The vulnerability of the father

King Lear 1:1 (110-118)
“Let it be so. Thy truth then be thy dower.
For by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate and the night,
By all the operation of the orbs
From whom we do exist and cease to be,
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity, and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee from this for ever.”

Parallels were made in discussion about the role of fathers in Othello and Measure for Measure. The father-daughter relationships in both plays display how vulnerable the father figures turn out to be so as readers we are equivocal about whether to reason with the daughter or the unreasonable fathers. Shakespeare creates father figures that are easy to manipulate and deceive through a false façade of duty and obligation on behalf of the daughters. Goneril and Regan of King Lear are both good with words and can easily fool Lear into believing they love him, however when Cordelia speaks the truth she is disowned for being truly dutiful to her father, and the male superiors like her future husband.
As Barbantio is left alone without a dutiful daughter and he is also made into a foolish character from the beginning of Othello because of the scene he makes blaming Othello of kidnapping and using witchcraft to get Desdemona to marry him. Barbantio is left as the lonely and abandoned father and is moved to the margins of the play because he has no influence of his daughter and cannot protect her no matter what he does to try and annul the wedding between Desdemona and Othello.