528TLN 528: divided duty.

Desdemona's notion of divided duty recognizes that as she is a recently married woman her social obligation is shifting from the requirement that she obey her father to the expectation that she obey her husband and thus connects the experiences of Shakespeare's fictional Venetian noblewoman to those of the real women among the play's first audiences. Like Desdemona, English women at the turn of the seventeenth century lived in a patriarchal society dominated by the institution of the family. Power resided primarily in male heads of households, who were expected to govern members of their family at home, and to represent them in the outside world. Wives were understood to share in the responsibility for managing the household, but to be subordinate to their husbands. Children were expected to obey their parents, and, when they were grown, to make decisions about marriage in conjunction with them. The Book of Common Prayer rite that bound couples together in marriage required that women vow obedience and service to their new husbands, and marriage made women the legal property of their husbands. While Desdemona and Othello's elopement could be seen as a challenge to this patriarchal system, it is worth noting that neither character seems committed to an agenda of socio-political change. Brabantio argues that his daughter's affection for Othello runs suspiciously strong and against the fashion, but Desdemona's only other minor rebellion—her refusal to agree to return to her father's house while Othello is on duty in Cyprus—appears motivated by love and duty, twin obligations of every new wife confirmed in the language of the marriage ceremony. Othello too demonstrates a notable commitment to social obligation as he seeks to address a divided duty of his own by preparing simultaneously to do his political duty to the Venetian state, to assume a new military command, and to meet his marital obligation to provide comfort for his wife.