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Desdemona plays the role of a submissive wife to Othello, despite her rebelling against her father

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Iago's dissatisfaction and hate could arise from a feeling of powerlessness due to his lower place in the pecking order. He must  always obey the will of others often due to them being born into power. His yearning for power eventually manifests itself in his control over Othello, subverting their positions.

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Iago's role as a villain is overexaggerated. Othello's downfall was the result of his own weaknesses, not I ago's manipulation. Iago's success isn't due to his 'diabolical intellect' but because 'Othello's readiness to respond' to Iago's accusations of Desdemona

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Sympathetic to Othello- 'Othello is exceptionally noble and trustful' but he's manipulated by Othello. Pointed out that all characters believe that Iago is honest so Othello has no reason not to trust him. Bradley wrote that 'Othello was 'the most romantic' of all Shakespeare's characters because of his poetry and exotic background

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gradations of status often manifest themselves in military rank and authority throughout the play. arguably Iago's key motivation is the resentment he feels at his subjugation beneath Othello, and Cassio.

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From a feminist perspective, early modern England’s preoccupation with cuckoldry demonstrates a basic male insecurity about women’s sexuality.

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Men hold all the power in the play which signals a dominant masculine ideology

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it highlights a change in economic structure 'put thy money in thy purse' suggests more capitalist service rather than feudal

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it highlights a change in economic structure 'put thy money in thy purse' suggests more capitalist service rather than feudal

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Although race does play a part in Othello, it is clear that Othello is mostly viewed with respect and that his personality and triumphs are more valued than his skin colour: 'valiant Othello', 'far more fair than black' in virtue.

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Lisa

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Desdemona she has violated the Venetian norm of arranged endogamous marriages and rejected her father’s authority. Still, she honours the patriarchal dictum that, once married, the wife owes her husband the same respect and duty she had shown her father.

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Desdemona she has violated the Venetian norm of arranged endogamous marriages and rejected her father’s authority. Still, she honours the patriarchal dictum that, once married, the wife owes her husband the same respect and duty she had shown her father.

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Alas, Desdemona and Othello’s love is no match for Iago’s plots and the green-eyed monster jealousy. Infidelity was the ultimate marital crime in early modern England. The prospect of illegitimate children subverted the bedrock of the era’s social and economic system, the inheritance of property from father to son. In a speech that is often described as ‘proto-feminist’, Emilia argues that a wife’s infidelity is a response to the husband’s behaviour:

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Say they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,
Or scant of former having in despite –
. . .
Yet have we some revenge. (4.4.82–88)

Desdemona rejects this reasoning, promising ‘Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend’.

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the fear and prejudice of other races is reflected in the play, and contemporary appropriations of Othello remind us that these issues have only intensified

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the fear and prejudice of other races is reflected in the play, and contemporary appropriations of Othello remind us that these issues have only intensified

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Desdemona and Othello’s love is no match for Iago’s plots and the green-eyed monster jealousy. Infidelity was the ultimate marital crime in early modern England. The prospect of illegitimate children subverted the bedrock of the era’s social and economic system, the inheritance of property from father to son. In a speech that is often described as ‘proto-feminist’, Emilia argues that a wife’s infidelity is a response to the husband’s behaviour:

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Feminist critics highlight the ways Shakespeare portrays gender roles. In Act 1, Scene 3, Brabantio describes his daughter Desdemona as ‘a maiden never bold’, yet in choosing a foreigner she has violated the Venetian norm of arranged endogamous marriages (the practice of marrying within a local community or ethnic group) and rejected her father’s authority.

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Although Othello is elevated and praised for a being the great "Moor of Venice", he still has a lack of understanding of customs limit his position within the society 

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Although Othello is elevated and praised for a being the great "Moor of Venice", he still has a lack of understanding of customs limit his position within the society 

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Shakespeare subverts the typical story by making the hero an outsider and the villain a Venetian.

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Shakespeare subverts the typical story by making the hero an outsider and the villain a Venetian.

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Emilia, too, defers to her husband Iago’s wishes. Even after she realises the full extent of his villainy, she admits, ‘’Tis proper I obey him, but not now’ (5.2.194). At the same time, romances, poems and plays often countered patriarchal authority in favour of romantic love.

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Feminist critics highlight the ways Shakespeare portrays gender roles. In Act 1, Scene 3, Brabantio describes his daughter Desdemona as ‘a maiden never bold’, yet in choosing a foreigner she has violated the Venetian norm of arranged endogamous marriages (the practice of marrying within a local community or ethnic group) and rejected her father’s authority.

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Marxist critics are concerned with the economic and psychological impact of early modern England’s hierarchical social system.The pecking order in Othello is clear. The Duke and aristocratic members of the Venetian Senate give orders to Othello, who in turn commands his Lieutenant Cassio. All three ostensibly serve out of loyalty to the state and for the status their military position brings, but they can be dismissed at the pleasure of their superiors.

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New historicist critics often debate whether or not race was a factor in early modern representations of non-English peoples. Although Othello’s racial identity is clearly a factor in Shakespeare’s text, when the play was first performed the audience would not have seen it as squarely focussed on race as we do. As editor Michael Neill observes, ‘to talk about race in Othello is inevitably to fall into some degree of anachronism, while to ignore it is to efface something fundamental to the tragedy.’[3] As a result, Shakespeare’s Othello has been appropriated worldwide as a vehicle for the exploration of racial and ethnic tensions.

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New historicist critics often debate whether or not race was a factor in early modern representations of non-English peoples. Although Othello’s racial identity is clearly a factor in Shakespeare’s text, when the play was first performed the audience would not have seen it as squarely focussed on race as we do. As editor Michael Neill observes, ‘to talk about race in Othello is inevitably to fall into some degree of anachronism, while to ignore it is to efface something fundamental to the tragedy.’[3] As a result, Shakespeare’s Othello has been appropriated worldwide as a vehicle for the exploration of racial and ethnic tensions.

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Makes the tragic hero an 'outsider'  alienated from the society there.

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. Othello’s blackness and his background as a foreign mercenary prefigures the hybridity postcolonial theorists have identified in colonial subjects. Brabantio and Desdemona are fascinated by his strange stories of cannibals and anthropophagi; Othello’s first gift to her is a handkerchief given to him by an Egyptian charmer, ‘dyed in mummy [a black liquid distilled from corpses] and steeped in the ancient lore of charmers, sibyls and magic’.The Moor’s stories allow Desdemona to experience the exotic/erotic delight found by many early modern readers in travel narratives that described the ‘antres vast’ of unexplored territories in Africa, the East and the New World.