Social conventions limit the political and domestic lives of men and women, in William Shakespeare's Othello. Conventions maintain the equilibrium of society and provide safeguards against improper behaviour. Political institutions in Venetian society of the time included the government and military. Domestic institutions included marriage and the relationship between father and daughter. There are various social conventions that limit people's lives in regard to these institutions. Murder, which we see Othello commit, has a great effect on the government and military. Infidelity and adultery, which Cassio commits, means that he must keep this a secret or risk his and Othello's good position in the military. Another social convention, that a woman always belongs to a man, limits the relationship of Desdemona and Othello.
            
             The conventions of relationships within Venetian society limited the domestic and political lives of people in that society. There was a belief that a woman always belonged to a man. In the early part of Desdemona's life she belonged to her father and later, when she married, she belonged to her husband, Othello. When a marriage was going to take place the father would relinquish control of his daughter. A woman was regarded as chattel and this can be seen in Othello. "That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,/It is most true" (Othello.I.3.78-79). Desdemona obviously didn't ask Brabantio's permission to marry Othello because he is unaware of the marriage until he is told by Roderigo and Iago: "your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs" (Iago.1.1.116-118). Therefore, it is thought that Othello has stolen Desdemona from her father: "O thou foul thief" (Brabantio.1.2.62). This act was seen as a serious breach of the conventions of society. The marriage of Othello and Desdemona is also against the conventions of the time....