Vanita, Ruth. “Men Beware Men: Shakespeare's Warnings for Unfair Husbands.” Comparative Drama, vol. 28, no. 2, 1994, pp. 201–220. JSTOR, 
www.jstor.org/stable/41153689. Accessed 21 July 2021.

Vanita situates her argument against Nancy Cotton Pearse’s definition of a “chastity play” and also the domestic tragedy plays of Othello’s time period, specifically A Woman Killed with Kindness by Thomas Heyward. Vanita argues that Othello goes against type in two regards:  the chastity play where the innocent woman survives and the domestic tragedy where the husband kills the guilty wife. A Woman Killed with Kindness was performed in 1603, and Vanita suggests the Othello was a direct reply to that performance. Whereas in A Woman Killed with Kindness focuses on the woman’s chastity (or lack thereof) and a husband’s cuckoldry, Othello focuses on the men’s reaction to a woman unchasteness. In both plays, the wives die, but in Othello the question is about the permanence of death rather than death as evidence of a woman’s chastity. In most chastity plays, a woman’s innocence was determined by her ability to evade death. If a woman survived an attempt on her life than she was considered innocent, but if she died then was considered guilty of adultery. Vanita suggests that Othello is really a warning to husbands because they hold all the power in the relationship rather than a play warning wives on the dangers of infidelity. 

- Tracie Yule