Iago, understanding the object’s significance, plans to turn the token of love into a tool of destruction. She makes a playful reference to Othello’s origins, suggesting that the sun in his native land made him impervious to jealousy, and therefore he is an exception to the typical Venetian tendency to be suspicious of women’s behavior. The handkerchief symbolizes different things to different characters. Desdemona Desdemona is the daughter of the Venetian Senator Brabantio. Two little deceptions – Emilia's stealing of the handkerchief and Desdemona's lie to Othello that it is not lost – cement Desdemona's doom. to Emilia’s question, “O, who hath done this deed?” Desdemona’s final The Handkerchief. suffocated beneath the demands put on her fidelity. Desdemona is a lady of spirit and intelligence. Only 7 left in stock (more on the way). DESDEMONA : I say, it is not lost. Othello Analysis . The last time we see Desdemona before she awakens to find Othello lines 61–84, when she attempts to persuade Othello enters and tells Desdemona to give him her hand. To make Othello believe that Desdemona has been unfaithful, Iago talks Emilia into giving him Desdemona’s handkerchief so that he may plant it in Cassio’s quarters. She begins the play as a supremely For those who, like the 17th century essayist quoted in the program of “Desdemona,” find Shakespeare’s “Tragedy of Othello” to be just so much sturm und drang about a handkerchief, Paula Vogel… When Othello enters, he claims a headache and asks her for a handkerchief to bind his head, but he will have only the embroidered strawberry handkerchief. Tragically, Desdemona is apparently aware of her imminent death. It helps weave the entire story together. not written by Shakespeare or a mere vulgarity ignore the fact that OTHELLO : Fetch't, let me see't. "Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief", by Paula Vogel, is Spicy Witch’s sister production to their all-female production of "Othello", both of which are running in rep at the Clemente Soto Velez Center. Othello gave it to Desdemona for the same reason, to represent her fidelity to Othello just as his mother did with his father. Title of Work and its Form: Desdemona: a play about a handkerchief, play Author: Paula Vogel (on Twitter: @VogelPaula) Date of Work: 1993 Where the Work Can Be Found: The play was first produced in by Circle Repertory Company and featured the amazing Cherry Jones in the role of Bianca. demands. She, not Othello, asks Emilia to put her wedding sheets on the bed, Othello is a play about sexual jealousy, and how one man can convince another man, who loves his wife dearly, that she has been unfaithful to him when she hasn’t.But Shakespeare does several very interesting, and artistically quite bold, things … The action takes place in, so to speak, the interstices of Shakespeare’s Othello, showing what that play’s three women get up to in the household laundry while the Shakespeare plot takes place offstage elsewhere. Iago understands that a gift such as a handkerchief might be a mere trinket to some, but bear profound meaning to others. wife and as a bold, independent personality. Lisa Jardine (1996) focuses on the significance of the historical and cultural background for the interpretation of the position and role of women in the Renaissance by emphasizing that obedience, passivity and silence represent their mainfeatures. that she is “guiltless,” Desdemona also forgives her husband (V.ii.133). Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief by Paula Vogel November 9 - 25, 2018 . / Commend me to my kind At the end of the play, Emilia refers to the handkerchief as a “trifle” (5.2.228); this trifle is the center of catastrophe in the play. duty” [I.iii.179–180]) and her terse fury Othello by William Shakespeare Summary Othello asks point-blank if the handkerchief is lost. This item: Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief by Paula Vogel Paperback $10.00. in a bed covered in her wedding sheets—is symbolic: she is literally The reluctantly loyal Emilia pesters Desdemona about a military promotion for her. 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