Benefits Of Virtue Ethics And Morals Philosophy Essay

Benefits Of Virtue Ethics And Morals Philosophy Essay When I think of virtue ethics, I think about myself and what or how I think of individual character. Many people say that I am kind, caring and very considerate person. That always think about other people and how I can help them. This would be because my moral belief is that I treat others as I like to be treated. So if you want respect then you have to give respect. But I also think about how I feel when I help someone. So you may ask yourself, what does that have to do with virtue ethics? Aristotle who is a virtue ethicist from Greece says that a virtuous person is not one that does the right act but one who consistently does the right act and for the right reason (Waller, 2005, p. 98). I myself know that I am consistently kind to people and care very much for people in my life but also for the elderly, kids and pets and I do this for the right reasons and that would be because it makes me feel good about myself. Aristotle also says that we are what we repeatedly do and that excellence is not an act but a habit (Waller, 2005, p. 98). I can say that I agree with that because when go see my mom who lives in a senior building and some who know what I do for work and need help or if they just want to sit and talk or need a ride to the store. I am always willing to help them and they want to pay me but I refuse because it is a habit for me to be nice and kind to them. When I am out and about and I see a dog it is a habit that I stop and pat the dog and talk to them because I am an animal lover. For me as I have stated I am a true animal lover so I do believe that not only humans but animals and insects should have some moral consideration. Tom Regan proposed that inherent worth need only be the subject of a life (Waller, 2005, p. 135) and I agree with him. What people forget about is that supposedly humans were apes way back when or should say humans evolved from gorillas. But animals of all species shapes and sizes have minds and feelings just like humans. They also have moral codes as well for example: a female gorilla has children and gives them love as well as teaches them how to survive and teaches her young right from wrong whether it is in eating a banana compared to pineapple or fighting with its siblings, just like a human mother does with her children. So it makes me wonder why anyone could be cruel to any animal. For many people they may question whether morality really does exist. For me I would have to say how you can think that it does not. Humans are a species that live life socially and if there were no morals in the world we would have to think of all the craziness that would be in the world and people would not live socially. Without having morals, humans could become extinct because no one would have a care in the world of who can do whatever to whomever like murder, rape, theft and there would be no reason to stop any of that. So by having morals in the world most people do not commit murder and rape or steal from another even though some people do those things that are not morally correct by many standards. Morals help bring peace to the world. The Rain Forest is an environmental dilemma for many years now. Some people do not care about the Rain Forest so they want to take the trees down to create products and not care about what how that affects life itself for humans or for the animals of all kind that live there and need to have it for survival. The Rain Forest not only affects the survival of animals but for humans as well. Then you have some people who believe that by taking down the trees in which will destroy the rain forest will affect humans as well as animals. These are the people that I agree with. It would be morally wrong to destroy that forest. Without the forest many of animals and insects that is needed for many different reasons that make the environment work in a positive way would disappear in return it would affect the environment itself. There are certain insects that eat other insects to make sure their populations do not get crazy and then you have the animals that use the water to survive and the mos t of all the trees that help keep the air clean and help with the process of oxygen. So morally it would be wrong to not only destroy the forest but to slowly be killing the animals. One way that they could prevent this would be to have a ban against anyone to cut trees for any reason in the rain forest. As humans we have already taken so much from the animals as well as from ourselves. Having virtue ethics and morals help this world for the many different reasons which keep order our society as well as the society of animals. Some people are taught from their parents to have some code of honors or morals and some are taught but just do not agree with them. We as humans only learn so much from our parents then learn the rest as we grow and develop our own virtue beliefs and morals. Cite Page Waller, B. N. (2005). Consider Ethics Theory, Readings, and Contemporary Issues. New York: Longman.

Native American Tradition And Religion Essay -- essays research papers

Due to the wide range of habitats in North America, different native religions evolved to match the needs and lifestyles of the individual tribe. Religious traditions of aboriginal peoples around the world tend to be heavily influenced by their methods of acquiring food, whether by hunting wild animals or by agriculture. Native American spirituality is no exception. Traditional Lakota spirituality is a form of religious belief that each thing, plant and animal has a spirit. The Native American spirituality has an inseparable connection between the spirituality and the culture. One cannot exist without the other. The arrival of Europeans marked a major change on Native society and it’s spirituality. Native Americans have been fighting to keep their spiritual practices alive. Right from the beginning, Native American religious practices were misunderstood and forbidden. The United States government tried to force Christianity upon the Indians in a desperate attempt to destroy their traditions and to assimilate them into white Christian society. Many of the Native Americans were forcibly converted to Christianity. Some would agree that freedom of religion is one of America's most important laws. When it comes to Native Americans, however, freedom of religion was almost non-existent. Native Americans have had to struggle to survive in a country that has discriminated against them and persecuted them for hundreds of years. The tribes in North America just want one thing from the United States government and that is respect: of sacred sites, the sacramental use of peyote, and the use of eagle feathers and plants for cultural practices. The United States stole from the Indians in the past and has never kept promises they made to the Native Americans. The one aspect of the Indian’s lives that has kept them going has been their religion. The Native Americans will have to endlessly fight for complete freedom of religion and for respect. Many Native families today have been devoted Christians for generations. Others, particularly in the Southwest have retained their aboriginal traditions more or less intact. The Native American Church is a continuation of the ancient Peyote Religion combined with some teachings of traditional Christianity. Native American Church practices centre around the religious use of peyote, a small cactus which when eaten gives people a fee... ...ssion. It is often richly decorated. The bowl and stem are always stored separately with the stem facing east when not in use. At the end of the 19th century the Lakota people were fighting to maintain control of their way of life and their homelands. In the 20th century the Lakota were granted by the American Indian Religion Freedom Act of 1978 the right to preserve and protect their Lakota religious freedom. Prior to this the Lakota were forbidden to practice their spiritual beliefs. But even today we can see racism against Native American. But it is a topic that does not make the nightly news on regular bases and is of little concern to most. This attitude amazes me. How can we overlook a race that has been on this continent far longer than anyone else. Native Americans are the part of our history and culture. Reference: http://home.istar.ca/~whatsup/sundance.htm http://www.digiserve.com/gaia/articles/saced_pipe.html http://tradecorridor.com/rosebud/spirit.htm http://www.religioustolerance.org/nataspir.htm http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgibin/browse-mixed?id=SchSiou&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/eng-parsed http://www.csp.org/nicholas/A57.html

The Impact Of The Enlightenment On The Colonies :: American History

The intellectual current known as the Enlightenment deeply affected the learned clergymen who headed colonial colleges and their students. Around 1650, some European thinkers began to analyze nature in order to determine the laws governing the universe. They employed experimentation and abstract reasoning to discover general principles behind phenomena such as the motions of planets and stars, the behavior of falling objects, and the characteristics of light and sound. Above, all Enlightenment philosophers emphasized acquiring knowledge through reason, taking particular delight challenging previously unquestioned assumptions. John Lockes Essay Concerning Human Understanding disputed the notion that human beings are born already imprinted with innate ideas. All knowledge, locke asserted, derives form ones observations of the external world. Belief in witchcraft and astrology, among other similar phenomena, thus came under attack. The Enlightenment had an enormous impact on educated, well to do people in Europe and America. It supplied them with a common vocabulary and a unified view of the world, one that insisted that the enlightened 18th century was better, and wiser, than all previous ages. It joined them in a common endeavor, the effort to make sense of God's orderly creation. Thus American naturalists like John and William Bartram supplied European scientists with information about New World plants and animals so that they could be included in newly formulated universal classification systems. Americans interested in astronomy took part in an international effort to learn about the solar system by studying a rare occurrence, the transit of Venus across the face of the sun in 1769. An example of the Americans participation in the Enlightenment was Benjamin Franklin, who retired from a successful printing business himself to scientific experimentation and public service. His experiments and observation on electricity established the terminology and basic theory of electricity still used today. The experimentation encouraged by the Enlightenment affected the lives of ordinary Americans most dramatically through advances in medicine specifically, the control of smallpox. The Reverend Cotton Mather, the prominent Puritan cleric, learned from his African born slave about the benefits of inoculation (deliberately infecting a person with a mild case of a disease) as a protects against smallpox. When Boston in 1720-1721 suffered a major small pox epidemic, Mather urged the adoption of inoculation despite fierce opposition from the cities leading physician. Mortality rates eventually supported Mather- of those inoculated, just 3 percent died; of other 15 percent.

Atonement Essay -- essays research papers fc

Atonement Atonement in the larger sense deals with a common factor which is sin. The definition is a making at on which points to a process of bringing those who are enstranged into a unity(Douglas, 107). It is a theological term which derives from the Anglo-Saxon. The word atonement appears eighty seven times in the Old Testament in the RSV Bible(Nelson, 55). According to Strongs Exhaustive Concordance, which is using the King James Version, appears seventy seven times in the Old Testament and only once in the New Testament. In Leviticus, atonement appears fifty one times, more than any other book of the bible. In Numbers it appears seventeen times and in Exodus eleven times. The reason why it is used so much in Leviticus is that during that time period priest were intercessor's between the people and God. In the New Revised Standard Concordance, atonement appears eighty seven times. Out of those eighty seven times, eighty one appear with the word make or made. This would constitute that an atonement in these uses would cause the person who prepares the atonement to work at making an atonement. We find that in the New Testament we don't have to work to receive a pardon from our sins. The whole bible leads up to the cross and everything after the cross points back to the cross. Christ was the ultimate and final atonement for us. In the Old Testament their atonement to God was to always be unblemished for the sake of perfection (Morris, 147). They believed that the perfect atonement would set them free from all their sins and thus make them clean in God's eyes. The Hebrew word for atone is. It is used frequently for the process of sacrifice. It was thought that a man must make and atonement to God that was adequate to give to Him to pay for his sin. In Ezekiel 16:63 atonement is translated to mean "forgive". Words in the Old Testament are translated from the kpr word group in Hebrew. The Hebrew word for atonement is Kaphar. This is the main usage of the word but there are other words that are associated with atonement. or Kaphar means to cover. The figurative word which is used quite often is to expiate or condone. Other words associated with Kaphar are to be merciful, pardon, to pitch, purge(away), and to make reconcile. Or Kaphar is used for a village that... ... their lives. Bibliography George V. Wigram. The Englishmans Hebrew Concordance. Grand Rapids MI, Baker Book House, 1980 John R. Kohlenberger III. NRSV Concordance Unabridged. Grand Rapids MI, Zondervan Publishing House. 1991 Gerhard Kittel. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament Vol. I and Vol X. Grand Rapids, MI/London WM. Eerdmanus Publishing Co. 1964 J.D. Douglas. New Bible Dictionary. Intervarsity Fellowship. 1982 James Strong. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance. Nashville, TN. Thomas Nelson Publishers. 1984 R. Laird Harris, Gleason L Archer Jr., Bruce K. Walter. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Chicago, IL. 1980 Samuel Pri Deaux Tregelles. Hebrew and English Lexicon. Grand Rapids, MI WM B. Eerdman's Pub. 1949 Colin Brown. The New International Dictionary of the New Testament Theology. Grand Rapids MI. Zondervan Publishing House. 1978 J.B. Smith. Greek-English Concordance. Scottsdale, Penn. Herald Press. 1955 Al Novak. Hebrew Honey. New York. Vantage Press. 1965 C.C. Morris. The Illustrated Bible Dictionary Pt. 1. Intervarsity Press. 1980 John W. Ellison. Nelson's Complete Concordance of the RSV Bible. Nashville, TN. . Thomas Nelson Publishing. 1984

Topic of Your Choice Essay

English 090 Writing Fundamentals Assignment 3: Topic of Your Choice Essay Professor T. Finch Christopher Casselman 08-29-2011 There are many challenges to online study; however, time management, course load and prioritizing are the three main areas that should be focused on. First, determining how much time to spend on a subject is very troublesome. Depending on the subjects, some people like to spend extra time on certain things like math. Finding the time to spend with the family is stressful as well. There will always be something to distract one from their work. Next, course load will determine a lot of things, such as how much time will be needed for each subject, when assignments are due and when to take tests or quizzes. All of the things aforementioned need to be completed in a certain order and in a timely manner. Following a strenuous schedule will keep one on track. Finally, prioritizing will streamline things tremendously. Prioritize by determining how many assignments are due weekly for each subject, and if there are any tests. As well as, the difficulty of the subjects, and what impact they have on our daily life. In addition, many times we will overload ourselves and will need a momentary break. Though breaks should be short, but long enough so one can grasp the reigns tightly again and continue with what one is doing. Staying focused on the work at hand is hard to do when there are other obligations demanding attention as well. Doing the best in each subject, and staying diligent is the single most important thing. In closing, all of these things should be considered before starting an online course. Regret and failure will be less if one can get a good understanding of what is expected from them and focus on time management, course load and prioritization.

Media Communications Feedback Essay

Well, after a careful review of your plan, I noted the following issues. You need to address them before implementing the plan. The target population of your message is predominantly African-American women aged 20-49. The statistics you are using do not include other groups who could be a contributing factor to the high levels of infections and deaths. For instance, what are the figures for infected males in the community? For you to achieve better results, you should consider including men in your campaign. At the same time, you did not identify the major causes of infection. Why, for instance, are other groups not affected? If the causes are related to socio-economic and cultural factors such as poverty and unemployment, then your goal would be to pressure service providers such as as Non-Governmental organizations and the government to address those issues. The age difference of your target group means that members could have different interests. Therefore, you should have specified different programs that appeals to each age group. The T. V and radio stations you chose appeals mostly to the youth; what about those aged over forty? Similarly, the presenters you have in mind are not appropriate for this particular campaign. You need role models who could be a good example to the audience. In this regard, it is useful to involve community members who know how to relate with your target group (Galea et al, 2002, 297). Therefore, look for somebody who has been involved before in community projects, and not music celebrities: this category of people may have negative influences due to their lifestyles. Your slogan will not achieve the desired behavioral changes. Texting and talking about HIV/Aids helps in networking: however, you need an approach that will change their lifestyles, such as through participation in education seminars. Your challenge, therefore, is to â€Å"market changes in behavior by using strategic communication† (Siegel and Doner, 2004, 42). How will you determine if you are achieving your goals? The Academy for Educational Development identifies evaluation as one aspect of determining whether stated goals are being realized (AED, 2010). Thus, you should identify the instruments you will use to assess whether your target group is responding positively to the program. Consider conducting a survey after three months to collect data about their sexual activities. Lastly, I think you should conduct a primary research yourself before taking action. The data you got from the surveillance report should act as secondary information to guide your own research. In fact, a primary research is necessary when planning to implement any project. Nevertheless, your overall plan identifies a marginalized group that requires help. However, to achieve the best results, have the best plan. Success. References Academy for Educational Development. (2007). Health Communication Partnership. Accessed May, 08, 2010 < http://www. globalhealthcommunication. org/projects/health_communication_partnership Doner M. , Siegel L. (2004). Marketing public health: strategies to promote social change. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning’ Galea, S. , et al. (2002). Access to resources for substance users in Harlem, New York City: Service provider and client perspectives. Journal for Health Education and Behavior. New York: Society for Public Health Education

Men in Othello Essay

It has been observed that men in Othello are portrayed as being incapable of selfless love. Discuss the ways in which this could be regarded as a feminist play. â€Å"Othello† is a tragedy written in 1603 by William Shakespeare, whose writing reflected his concerns with the universal theme of love. It deals with the love between a father and a daughter, a husband and wife and in addition also the relationship between a man and a prostitute. The main focus for this theme is the portrayal of men and their inability to love selflessly. In response Shakespeare’s female characters represent a direct challenge to dominant patriarchal authority. Consequently â€Å"Othello† can be regarded from a modern critical perspective as a feminist play. In â€Å"Othello† Shakespeare presents women as the victims of patriarchal society. Brabantio, a Venetian Senator, promoting control and order, sees Desdemona as a passive goddess and his property, â€Å"Stol’n from me, and corrupted†. These words reveal his views on women and their status. Iago’s reference to Desdemona’s elopement â€Å"you’re robbed† highlights the similarities in the way that both characters treat women. Iago insinuates that Brabantio’s property has been taken away from him. When Brabantio admonishes Roderigo stating, â€Å"My daughter is not for thee† the audience begin to understand that Desdemona is not only his daughter but she is also his possession. Clearly Jacobean England would sympathise with Brabantio viewing the elopement as an act against patriarchy and denying a father the right to marry off his daughter as he sees fit. A modern audience however would find it difficult to identify with a character who is materialistic in his attitude towards his daughter. He describes Desdemona as a â€Å"jewel† which shows that he sees her as a passive goddess who has been apprehended by a â€Å"thief†. The Duke deals with the elopement with restraint representing a judicious state. He responds to Brabantio with rationality † This is no proof† and urges Brabantio to reconcile himself to the marriage. A less positive interpretation of the Duke however might argue that private affairs do not concern him; his priorities lie with stopping the Turks from invading Cyprus. Venetian patriarchal society can be seen as one that patronises women and defines them in terms of their physical beauty â€Å"the guttered rocks opon men will fall†, expressing the idea that beautiful women are possessed by the natural elements. This society closely resembles Jacobean England. Emilia is arguably the voice of feminism in the play. She deals with reality unlike Desdemona, and voices a practical view of men, â€Å"They are all but stomachs†¦.They eat us hungerly and when they are full They belch us†, presenting the idea that most men show their true colours after a few years of marriage. At the start of the play Emilia is ostensibly loyal and obedient, however, this changes and by the end of the play she becomes the voice of reason that stops Iago’s evil progress. Emilia believes that women are individuals who have desires just as men, showing her realistic approach to life. She is not afraid to voice her opinions and in turn dies for her faith in womanhood, â€Å"Let husbands know Their wives have sense like them†. Patriarchal tyranny is explored as Emilia accuses men of â€Å"Throwing restraint upon us†, showing that women are cut off from freedom. Emilia teaches Desdemona that letting men realise that a woman is in control could potentially end in devastation. Whilst talking to Desdemona, Emilia shifts from prose to blank verse to deliver a serious message, â€Å"It is their husbands’ fault if wives do fall†, highlights men’s negligence and revealing her realistic view of adultery. To a modern audience she would be perceived as a pragmatic role model for women, however in a Jacobean society, Emilia would be seen as trying to encourage women to go against their husbands. Shakespeare conveys a class difference between Emilia and Desdemona through their speech. When Emilia, Iago and Desdemona discuss Othello’s description of Desdemona, â€Å"that cunning whore†. Desdemona can barely utter the word â€Å"whore†, conveying her innocence. Emilia shows signs of authorative experience whilst comparatively Desdemona is presented as being naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve and sheltered; the product of a Venetian elite that protects its women, due to social class. It is Desdemona’s naivety that makes her vulnerable whereas Emilia is able to stand up to Iago at the end at a price. A feminist reader would be interested in Emilia’s fate. In Jacobean society women were seen as child bearers and objects of male desire. Shakespeare has incorporated this idea in the role of Bianca, a vulnerable woman who like Desdemona is abused by men. â€Å"I must be circumstanced†, this shows Bianca to be a woman who accepts the conditions placed upon her by men. Sandra Clark at a sovereign lecture argued, â€Å"Her treatment at the hands of a misogynistic society reflects more broadly how women are victimed by men’s sexual hypocrisy†. Clark tries to convey the idea that in Jacobean society women were judged on a reputation that could easily be distorted by men. She suffers at the hands of social hypocrisy, as it is the men who visit her that condemn her â€Å"She’ll rail in the streets else†. Bianca is accused of killing Cassio as her appearance â€Å"gastness of her eye† is used by society as an admission of her guilt, however, due to her status and lack of power she cannot claim her innocence. Cassio does not want society to associate him with Bianca as he says that he does not want Othello to see him â€Å"womaned†, implying her insignificance as a woman in Venetian society and revealing disparaging attitudes. In â€Å"Othello†, Bianca is the weakest woman so it is ironic that she is the sole woman survivor. It can be construed that she survives because she is marginalized to the point of being completely insignificant. Infact she does not pose a threat to anyone. Desdemona, however poses a threat to white patriarchal society, as through miscegenation all heirs would be polluted and therefore towards the end of the play she is killed. Emilia is a threat to Iago’s plan and challenges his anti feminist perspective. Shakespeare in his writing seems to be saying that those women who voice their opinions and do wrong by their husbands are annihilated. In a patriarchal society â€Å"women are regulated to the bottom of the social hierarchy as weak and faithless† (Felicity Currie). According to the Jacobean chain of being the devil worked its way up the social hierarchy, through women hence the intense fear of witches. Women who were rebellious in a patriarchal society were seen as being under the influence of the devil. On many occasions Othello calls Desdemona a â€Å"devil†. Her name has connotations of the word demon. Ironically neither one is a devil, the real devil is Iago. Desdemona is a complex character. Audiences across history have responded to her representation of womanhood very differently. Desdemona appears to be both submissive and independent. When confronting her father it could be argued that Desdemona is given a voice, â€Å"What would you, â€Å"Desdemona†. Brabantio portrays his daughter as being innocent and submissive, â€Å"Is there not charms By which the property of youth and maidhood May be abused†. However, we see a dramatic change as she openly declares that she is ready for sexual intercourse, â€Å"The rites for which I love him are bereft me†. Desdemona is assertive when verbally attacked by Othello. â€Å"I took you for that cunning whore of Venice†. In contrast Desdemona’s portrayal of herself â€Å"No, as I am a Christian†¦Ã¢â‚¬  expresses a conventional Christian perspective implying that adultery is wrong. Desdemona cannot understand why a woman would want to commit adultery. She is far from Iago’s sexual stereotype of Venetian women as â€Å"subtle whores†, rather, she plays an active feminine role as she is decribed as â€Å"half the wooer†. A modern day feminist might argue that this behaviour is too obedient. Desdemona appears to be naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve as she defends her husband when he strikes her. At first she says, â€Å"I have not deserved this†. Othello’s behaviour is out of character and as a result of Iago’s insinuating words. Desdemona thereafter accepts the physical abuse and defends her husband. Lodovico analyses the situation and states, â€Å"Truly, an obedient lady†. A modern audience would find this hard to comprehend. Shakespeare presents Desdemona as a woman who is thought of highly in the Venetian state. She is seen to be making her own choices but also appears to be a victim. Through the character of Cassio Shakespeare provides a critique of the discourse of courtly love. Cassio is a courteous and noble character who idealises Desdemona. In Act 2, Scene 1 Cassio speaks in blank verse. He calls Desdemona â€Å"th’ essential vesture of creation†, placing her on a pedestool and suggesting that her beauty is without equal and worthy of all praise. Desdemona is praised as being divinely blessed with â€Å"the grace of heaven†. He therefore can be described as the voice of patriarchal orthodoxy using materialistic imagery and hyperbolic language to describe Desdemona as â€Å"the riches of the ship†. This imagery objectifies and idealises Desdemona as a physical possession. Patriarchal orthodoxy does not allow women to be judged upon their achievements or their own subjectivity, instead her beauty gives her status. Cassio represents this reductiveness. In Cassio’s underlying lack of respect for Bianca, â€Å"Throw your vile guesses in the devil’s teeth†, Shakespeare uses a technique where the sub plot echoes the main plot and presents sexual hypocrisy through Cassio. His undoubtedly high opinion of Desdemona means that other women cannot be her equivalent. Women, according to Cassio are either angels worshipped from afar or whores marginalized by respectable society. He is ashamed to be seen publicly with Bianca, yet he still sleeps with her. He ridicules Iago’s suggestion of marrying Bianca, â€Å"Do not think it so wholesome† (saying that it would be morally tainting) because like Othello he expects his wife to be â€Å"angelic†. Iago is employed by Shakespeare to dramatise misogynistic attitudes towards women. This becomes evident through his use of chauvinistic language â€Å"guinea-hen†. His belief is that all women are prostitutes who will betray their husbands eventually. On many occasions Iago dehumanises Emilia referring to her as a â€Å"strumpet†. His sexual jealousy leads him to believe that Othello slept with his wife, â€Å"I hate the Moor, And it is thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets He’s done my office†. Iago speaks in prose to express his antifeminist view of women, which makes the tone of his opinions more down to earth. Upon reading the play the audience can see how cynical Iago is about women and how they employ their beauty to their advantage. He uses derogative terminology, â€Å"players in your housewifery† to imply that women are prostitutes and believes women’s humanity consists of lechery and faithlessness. Iago does not share the impractical antithetical view of Desdemona voiced by Cassio. He believes, â€Å"The wine she drinks is made of grapes† suggesting that she is human and like all other women. He views her as flawed as a result of her love for the Moor and he cannot comprehend why a wealthy aristocratic white woman would choose to marry a black man. There is a clear contrast between Cassio’s language of courtly love, â€Å"a most exquisite lady† and Iago’s colloquial language, â€Å"whore†. The power of Desdemona and Othello’s relationship lies in the couple’s love for one another, yet Desdemona’s influence over Othello is not acceptable to the misogynistic Iago. He cannot comprehend why Othello has given in to the feminine emotion of love, which he views as a sign of weakness. His perception of love is purely anatomical â€Å"carnal stings†¦a lust of the blood†, therefore he is dismissive of the emotional bonds between women and men. It can be argued that Iago represents the underlying misogyny and racism within liberal Venice. â€Å"Textwise† by Felicity Currie explores this idea and suggests that Iago’s, â€Å"discourse is â€Å"honest† in that it is an expression of dominant ideology, which ensures that the status quo is maintained†. Brabantio and Othello are both easily convinced of Desdemona’s unfaithfulness, therefore Iago appears to voice beliefs held by male society about women. Othello and Desdemona’s relationship does not conform to the expectations of a patriarchal orthodoxy; consequently perhaps Shakespeare holds it up as an ideal against which other relationships should be judged. At the start of this play, the relationship is distinguished as an ideal. It promotes equality and is built on loyalty. This mutual affection is apparent as Othello describes Desdemona as being â€Å"half the wooer†. The reunion of Othello and Desdemona highlights their love, â€Å"o my fair warrior!† and she responds â€Å"My dear Othello†. The equality and balance of power in their relationship appears to be a faà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ade, as when Othello kills Desdemona, he does not permit her to voice a defence. He loses all self-dignity as he pompously suggests that he is killing her for â€Å"all men that were abused†. A positive aspect of the relationship is that both talk movingly about their love for one another in front of a possibly censorious senate, â€Å"How I did thrive in this fair lady’s love†. When Othello asks the senate if Desdemona can come with him to Cyprus, their superficial need for one another can be seen. Othello is perhaps too ready to find Desdemona guilty, Shakespeare suggests, however, that his position as an outsider makes him particularly susceptible to jealousy. Othello was aware of his looks, â€Å"thick lips†, â€Å"the devil†, â€Å"old black ram†, separating him from the white Venetian public. His treatment of Desdemona can be perceived as that of a man who â€Å"loved too well†. In turn Othello becomes insecure causing him to doubt Desdemona to a greater extent. The relationship moves from optimism to pessimism. Desdemona becomes a threat as she is suspected of adultery is just a small step from the sexual independence that she demonstrated in choosing Othello. In a patriarchal society this would be unheard of, therefore Desdemona is seen as a woman who appears to be out of control as suggested by Felicity Currie. Their love was not based on trust, showing that the relationship was probably not as idealistic as the audience would have liked to think. Shakespeare presents Othello as a man who too readily accepted Iago’s antifeminist perspective and then egotistically murdered Desdemona arguing that he was upholding justice, ensuring that she does not abuse other men. Othello’s passionate words change to derogatory language, â€Å"subtle whore†. As Iago makes Othello aware of Desdemona’s power over him, it becomes understandable why he has the need to re-establish power-hence Desdemona’s death. Othello is now in a position where he controls the situation. He reinstates his power as a man by leaving Desdemona feeling vulnerable and frightened. Shakespeare’s female characters do not conform to stereotype. All three women have contrasting attitudes to men. In turn all three are treated differently in society. Desdemona is described as being a â€Å"fair wife†, by Emilia the voice of truth, â€Å"So come my soul to bliss as I speak the truth† and Bianca is the representation of a powerless woman. She is the only female who is denied a voice showing that her silence determines her existence in society and that women are at the disposal of men. The male characters in Othello are incapable of selfless love. Iago is unable to love, stereotyping all women as whores. Conversely, Cassio idealises women as goddesses, however, hypocritically uses prostitutes. Othello’s relationship with Desdemona seems to be based on mutual respect and love, however, we could argue that even he is incapable of putting his own pride before Desdemona. Shakespeare suggests that in Jacobean England women’s position in society was dictated by men and female identity was constructed according to reductive stereotypes. Bibliography * Othello: The New Cambridge Shakespeare: Edited by Norman Sanders * Othello: New Swan Shakespeare: Edited by Gamini Salgado * Introduction to Arden Shakespeare * Othello: â€Å"Textwise† By Felicity Currie * Sovereign education lecture notes: By Sandra Clark * Othello: York Notes Advanced * www.sparknotes.com * www.learn.co.uk * www.teachit.co.uk