In this blog post, I would like to discuss the connection in both of these passages between honor and obligation represented with the relationship of Desdemona and her father, Brabantio. It seems that honor and a devoted duty to father and daughter is very important in both roles. Unfortunately through the events of Desdemona’s marriage to Othello without the permission/notice of her father, she dishonored him and Brabantio now sees her in a different light. This first quote occurs when Desdemona is speaking for the first time in the play of her devoted love and honor that she must take part in towards her husband, Othello. She respects her father in identifying her prescribed duty to him through life and education, but she must now honor her husband. What I found interesting is that when speaking of Othello, as well as with others who are bound to no respect towards him, they identify him with the term, “Moor”. So my question would be, whether or not she is in the mindset of honoring and respecting her new husband to begin her new chapter in life with him and if the use of that word should not be used to support her claim to the necessity of honoring her husband?

Desdemona: My noble father,

I do perceive here a divided duty.

To you I am bound for life and education…

I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my

Husband…I challenge that I may profess

Due to the Moor my Lord. (Act I, Scene iii, Lines 208-218)

This second quote is Brabantio giving Othello some last minute advice that sees almost as a backhanded remark. Brabantio is very upset over the fact that his daughter married, without his knowledge or approval to Othello, who they consider the “Moor”.

Brabantio: Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see.

She has deceived her father, and may thee. He exits.

(Act I, Scene iii, Lines 333-334)

He tells Othello, if she can deceive her father then she has the ability to do the same to her husband. The way he states it is forewarning the experience he just entailed with her as well as possibly the potential to deceiving Othello as well. If she can hurt her father’s emotion, then there is no stopping what she can do to someone who is not a blood relative. In the prior quote, Desdemona expresses her honor to her father, but in Brabantio’s quote, he sees what she did was dishonest and deceiving. This can challenge each others understanding of what it means to be respectful as a whole to her father and to her husband. It seems as if Desdemona has more of a dishonest characteristic that is being shown in both of these quotes.