The treatment of women, the nature of marriage, and manhood

Women in Othello, for the majority of the play, are treated poorly and degraded. Othello states that “if the earth could teem with women’s tears, / each drop she falls would prove a crocodile” (Act 4 Scene 1). Many vivid visual images are used to describe the women in this play, and they are not particularly nice either. A plethoraof degrading and inhumane comparisons are made by the men in Othello, especially by Iago in general, and Cassio about Bianca. The men are extraordinary hasty to brand the women as untrustworthy, and disloyal.