" (V.ii.292) We must also remember that upon discovering Desdemona's innocence, he kills himself, bringing the same justice upon himself that he had bestowed on Desdemona. ... Emilia puts her loyalty to her mistress and knowledge of her innocence before her duty to her husband. ...
Using a physically shocking metaphor the poet has created the image of a cruel, callous hand violating the innocence of a girl. ... We know she is young by the phrase "full new breast" this enhances the horrifying image innocence being violated. ...
Person sees this as favorite subject of Hawthorne's as he recalls "Dimmesdale's temptation to blight a young girl's innocence with a single word" (123) and compares it to Hawthorne considering "The Scarlet Letter "a triumphant success" because it had such an effect on [his wife] Sophia that it broke her heart and sent her to bed with a grevious headache" (122). ...
At an early age, Rukmani is married off at the age of twelve with a poor tenant farmer because of the lack of dowry. We note that Rukmani is prepared at an early age to accept her role as a wife, which is evident in the gay response she makes to her mother, "I shall have a grand wedding". ... They are the daughters of the soil and have inherited age-old traditions which they do not question. ... And between, how many times, I thought, bleak of spirit, while her husband in his impotence and I in my innocence did nothing. ...
The fact that men abused women without consequence was a common one in Shakespeare's day and age. Despite the Chivalric Code during the Middle Ages and the ideal of the Courtier during the Renaissance, there was no real societal consequence for husbands that mistreated their wives. ...
