Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief CSI

Desdemona: A play about a handkerchief: CSI

J.D. Capelouto and Megan Rodgers

Contexts

• Paula Vogel
• Married to Anne Fausto Sterling - professor of gender studies
• Pulitzer prize for How I Learned to Drive
• First produced in New York City in 1993
• The 1990’s were an age of “Third-Wave feminism”
• During this time feminists challenged traditional gender roles and norms, especially the claim that women cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys can; it was a time where sexual freedom was somewhat celebrated
• Class warfare and conflict was big in the 1990’s, especially in New York (Think “Rent”)
• Written as a tribute (“rip-off”) to Shakespeare the Sadist by Wolfgang Bauer, in which the scenes are written as multiple “takes” with short breaks in between.

Subtexts

• Feminism
• Vogel explores women's limited roles in the male-dominated society of Ancient Cyprus.
• Desdemona feels trapped in her marriage and suppressed by Othello so she escapes by going to Bianca’s brothel
• Relationships between the women of the play are the main focus
• Main focus is on relationship between Emilia and Desdemona - their fates both depend on how much they trust each other
• Bianca is viewed as a “free woman” who is not held down by marriage
• Desdemona wears a moon ring and gives it to Emelia - this symbolizes feminine power, sensuality, and fertility
• Class Relationships
• Relationship between the three different classes (Upper, middle, low) represented by the three women
• Desdemona, high class, uses Bianca, low class, for amusement: “I never tire of hearing your stories...What else have I got for amusement’s sake” (p. 37)
• Desdemona treats Emelia like she is on a lower level, but Emelia does the same thing to Bianca
• Deception and Trust
• Desdemona and Othello   
• Desdemona actually does betray Othello’s trust in this version
• Deceives him into thinking she is innocent

• white outfit
• “arranges her face into an insipid, fluttering innocence, then girlishly runs to the door” (pg. 12) - Desdemona stage direction as she prepares to go see Othello
• Desdemona and Emilia
• Desdemona originally plans on leaving Emilia behind but decieves her into thinking that she will bring her
• Eventually tells her the truth and trusts that Emilia won’t tell Othello
• Emilia deceives Desdemona about handkerchief
• Eventually changes her mind and tells Desdemona of the plot to save her life
• The two eventually come to trust each other but by that point it is too late; Desdemona’s fate is sealed
• Fate
• Desdemona was destined to die and even her knowing about the plot was not enough to save her life
• Even though this Desdemona is different than what we know from the traditional version, she is still destined to the same fate and cannot change it

Intertexts

• Shakespeare’s Othello
• Uses same characters but changes their personalities - especially Desdemona’s
• Some scenes from Othello are alluded to but not directly shown
• scene where Othello slaps Desdemona because of handkerchief (p. 13)
• Biblical References
• Emilia is the more religious character, also portrayed as the only one to remain faithful
• Rosary beads
• Constantly praying
• Contradictory messages from the Bible? (pro-faith, anti-woman)