‘Yet I’ll speak’: Silencing the female voice in Titus Andronicus and Othello
Abstracts
In both tragedies, female voices are, at first sight, represented as harmonious and agreeable, especially in their connection to song. On another level, however, those voices are criticised and eventually silenced. Lavinia's tongue-mutilation, a close reading reveals, is implicitly justified even by her own family. It is significant that even when bereft of her voice, Lavinia still insists on communicating. Her murder by her father can be seen as an ultimate silencing of the mute girl. Similarly, Desdemona's voice is repeatedly shown to be an intrusion in an all-male world. Her murder again figures as a silencing, and again, the resilient female character resists that silencing and revives to make her voice heard once more. Emilia, whose voice overlaps with the dying Desdemona's, perpetuates Desdemona's voice until she, too, is silenced by her husband. The silencing of those female voices is furthermore shown to extend beyond the fictional worlds into the interpretations of critics and performers alike.
Index terms
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Bibliographical reference
Pascale Aebischer, “‘Yet I’ll speak’: Silencing the female voice in Titus Andronicus and Othello”, Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare, 17 | 1999, 27-46.
Electronic reference
Pascale Aebischer, “‘Yet I’ll speak’: Silencing the female voice in Titus Andronicus and Othello”, Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare [Online], 17 | 1999, Online since 01 November 2007, connection on 24 January 2025. URL: http://0-journals-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/shakespeare/304; DOI: https://0-doi-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/10.4000/shakespeare.304
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The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.
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