, but to highlight and challenge the actions of men. She affirms female desire and equals it with that of men, undercutting the gendered separation of the value of chastity. By engaging in the interrogative mode but providing her own answers to the questions she poses, she blends socially acceptable and socially deviant forms of women’s speech.

Emilia’s speech in 4.3 has a complicated relationship with the text’s history, as it was often cut or significantly reduced, dampening the audience's ability to see her as a complex figure. Othello appeared in two primary manuscripts, a shorter version printed in a quarto style (Q) and a longer version that appeared in Shakespeare’s First Folio (F). Q lacks around 160 lines that F contains, many of which crucially are in 4.3. The reduction of this scene is argued to have been reduced due to staging difficulties or in order to increase the mobility of the production. As McMillin identifies: “It is more important to ask where the cuts occur—what effect they might have on the pacing of certain scenes or in the reduction of certain roles” (74). As he points out, what specifically is cut is vital to how the play changes and becomes something new. Denise Whalen identifies in her article “Unpinning Desdemona” that the scene may have been cut due to the staging benefits of not enacting the full unpinning process (490-492). She also acknowledges how the shift may have been an attempt to better suit either the Blackfriars Theatre or shifting theatrical preferences (ibid. 497-498). The scene was also recorded as being reduced further than those present in Q, with some playscripts showing the scene cut altogether (ibid. 499). The Q edition of the text lacks Emilia’s assertion about the desires of women, flattening her character and motivations in following scenes. The Q omits her claim that “it is their husband’s faults / If wives do fall” (4.3.97-98) and that “Their wives have sense like them” (105). Her affirmation of women’s desire and their equality with men’s desires challenges popular beliefs that women’s desires are inherently less rational than men’s. The scene’s reduction in performance replicates the silencing and diminishing of women’s voices.

“I am bound to speak”: Silence, Violence, and Dangers for Women Speakers

Othello's conclusion demonstrates the concrete dangers that arise for women who speak in societally deviant ways. Both Emilia and Desdemona face gendered violence that eliminates their voice. Desdemona especially, given that she is murdered via strangulation: a literal and metaphorical silencing. Strangulation is a distinctly gendered form of violence. Kate Manne identifies in her book Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny that: “In a large majority of cases of strangulation, the victims are female intimate partners—although children and infants are also disproportionately vulnerable. And in the vast majority of cases, the perpetrators are men” (24-25). The violence brought against her acts as a forced return to social conventions—a retaliation against her rhetorical deviance.

The majority of Desdemona’s lines on 5.2 remain interrogative, but her final lines addressed to Othello and Emilia return to the imperative mode. When Othello enters the bedchamber, Desdemona responds to him with a slew of questions (5.2.23, 24, 29, 33). He asks her repeatedly if she has prayed, making his violent intentions clear by saying “I would not kill thy soul” (5.2.37). In response, Desdemona reverts back to the imperative but commands divine forces instead of the men around her:

Desdemona: Talk you of killing?

Othello: Ay, I do.

Desdemona: Then heaven have mercy on me! (5.2.38-40)

She continues to negotiate between imperative and interrogative modes throughout her dialogue with Othello. She uses the interrogative to try and draw attention to the unsubstantiated nature of the accusations against her chastity (5.2.43, 47). As she recognizes the utter devaluation of her speech, she reaches towards other sources to bolster it. She becomes more desperate, she commands Othello to “Send for [Cassio] and ask him” (5.2.50). Othello reinforces that Desdemona is going to die; her appeals to other rhetorical authorities fail her. She demands: “Then Lord have mercy on me” (5.2.57)¹². This specific command is multivalent. There is the obvious appeal to divinity accentuated by how often Desdemona addresses Othello as lord. She follows this line telling Othello: “have you mercy too” (5.2.58). She returns to the interrogative to decipher the nature of Cassio’s “death” and how, because he is unable to verify her word, she is “undone” (5.2.75). Her final words to Othello are imperative, begging Othello to “kill me not…kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight…but half an hour!...But while I say one prayer!” (5.2.77, 79, 81, 82). Her speech in this moment, while in the imperative mode, has been stripped of any sort of authority. The diminishing of time that she requests to be given to live shows how little her word has come to matter. Time’s shrinking from indefinity to a day, a night, less than an hour, then mere moments also amplifies the effect of the strangulation by replicating constriction temporally. She has lost any ability to “move” Othello that she may have had in the beginning of the play, and neither interrogative or imperative modes of speech were able to save her from the effects of slander.

Emilia’s speech shifts to primarily imperative once she affirms Iago’s guilt through use of the interrogative mode, demonstrating her usurpation of rhetorical power. After calling attention to the violence against Desdemona by Othello, she interrogates Iago before the other military leaders. She blends interrogative with imperative throughout this exchange, using interrogative to gain confession from her husband and imperative to command that justice be brought against him. She tells Gratiano to “Disprove this villain, if thou be’st a man” and “Speak, for my heart is full” (5.2.168, 171). These imperatives are some of the most radical in the entire play, as they not only challenge the narrative posed by Iago but they call for his condemnation. She returns to the interrogative to ask “But did you ever tell him she was false?” and “She false with Cassio? Did you say with Cassio?” (5.2.174, 178). Iago affirms that this is what he relayed, stating “With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm your tongue” (179). Emilia responds with a rejection of his imperative and an accusation of his guilt: “I will not charm my tongue, I am bound to speak: My mistress lies murdered in her bed…And your reports have set the murder on” (5.2.180-181, 183). She uses the imperative to command rhetoric throughout the remainder of her lines. She directs the men around her to “let me have leave to speak”, and specifically Othello to “lay thee down and roar!” (5.2.192, 196). In each of these imperatives, she commands the nature of the speech at hand. When Iago calls her to “hold your peace”, she responds by demanding that “I will speak liberal as the north. / Let heaven and men and devils, let them all, / All, all, cry shame against me, yet I’ll speak” (5.2.216, 218-220). She identifies the defiance she has against social expectations by calling earthly and divine forces to ridicule her and affirming that she will speak regardless. She continues to expose Iago’s plot by confessing to taking the bandana, exonerating Desdemona of the charges of infidelity Iago lodged against her. Just before Iago murders her, Emilia asks Othello: “what should such a fool / do with so good a wife?” (5.2.231-232). Iago then murders her, and she commands that those in the room would “lay me by mistress’ side” and, in her final words, “So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true. / So speaking as I think, alas, I die” (5.2.235, 248-249). Even in her final moments, she takes rhetorical control. She affirms her own honesty, challenging misogynist views of women as fundamentally deceptive. She concludes her speaking part by connecting her murder to the nature of her speech, demonstrating recognition of how her rhetorical deviance provoked social correction through male violence.

Conclusion

The transformation that Desdemona and Emilia’s speech undergo throughout Othello illuminates the ways in which misogyny smothers women’s rhetorical agency. From the play’s opening Desdemona defies social conventions through her speech. Emilia’s rhetorical power increases throughout; she becomes more subversive as the play progresses. The fluctuations between interrogative and imperative provide insight into how the characters perceive their own rhetorical influence. Despite their opposing movements into more and less vocal defiance, the women meet similarly violent ends. Othello warns that women’s disobedience results in their destruction, in speech and otherwise.

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1. This perspective arises in a few places, but most prominently in Aristotle’s philosophy. His History of Animals expresses this idea throughout, often connecting women with a lesser ability to regulate their passions: “Wherefore women are more compassionate and more readily made to weep, more jealous and querulous, more fond of railing, and more contentious. The female also is more subject to depression of spirits and despair than the male. She is also more shameless and false, more readily deceived, and more mindful of injury, more watchful, more idle, and on the whole less excitable than the male” (HA 9.4).↩︎

2. This idea features most prevalently in Plato’s Symposium. While the idea arises in a few areas of the dialogue that are challenged by Socrates, namely in the theories of Phaedrus and Aristophanes, it also arises in Socrates' description of love. Love of women was associated with bodily love while love of men was associated with divine love (Symposium 208e-209a; 209b).↩︎ CrossRef

   CrossRef

3. Eve was the first of the two humans to partake of the forbidden fruit and was the one to give it to Adam: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, [Eve] took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (ESV, Gen 3:6)↩︎

4. Some biblical scholars challenge the translation of the Hebrew “ צֵלָע”. While many translations opt to make the word “rib” in English, some say that “side”or “part” would be a better capturing of the spirit of the word. For the purposes of this paper, the “rib” translation is the one that matters as it was the most common translation and belief.↩︎

5. Delilah was the primary actor in the downfall of Samson in Judges 16. She got him to tell her that his strength came from his hair, and then cut it off. Jezebel was an Israelite queen who appears in 1 Kings and was said to promote Baal worship instead of the Israelite God. Both women are associated with spiritual ills.↩︎

6. “women, who, due to the frailty of their sex, give in to their desires much more than men” (Castiglione 241).↩︎

7. The in-text citations will follow the Arden Shakespeare edition of the text (Bloomsbury), but other editions of the text were cross referenced.↩︎

8. OED “charter”, n.1.a, n.1.b↩︎

9. OED “trumpet” n.1.a↩︎

10. 2.1 differs from the other early scenes in the text, as Desdemona uses primarily interrogatives. Her lines are mostly in dialogue with Iago. Throughout the exchange, Iago wields primary rhetorical agency and Desdemona is kept in a place of questioning.↩︎

11. The number of questions differs slightly between editions. The Folger edition, for example, features ten questions rather than eight. Regardless of editorial decisions regarding punctuation, the dominance of interrogative is still clear.↩︎

12. F reads “O Heaven”, Q reads “Then Lord”. Most editions opt for the Q’s line.↩︎