《奧賽羅》之苔絲狄蒙娜形象解析*

肖春艷

陜西工業職業技術學院，陜西 咸陽 712000

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《奧賽羅》之苔絲狄蒙娜形象解析*

肖春艷*

陜西工業職業技術學院，陜西 咸陽 712000

摘要：苔絲狄蒙娜作為莎氏悲劇《奧賽羅》之女主角，她叛逆和順從之矛盾性格導致悲劇敘事中其前后行為之自我背反。在彼時社會文化語境中，此種矛盾性格也恰是其悲劇之必然性所在。

關鍵詞：苔絲狄蒙娜；矛盾性格；悲劇

Critics of Othello hold disparate views on Desdemona’s character.Some criticize her rebel，while others lay the blame for the tragedy on her total submission.This essay will explore into her character to reveals seemingly contradictory sides — the rebel and the submission existing simultaneously in her behaviors.In addition，it tries to endeavourer to manifest that it is this very contradictory feature that leads to her misery fate in such a secular society.

Othello tells a love story destroyed by envy.Unlike Shakespeare’s other three tragedies，there is neither prince nor princess in Othello；the double plots，appearing in King Lear，are not utilized in Othello；neither ghost nor spirit ever emerges in Othello.Furthermore，the story merely focuses on three people -Othello，Desdemona and Iago and possesses closely connected organization as well as cautiously logical order.This exactly endows the story with extraordinary tragedy power.A.C Bradley once commented on Othello in his famous address：“Of all Shakespeare’s tragedies，I would answer，not even excepting King Lear，Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible.” Desdemona was the heroine of the story and occupied the vital position.She was a young and beautiful girl with noble birth.After her mother’s death，she was responsible for the family routine involving welcoming and entertaining her father’s visitors.Consequently，she met Othello.As a result of being deeply touched by his meritorious military service and uncommon experience；she fell in love with him and married him in secret.

In the early parts of the story，readers will be impressed by her bravery.She was mentioned for the first time when Iago informed her father of her lewd elopement.People in the Shakespeare’s age viewed elopement as “a gross revolt”(Ⅰ，ⅰ).People felt shocked at the fact that such a very clever girl with strict upbringing was so bold to elope with a Moor.As a young Venice girl with noble origin，Desdemona was apparent to rebel her father’s willing and the social standard.She was determined to choose such an unmatched marriage regardless of race，wealth or appearance at all.When she protested her marriage in front of a number of Venice senators，her short but strong words were full of confidence and straightforwardness.The words “My downright violence and storm of fortunes” apparently revealed her rebelling determination；the sentence “I saw Othello’s visage in his mind” showed that she had already abandoned the social prejudice against dark people.What she admired was Othello’s mind which was the real standard to judge a person.Therefore，from her point of view，the obedience didn’t mean complete submission but love and respect.It was another brave determination of the lady to leave her dear father as well as the comfortable and peaceful hometown which she used to be familiar with.In short，Desdemona is not only a beautiful and attractive girl but also a brave as well as unreserved lady in the first act.

However，her character changed a lot in the forth and fifth acts.Such a calm and brave girl disappeared.Instead，she showed cowardice to Othello’s abuse by degrees.She became too weak to defend but exercise forbearance.Finally，she owed all to her cruel fate.She even counted on her subjection to Othello’s in order to improve their relationship.When she defended herself for her innocence before death in the last act，her words，quite differing form those adopted to protest her in first act，are fragments and repetition.She even cried for Cassio’s death，which was bound to annoy Othello.These behaviors displayed that she was losing her sense.Apparently，she was confronted with the changeable situation in perplexity.Therefore，she felt horrors.Desdemona’s tears are mentioned four times in the last two acts，while they usually symbolize cowardice.In a word，Desdemona’s character in the later acts is obviously different from that in the first one，which is hard to believe.

In fact，this kind of contradiction had already appears in Brabantio’s description of Desdemona in the first act：A maiden never bold；Of spirit so still and quite，that her motion；Blush’d at her.(I，ⅲ)Therefore，although she could fight with senators for her love regardless of the social custom，she “yet hath felt no age nor known no sorrow”(I，ⅳ)and was nothing but an immature “child”.As we know，she once called herself “child”，and then when being scolded by Othello，the pitiful girl explained：He might have child me so；for，in good faith，I am a child to chiding.(Ⅳ，ⅱ)Like most young people，when deciding on her marriage，Desdemona never considered that it would bring her father and the relatives so much shame and pain.However，Brabantio ultimately agreed to her marriage merely out of a father’s affection and having no other alternative.Besides gaining father’s agreement，Desdemona’s request to accompany with Othello to go on an expedition was also permitted by Duke of Venice in the meantime.Owing to her beauty and noble origin，the seemingly lucky girl used to be able to realize all her desires.Hence，she was never aware that this unmatched marriage would directly lead to her father’s death.On the contrary，she took this for granted and even showed no gratitude.Her former experience was so successful that she was completely weak when suffering the setback.

Frankly speaking，Desdemona had a childish but transparent heart beneath her pure appearance.Consequently，she couldn’t understand the world and human being.There was no inconstant wife according to Desdemona’s belief：“Dost thou in conscience think—tell me，Emilia—That there be women do abuse their husbands in such gross kind?”(Ⅳ，ⅲ).These words manifested her innocent mind and constancy.As for Cassio’ requests，she was just stemming from fiendish.The passion for Othello made her blind and deaf.What she only saw and heard were his merits.How could she imagine there are human being’s weak points existing beneath Othello’s noble nature? Actually，Strong sunshine went with hot temper，which in combination with arrogance would result in envy.Considering Othello’s changing attitude，she didn’t understand at the outset：“I cannot speak of this”(Ⅲ，ⅳ)and then was reluctant to believe.Gradually，Othello seemingly got to become a stranger to her.

She disobeyed her father’s willingness，revolted the social custom and suffered humiliation with a complete disregard of her ruined reputation.To her disappointments，she met her fate with mortification yet，without regret at her choice，she solely endured all outcomes and still held constant passion for Othello until her death.Nevertheless，it was her independence as well as purity that led to her wretched fortune.She had to conceal her wronged treatment from her dear father merely by virtue of her choosing such an unmatched marriage.The concealment was even taken advantaged of by Iago to slander her.Iago even interpreted her passion as “a will most rank，foul disproportion，thoughts unnatural”.(Ⅲⅲ，)To be frank，although Othello also deeply loved Desdemona，he hated her extreme independence.On the other hand，she was too pure to imagine what her intercession for Cassio would cause.

Desdemona was experiencing a gradually mature process from a young girl to a reasonable woman.Such a lovely girl with noble origin used to be doted on by others and after finding the true love which made her mature and strong；she dared to fight against the fate for the lover.When such a pure girl who was accustomed to be encircled by compliments faced the totally strange condition where all the admiration and cares vanished into thin air，thus，she must solely cope with the ruthless but real world.Surly，Othello’s suspicion was bound to be her deadly blow.She got confused，lost and panicky because she could fight against her father’s order or the tradition but how could she contend with her lover? To be mature needs a rather long time.Still，what happened to her was too swift and abrupt to prepare.It is a kind and innocent girl who pursued the freedom of the affection and the marriage that she never escaped from the secular society.She wasn’t even conscious that Othello had been influenced by the social standard and began to hold doubtful attitude towards his own value.Living in such a worldly society，Desdemona’s courage and efforts were destined to be highly insignificant and to be unable to withstand a single blow.Hence，she was bound to be the victim of Iago’s plot，Othello’ weak points and the secular society.

Reference：

[1]Bradley，A.C..Shakespearean Tragedy：Lectures on Hamlet，Othello，King Lear，Macbeth.2nd ed.London，Macmillan，1905.

[2]Othello/Shakespeare，W；zhu，Sheng-hao trans.Chinese international broadcasting press，2001.Yang Chi-shen，Sun Chu：Selected Readings in English Literature.

[3]Wu Wei-ren：History and Anthology of English LiteratureⅡ.Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press，1997.

The Analysis upon Desdemona’s character of Othello

XIAO Chun-yan

ShaanXi Polytechnic Institute，Xianyang 712000，China

【Abstract】Desdemona，the actress of Othello is explored so as to reveals the seemingly contradictory sides of her character — the rebel and the submission existing simultaneously in her behaviors.It is the contradictory feature that leads to her tragedy in such a secular background.

【Key words】Desdemona；contradictory character；tragedy

中圖分類號：J805

文獻標識碼：A

文章編號：1006-0049-(2016)01-0026-02

*作者簡介：肖春艷(1977-)，女，副教授，碩士，從事英美文學與翻譯研究。

陜西省教育廳2012年科學研究計劃“十年來美國電影中技術悖論研究”(12JK0279)。