Analysis Of William Shakespeare 's ' Othello '

Fear of cuckoldry is widely known theme in medieval and Renaissance English literature. Fear of cuckoldry was also a widespread fear in English society during those eras. Men often treated their wives as possessions. Once men and women married, divorce was almost impossible, especially since it was almost impossible to prove that one had been cuckolded. If one were cuckolded and one’s wife had another man’s child, one might spend decades taking care of that child and passing on one’s money and belongings to that child without ever knowing that one had been deceived. Unmarried women are seen as their fathers ' property and the play 's two marriages are marked by jealousy and cruelty. Most

In Shakespeare’s play Othello, tragedy unfolds on the account of one man’s actions, Iago. He is a twenty eight year old military veteran from Venice. His personality consists of being obsessive, manipulative, relentless, and bold. From the beginning he expressed his hatred towards the Moor, or North African named Othello. Othello is a highly respected general and is also married to the pure Desdemona. The marriage between Othello and Desdemona is destroyed due to Iago’s actions and lies. His actions consist of getting Michael Cassio discharged as lieutenant and convincing the Moor that his wife is cheating on him. The motives Iago has for despising Othello are he passed him over for a promotion to be his lieutenant, instead he chose

Here stands Othello, a noble military general, a respectfully brave and rather important leader of Venice, who is ironically seen as an outsider because of the color of his skin. He is referred to as a “Moor”- or black North African native, who evolves from a robust, resilient and determined military leader to a misguided murderer, all for the reason of love, jealousy, and ignorance at the hands of someone he considers a comrade.

Othello speaks to Iago in Act Three of the play saying, “certain, men should be what they seem” (3.3.131). This excerpt foreshadow events in which Othello will begin to question the actions and morality of Cassio and Desdemona, all orchestrated by Iago’s scheming nature. This is a very important concept to showcase because Othello devoutly loves Desdemona and trusts Cassio until conniving language from Iago causes him to think otherwise. Drawing on Shakespeare’s source story by Cinthio and other outside sources, textual information can be gathered to explore major concerns of “Othello”. Throughout this essay, I will present textual evidence from multiple sources examining the central concerns of the play, which include identity and revenge.

The play Othello bears great similarity to that of the Greek myth of Sisyphus, the king of Ephyra; where Sisyphus was sentenced to forever push a boulder up a hill. This makes resemblances the climb to a climax and the fall, with three main characters, each pushing a boulder up a hill; Othello one of trust, Iago one of manipulation and Roderigo pushing one of foolishness. When they finally reach the top of the hill it begins to roll down the other side, with nothing able to stop it. Character flaws are the fault for the characters’ self-demise. Shakespeare 's Othello has many characters and each of his characters is given a character flaw.

The Dramatic play entitled Othello is an unusual story full of jealousy, dark misunderstandings, lies, and regrets. Following Aristotle 's definition of a true tragedy, where does the tale of Othello fall? Is Othello too dramatic too be considered a tragedy or does it barely fall along the lines of tragic?

Can love--or what we imagine to be love-- sometimes inspire the most terrible of crimes?  Human emotion is often messy and often without defining lines. Can instinct alone impair our reason, or can a third deadly emotion mar all? In “Othello”, Shakespeare bids us look at some ugly facets of the human psyche and how what is beautiful and good can be twisted and destroyed in the name of self-interest and damning pride.

Analyzing a play can be quite difficult, especially older texts that can be convoluted. In my high school year, it wasn’t until senior year until I fully understood what all was in Shakespeare’s plays. This also goes for many texts that had religious undertones, which was a pain because I grew up in a Christian home. I could never find those small details that others could. Now, in college, I am more capable to finding these symbolic words, objects, or actions. Throughout the assignments in my theatre class, I was able to find these undertones and pieces of symbolism in the plays of Everyman, by Peter van Diest, and Othello, by William Shakespeare, the easiest to explain. If you were like me in high school, this essay might be able to help hone your ability to see these symbolisms easier. This analysis will go over the strong religion behind the play of Everyman, and the idea of “the Other” in the play Othello.

Othello by William Shakespeare tells the story of Othello who is described as a great pilot in the beginning by Cassio,

In this life that we live, many different individuals go about their business without considering the individual struggles that they have to deal with. According to dictionary.com, a struggle is defined as, “a forceful/violent attempt or effort to get free from restraint or contrition”. Some of these personal struggles are more pronounced than other. From Othello, the tragedy by William Shakespeare, we can see how humans are faced with individual contentions, and their daily actions are ways and efforts of trying to free themselves. In the discussion below we consider Othello’s struggle with being different, gullibility, timidity, inferiority, pride and selfishness and Iago’s conniving personality, hate, greed, manipulation, selfishness and slander

Shakespeare establishes an outsider in several of his plays and whether certain groups are considered to be “insiders” or “outsiders”. He displays this theme by Othello being a general of color living in Venice who must balance being a Moor and a Venetian. Othello demonstrates many times in the play his struggle to balance each of these roles. He is put into situations that call out characteristics from both personas, which affect the way he communicates with various characters throughout the play. The Venetian stereotype of a cruel and ignorant black man and the educated and broad-minded Christian military leader shine through in his interactions and conversations with other people. Othello’s struggles send him into madness which

Some things in which I noticed about the Othello play was the act of racism toward him which didn’t only come from Iago but as well as most characters in the play. When the play started we don’t even know Othello’s name, all we know is that he is different and Dark skinned. Because of this, despite any emphasis talked about on race from other characters, we can be easily argued that race is not, while the play goes one, a main focus at all but in fact shown that this story could have been easily told weather Othello was bad or a white man. A two white male of Desdemona’s father, Brabanzio, and saying he has been robbed by “thieves.”. With that being said Iago speaks in flammable terms, seriously telling Brabanzio that his daughter and Othello

From the play, Othello, by William Shakespeare I had concluded that, due to Iago’s evil nature, he had set-up the fate of Othello and Desdemona and this is because he wanted revenge on Othello. Surprisingly I have found that some critics disagree with this or they contradict it with different explanations as to why they think otherwise. As Othello is such a complex play, there can be many interpretations and arguments between critics creating a cause for multiple meanings. The critics that I will be discussing about will be William Marginn (1987), Bell, Millicent (1997) and Fred West (1978) which all are at different time periods. The critics tend to have interesting observations on Iago’s motives, acknowledging insight of his character and provide a reason to explain about his actions, which had affected both Desdemona and Othello later on tragically. All of these critics had very independent views on the nature of Iago, which had broadened possibilities and ideas for my understanding towards his motives, and on why he was so against Othello.

Writers have been responsible for providing wisdom and entertainment through their literature since the first known published work. However, for many centuries the writer has also been seen to have a diagnostic function, scrutinizing the ills of their society and portraying them for the world to see. William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, was an English playwright, poet and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world 's most distinguished dramatist. His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems and a few other verses. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, past and present. One of the most famous examples of these plays is the tragedy of “Othello”, believed to have been written in approximately 1603. The work revolves around four central characters; Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army; his new wife, Desdemona; his lieutenant, Cassio; and his trusted ensign, Iago. Throughout the play of “Othello”, William Shakespeare diagnoses and portrays two ills within his own society, which are undeniably still present in society today. Shakespeare portrays the issues of prejudice against race and prejudice against gender. In this essay I will discuss how, through the play of “Othello”, Shakespeare portrays these still current themes as well as how they were huge issues within the

ago is able to manipulate different characters throughout Othello by appearing to be honest and trust worthy, and using this to make people believe what he is saying is the truth. This means that Iago can tell them what he wants, in order to achieve whatever he desires. Simply, Iago is a two-faced character. A very ironic part of the play is when Iago says, “By Janus”, as Janus is a two- faced roman god.