Thursday, August 25, 2011

What are 3 examples in Othello which show parental love vs. parental control?

Clearly, the main example of parental love vs. parental
control in this play is going to concern the relationship between Brabantio and
Desdemona, his daughter who secretly marries Othello behind his back. You will therefore
want to focus upon Act I scenes 1, 2 and 3, where Iago hatches his plan to create
problems for Othello with his new father-in-law. Consider Brabantio's rather distracted
response to realising that his daughter is not in his
house:



It is
too true an evil, gone she is,


And what's to come of my
despised time


Is nought but
bitterness...


O unhappy girl!
--


With the Moor, say'st thou? - Who would be a
father?



We can see the
tension between parental love and parental control here given Brabantio's sadness for
both himself and his daughter. This is something that continues to be demonstrated in
Act I scene 2, when Brabantio enters, accusing Othello of having "enchanted" Desdemona
and of being a "foul thief." In Act I scene 3, he protests to the Duke that his daughter
is considered "dead" to him:


readability="18">

She is abused, stolen from me and
corrupted


By spells and medicines bought of
mountebanks,


For nature so preposterously to
err


Being not deficient, blind, or lame of
sense,


Sans witchcraft could
not.



Clearly the strong words
regarding how Brabantio believes his daughter is "dead" because of her elopement
continues this tension between parental love and control.

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