William Shakespeare's Othello is a dramatic exploration of the society present in Venice in the early 1600s, and shows an insight into the roles of the men and women of that society. Shakespeare set Othello in the Venetian society as it best suited the society through which he could convey the themes and morals of his dramatic presentation to the audience. Through characterization, and various other literary techniques, Shakespeare is able to reveal the values, attitudes and beliefs present in the Venetian society, and therefore begin to demonstrate the themes and morals of the play Othello. One part of the society that the playwright, Shakespeare, represents in his play is the expected social roles of women. After developing the roles that the women have in the Venetian society, Shakespeare is then able to assign the female characters a function in developing the plot and theme of the play. There are three female characters in the play Othello; Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca, and each have a function assigned to them that they perform throughout the play, after their role in society is developed to the audience.
             Before a character can be assigned a function in any literary text, that character must be developed for the audience. Through the use of characterization, a character can be constructed in such a way that they can perform the function that is assigned to them throughout the text. The female characters of Othello are developed through, and help to show, the roles of women in Venice. Shakespeare characterizes the women in certain ways. For example, the three women in Othello generally talk the most sense throughout the play, and are at most times more reasonable than the male characters. This is shown through both the dialogue and the actions of the female characters. An example of this sense in dialogue is during the heated conversation between Brabantio and Othello when Brabantio is accusing Othello of bewitching his da...