Around 4,000 women died last year from domestic violence. Violence or abuse in relationships, whether family or marital, or mental or physical should never be tolerated. In The Circles of Hell, Dante talks about how violence and anger against family or acquaintances will result in you being in Circle 9 which is the center of Hell. This is because betrayal and hurting of those you are supposed to love is extremely wrong. In the play Othello, when Othello suspects Desdemona of sleeping with Cassio, instead of talking to her calmly about it and trying to figure out the truth, he hits her. He feels no remorse after and thinks he was in the right, meanwhile, Desdemona has done nothing wrong and is very confused. Also in Othello, Cassio and his wife have a very toxic relationship. Cassio just uses her to get things that he wants and does not really love her. He also thinks of other women all of the time.

Back in Ancient Europe, and some 3rd world countries, killing or abusing your wife is considered something normal and even good for the husband/father to do. Burckhardt writes, “It was common throughout Europe for men to murder their wives because they suspected infidelity and to kill their daughters because they eloped. It was also common for brothers to kill their sisters because they refused to marry the man their family had chosen for them.” This is such a depressing thought to think of, that just because they were married to the wrong man they could be killed. Meanwhile, men would walk away with little to no punishment. Which is completely unfair and sexist. Luckily, nowadays there are more rules in America to prevent such things from happening. Sadly, these kinds of things still happen sometimes.

I believe that we should try and prevent things like this from happening. We can do this numerous of ways. We can make stricter punishments/fines for those who do this to women. Also teach young boys not what to do, so it’s not even a problem in the beginning. Also, teach young girls how to avoid toxic/abusive relationships. Abusive relationships are not the only ones we should be fighting to stop, toxic or mental manipulation is a severe problem for lots of couples and is as dangerous and bad as an abusive relationship. In conclusion, I believe that we need to work as a community to stop this problem from occuring.