SorgeLauren Sorge ENGL 3000 Teresa Nugent April 12, 2015 Word Count: 959 Female Purity in Early Modern Society In the plays Othello and Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare emphasizes how the identity of a woman is linked to her sexual purity. The importance of purity is intricately connected to the social atmosphere of the time each play was written. Much Ado About Nothing takes place in Messina, Italy during a time where man was superior to woman and a woman’s responsibility was to protect her family’s honor by living a private life of wholesomeness. Similarly, Othelloalso takes place in Venice, Italy where women also had to save themselves for marriage. If woman during this time didn’t abide to social pressures, there was the “possibility of being shamed- which includes being laughed at, rejected, insulted, dishonored, humiliated, and so forth” (Greenblatt 1409). Through his plays Much Ado About Nothing and Othello, Shakespeare reflects on societal obsession with female sexual purity and how it ties into family honor through the use of his characters, arguing how society puts too much pressure on women. Shakespeare highlights the pressures placed on female sexual purity through the character Hero. Hero is Leonato’s beautiful and innocent daughter who is scheduled to marry Claudio, a young soldier. Although Hero is sexually pure, she is framed for having an affair with another 1
