The female roles of Othello The public finds in the tragic Shakespearean drama Othello several female characters who appear in the plot of the play. Their roles are varied and their lives end tragically. "Othello: An Introduction" by Alvin Kernan explains Desdemona's role as a model of faith and chastity for the protagonist who is converted to believe in her after her death: Her willingness to talk about what she has done - in contrast to Iago's dark silence - is the willingness to recognize the meaning of Desdemona's faith and chastity, to recognize that innocence and love exist and that therefore the City can resist, although her life is necessary to validate the truth and justice. on which it is built. (81)In the volume Shakespeare and Tragedy John Bayley explains the roles of the two main women in the play: Even the risk of alienating the spectator from the tragic action produces a corresponding advantage: that the action and behavior remain perpetually controversial in the play . and the focus of sexual and social awareness crisp and clear. In a modern-day production, the implications of this are usually more interesting than the actual intrigue might be, and a lot of weight is usually given to Emilia's role as a figure of common sense and common humanity, correcting the lovers' romantic excesses. [. . .] But no figure in these three tragedies has such a symbolically positional status. Moreover, Emilia, despite all her virtues, has a stupidity and a lack of imagination comparable in its own way to those of her husband; while her views on sexual warfare, from the female perspective, are as biting as his. Certainly the role of the woman is important, but it is only Desdemona who, because of her love, can remain unaware of the tragedy/comedy element, as well as the polarity between sex and love. (218)At the beginning of the play Iago convinces Desdemona's rejected suitor, Roderigo, to accompany him to the home of Brabantio, Desdemona's father, in the middle of the night. Once there the two wake up the senator by shouting loudly about his daughter's escape with Othello. This is the initial reference to the role of women in the play: the role of the wife. In response to the noise and Iago's vulgar descriptions of Desdemona's involvement with the general, Brabantio gets out of bed.