To what extent is the science of abnormal psychology involved in the characterization in William Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello? This essay will answer that question.
Blanche Coles in Shakespeare’s Four Giants affirms the Bard’s commitment to abnormal psychology, and his employment of same in this play:
That Shakespeare was keenly interested in the study of the abnormal mind is commonly accepted among students. [. . .] The suggestion that Iago may have been intentionally drawn as a psychopathic personality is not new. [. . .] Even a casual scrutiny of a book on case histories of psychopathic patients will find Iago peeping out from many of its pages. Still more, Iago’s name will be found appearing occasionally in bold print in
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While he and Desdemona and Emilia are lounging about at the port in Cyprus awaiting the arrival of the Moor’s ship, Desdemona tries to analyze how his mind and feelings work, for he seems to be habitually critical of his wife. She concludes that he is a “slanderer” and that he is full of “old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh in th’ alehouse.”
His clever machinations cause grief for every character who has continued contact with him. He deceives Roderigo about the affections of Desdemona: “Desdemona is directly in love with him [Cassio].” He deceptively lures Cassio into drunkenness where he is vulnerable to taunts and thus loses his officership. He further lures him into Desdemona’s presence so that Othello can find him there and be more suspicious: “Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?” Iago misinforms Montano regarding Cassio (“And ‘tis great pity that the noble Moor / Should hazard such a place as his own second / With one of an ingraft infirmity.”) Iago uses Emilia to pass the kerchief, which “so often you did bid me steal,” to him rather than to its owner. He manipulates the Moor into incorrect views about Desdemona, about Iago himself (“Iago is most honest”), about Cassio’s relationship with Desdemona, etc. Iago even diverts suspicion of the ambush against Cassio against his prostitute-friend Bianca. In cold blood he eventually murders his gift-giver, Roderigo, so that the wealthy playboy can’t
Great authors can develop the same idea in different ways. Shakespeare introduces the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia to mental illness throughout “Hamlet”. Hamlet a, Depressed and Monomaniacal Psychopath, runs off of the vengeance of his father to kill his uncle, King Claudius. Ophelia A victim of, hysteria and depression, cannot function without the support of her father and lover without this support she can loses the will to live. Shakespeare uses metaphors, gender, tone, and word choice to develop the progression of mental illness in his characters throughout “Hamlet”.
The senator is incensed by the fact that his daughter has indeed run away from home so that he must face a life of “despised time” and “bitterness.” Implied in this reaction is a very selfish type of love which he has had towards his daughter: His affection is based on what she can do for him and not what he can do for her. Later when the Duke of Venice hears the father’s accusations against the general, followed by Desdemona’s forthright, intelligent testimony of the truth, the senator reacts by virtually disowning her. The superficiality of his love for her is apparent.
What we deem normal in today’s society has been defined as conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern in our everyday lives. People who fall out of this normality are often deemed “Strange” or “Irregular”. Throughout the play Othello, it is seen how Iago, the main antagonist of the story, doesn’t exactly fit the regular patterns of the time period. He consistently lies, manipulates, and abuses other peoples trust to his advantage to achieve his own goals. Many of Iago’s actions have a close relationship with a certain type of disorder: Antisocial Personality disorder. In the play Othello, it is showcased through consistent manipulation, disregard for emotions, and unlawful behavior that Iago has Antisocial Personality Disorder.
Throughout many of Shakespeare’s plays, one of the central themes with which he provides his readers is the topic of madness and insanity. In Karin S. Coddon’s, “Such Strange Desygns”: Madness, Subjectivity, and Treason in Hamlet and Elizabethan Culture, the author depicts the reasons behind the psychosis of Shakespeare’s characters and what led to their insanity. The author expresses insight for not only the themes of madness in Hamlet but also helps explain the aspect of madness in one Shakespeare’s other plays, Macbeth. Through her analysis, Coddon successfully offers her readers a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s choice to portray his characters in this way and provides the
Iago’s manipulation of Othello is the most significant in the play Othello. Although, Iago’s elaborate plan would never have worked without careful manipulation of Othello’s honorable lieutenant, Cassio. In the third scene of act two, Iago uses his established credibility and pathos to manipulate Cassio’s emotions. The scene starts with Othello telling Cassio to assist Iago in standing guard through the night. When Iago arrives, he begins his manipulation by shifting the conversation to Othello’s wife Desdemona, which leads Cassio to say, “She is indeed perfection” (Shakespeare, 2.3.22). Iago uses this conversation to direct Cassio’s emotions. Immediately after Cassio confesses his feeling for Desdemona, Iago tells Cassio he has a “stoup of wine,” and wants to have a toast to Othello’s health (2.3.23). With persuasion from Iago, Cassio takes part in the toast and gets drunk. Shortly after Cassio leaves, Iago sends Roderigo, a former suitor to Desdemona, to start a fight with him. Not long after, Roderigo runs back pursued by Cassio. Iago, knowing
Charlotte Joko Beck said, “We have self-centered minds which get us into plenty of trouble. If we do not come to understand the error in the way we think, our self-awareness, which is our greatest blessing, is also our downfall.” In this particular quotation, Beck explores the bias of the human psyche and its ability to favor personal hankerings over logic and morale. “Euripides introduced psychological realism into ancient Greek drama through characters like Medea, whose motives are confused, complex, and ultimately driven by passion” (Galens and Spampinato para. 1). This one-sided battle of wills is portrayed throughout the literary tragedies of history, and it is essential to the structure of both Shakespearean and Greek tragedy: namely, those of Macbeth and Medea. In the nature of literary tragedy, tragic flaw and downfall go hand in hand. Macbeth and Medea, although their circumstances differ in time and place, share more than one personality flaw; however, one major factor sets them apart. While the curse of pride, ego, and an insatiable hunger for power all contribute to the mental or physical downfall of both Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Euripides’ Medea, Macbeth’s ultimate hamartia is knowledge: specifically, his discovery of the prophecy.
Brabantio’s rage, among other reasons, necessitate that Desdemona live with Iago and Emilia during the Moor’s campaign in Cyprus against the Turks. While awaiting the arrival of Othello’s ship at the seaport of Cyprus, Desdemona shows herself an intelligent, educated debater. She grows tired of Iago’s derogatory comments directed at his wife, and she quite matter-of-factly states her mind: “O, fie upon thee, slanderer!” She continues to critique the ancient’s answers to her questions: “These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i' the alehouse” and “O heavy ignorance! thou praisest the worst best.” She is not fearful or reticent in the least.
Several emotions engulf Shakespeare’s Hamlet throughout the play, the most famous being Hamlet’s own emotional state. His madness, triggered by his incestuous uncle, has led several scholars to explore the psychological causes of his madness. This research into Hamlet’s madness will explore his madness in comparison to other characters, the psychoanalytical studies behind his madness, and defining whether his madness is genuine or another play within the play.
Throughout Shakespeare’s many works, mental illnesses have played an undeniable part in many of them, especially his tragedies. From Lady Macbeth hallucination of a bloody spot leading to her suicide, to Hamlet’s faked illness and Ophelia’s very real illness, afflictions of the mind are featured prominently in the Bard of Avalon’s many works. Still, in the Elizabethan era, understanding of mental illness was rudimentary at best, as were the methods of treating it. During the Middle Ages and Elizabethan Era, numerous theories about mental disorders and how to treat them abounded. Three plays of Shakespeare’s that feature mental illness most prominently are King Lear, Hamlet, and Macbeth, while also managing to showcase the conception of
4/30/2018 Bryce Burrell Final Paper English 112 Bausch The Tempest, one of the last theatrical masterpieces coming from William Shakespeare’s own quill pen. A drama took place in an isolated, remote island during a violent storm orchestrated by the main protagonist, Prospero. According to a scholarly article written by Paul D. Coombe, William Shakespeare was “the psychotherapist of the 16th century”. “Relatively very little is known of William’s life especially his early life. We are deprived of the material that is so important for a psychotherapist to develop an understanding of the personality development of an individual and to put their life into psychological context.”
Later on in the play, Iago lies to Roderigo when he tells him that Othello will be taking Desdemona with him to Mauritania. He suggests that if Roderigo ever wants to see Desdemona again he has to make sure that Othello extends his stay in Cyprus. To do so, he suggests that Cassio must be killed, “Why, by making him uncapable of Othello’s place—/ knocking out his brains.”(4.2.226-227). If Othello goes to Mauritania, Cassio will be assigned Othello’s place. By killing Cassio, Iago gets his revenge and Roderigo would have a chance to win over Desdemona. Roderigo’s character is used to portray the theme of manipulation. He is persuaded into doing Iago’s ill deeds. Iago is only after one thing, to be appointed lieutenant, and he will do whatever is necessary to reach his goal.
By taking advantage of this fact, he is able to kill two birds with one stone. Iago feeds on Othello's jealousy by setting Casio up to look like he is conducting an extra marital affair with Desdemona, refuting Othello’s initial denial. However, eventually, Iago has Othello so angered that he accepts Iago's offer to kill Cassio for him.
Hamlet, a play by William Shakespeare, is as much a mystery as a tale about depression, madness and sanity. Shakespeare reveals how the scourge of corruption and decay rapidly spread; and the emotional consequences that follow. Insanity, madness and depression are as intolerable as corruption and deceit; and just as intertwined. The play makes one ponder if it is possible to be sane in an insane world full of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption? By examining the themes of melancholy, madness and sanity in Hamlet, Shakespeare details his character’s descent from depression to madness. Additionally, Hamlet’s psychological state can be
This essay is on the book Psychoanalytic Ideas and Shakespeare, edited by Inge Wise and Maggie Mills, Published by Karnac Books , London , 2006 ; research and descriptions by numerous authors who wrote on the writing works of Shakespeare, Freud’s work on the psychological works on Shakespeare in general are used throughout the book . The authors focus on psychopathic fiction characters in six plays Hamlet, Macbeth, twilight nights, King Lear, and the Tempest. The book when you read the reviews and the induction of the book is very misleading, the book should be called interpretations of other authors who have a written on the psychoanalytic some of Shakespeare 's major plays. Whenever Mill and Wise that would give their analysis of what the train meant, to me did not make sense and the same with some of the authors in the book.
If one wants to truly understand the psychological implications of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the primary focus should be on the character Hamlet, and how he develops and modifies throughout the play. Using the fundamentals of the psychoanalytic perspective of critical evaluation, one would be able to truly identify and explore the true nature of Hamlet, and the effects that his character has on the situation surrounding him. In order to gain a true understanding of most of the detail that is implied through Hamlet's way of portraying himself to others, it is vital to look deep into the actions that are carried out, and analyze them psychoanalytically.