Gender Stereotypes in Othello

       There are many instances of gender stereotype in Othello. For the male characters, they fit the perfect cliché of jealous, overprotective, distrustful men. Iago suspects his wife of cheating on him with every main guy in the play; he thinks she sleeps with Cassio and Iago, which is the main reason why he hates both of them. When Emilia gives him Desdemona's handkerchief, he replies with "You have a thing? It is a common thing". This innuendo accuses Emilia of sleeping with a lot of people, which explains why he refers to her as a common thing. Also, Iago is very distrusting in everyone, but he seems to put a lot of trust into thinking that his plan will work. He trusts the stupidity of everyone else to fall into his trap. Othello is a perfect example of a jealous man. He believes Iago's obvious lies because he is so ready to think that Desdemona is not faithful; it's almost as if he wanted a reason to believe that she cheated on him, so that is why he believes Iago with all the lies. He does not even ask Desdemona if all this is true; he just acts upon speculation, and accuses her of something that she clearly did not do.
       The major women characters in this play are Desdemona and Emilia. Desdemona is the perfect female stereotype of the time because she gives up so much for Othello, and in return, Othello reciprocates nothing but his fleeting love. She breaks off her relationship with her dad and runs away to Cyprus with a man she barely knows. A normal husband would see all the sacrifices his wife has made and try to make her a happy wife, but he accuses her of cheating the first chance that he gets, and all he has is circumstantial evidence. Aside from Desdemona, Emilia defies the traditional woman cliché . She has a foul mouth when talking about men because she does not talk in the "lady-like" way that women were supposed to talk in. Also, she questions Iago about why he needs the handkerchief, and this shows that she wasn't readily submissive to him; she wanted to know more about what he was doing and that was uncalled for back in the Shakespearean era.