Hatred And Cruelty In William Shakespeare's Othello

In William Shakespeare’s play, Othello, the playwright presents us a story of love turned bad by unfounded envy. The play brilliantly introduces the main protagonist’s wife, Desdemona, as a perplexing character, assiduously illustrating her metamorphosis from a heroically courageous and defiantly audacious woman of power to a quiet, weak and passive maiden, essentially reflecting on the conventional role of women as well as the changing role of women during the Elizabethan Age. Nevertheless, Desdemona, a character commonly misunderstood to be an innocent, passively submissive, angelic-like woman who can do no wrong, consists of many more qualities that can certainly add to her true characterization as a brave and defiant heroine. Primarily, Shakespeare introduces Desdemona as an Elizabethan gentlewoman who challenges the classical and established role of women in her conservational society with her fortitude, frankness, and bravery.

In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political factor. In the play Othello by Shakespeare cruelty functions as a crucial motivation, creating a theme of being careful with who can be trusted because, you never know if they’re telling the whole truth. Throughout the play, diction, dramatic irony, and characterization were used to further emphasis the theme.

Shakespeare’s play ‘Othello’, set in early Venice, focuses on the key relationship between titular character Othello and his wife Desdemona, to comment on the human condition through the text. The relationship between the married couple allows us to understand Shakespeare’s commentary on human nature, particularly how humans are inherently selfish, prone to falling victim to jealousy, and are made both stronger and weaker by their emotions.

The tragedy of Othello, written by William Shakespeare, presents the main character Othello, as a respectable, honorable, and dignified man, but because of his insecurities and good nature, he is easily taken advantage of and manipulated by his peers and alleged friends. The dynamic of Othello’s character significantly changes throughout the play. The contrast is most pronounced from the beginning of the play to its conclusion, switching from being calm and peaceful to acts of uncontrolled venomous rage. Othello’s motivation in the play appears to be his love and concern for his wife Desdemona, which ironically, ends up being his downfall in the end.

“We must sympathize with a man to avoid crying for him.” William Shakespeare’s, Othello is concerning a character who raised emotion in the reader through his oblivious, yet innocent nature. Shakespeare imbued him with such personality so as to create sympathy and contempt side by side. Shakespeare’s characters mostly are not unicoloured but rather surrounded by shades of grey and it is this imperfection that adds a tinge of realism to them. Othello, is no different. Throughout the play, we are introduced to his dark side time and again but the qualities that truly make the audience weep and feel for him is his love for Desdemona and his trust in Iago’s friendship. The fact that he is so gullible and ignorant towards Iago’s motives almost makes

Shakespeare mocks society’s extreme measures by suggesting death as the sole option for Othello when he fails to understand that Desdemona may not fit female stereotypes. Without the ability to label her, Othello fails to “assert Desdemona’s chastity and corruptibility simultaneously” and “murders Desdemona to redeem her from degradation” (Neely). The characters, like many people, struggle to alter views that have been so firmly pressed into their minds. In this way, Shakespeare negatively comments on humans’ inabilities to see beyond what society tells them and to comprehend truths unique to a specific person rather than his gender roles. Shakespeare uses the characters Desdemona and Othello to display how people become accustomed to the gender identities that society defines for them. Therefore, both characters, as depicted by their deaths, fail to understand each other personally as individuals instead of as the stereotypical man or woman that is being presented.

Othello is not hurt because of a failing love, but because of how it makes him look and hurts his pride. This is when things get ugly. Othello puts more trust in Iago than in his own wife. This is due, in part, to Iago's manipulative skills, but mostly to Othello's lack of communication skills, especially with his wife. But Desdemona does not do anything to mediate the situation and lets the condition escalate, and her self-blaming attitude only perpetuates Othello's misgiven notion that she has been falsely accused . After Othello strikes her in front of the whole dinner party, and orders her around like a peasant,

It would be difficult for anyone to come to terms with such contradictory notions of themselves, and Othello is no exception. Once Iago sets the stage for Othello?s fall, the negative emotions aroused in the general cause him to release the lunatic black man that the insiders have feared lies within ?The Moor?s? austere composure. Many critics have suggested that Othello?s extreme jealousy is what amounts to his belief in Iago?s twisted tale of Desdemona?s infidelity and thus his ultimate downfall; however, it seems more likely that it is Othello?s insecurity over his sense of self that allows this manipulation to amount to such an extreme representation of character. Othello himself admits ?Rude am I in my speech? (I.iii.81), failing to have the confidence to eloquently explicate his relationship with Desdemona, although his words prove him to possess quite an impressive mastery of the English language. He comments again on his

Daringly, Shakespeare opens this tragedy of love not with a direct and sympathetic portrayal of the lovers themselves, but with a scene of vicious insinuation about their marriage. The images employed by Iago to describe the coupling of Othello and Desdemona are revoltingly animalistic, sodomistic. [. . .] This degraded view reduces the marriage to one of utter

Ironically, this foreshadows Iago’s plan becoming a success because in reality Othello has a generous and faithful wife but Iago’s mind games have warped his sense of reality. His outrage can be linked to his perception of reality because as soon as he loses the love of his life he loses control of his own. Now that he is self-conscious and mistrusting of the most stable point in his life it is clear that he is going to take this to the extreme. Still, Desdemona continues to submit without question to Othello and still has all the love in the world for her husband despite his

In Shakespeare’s play “Othello” the main characters Othello and Desdemona suffer a tragic fate due to their actions and unforeseen circumstances. A majority of Desdemona’s suffering is down to Iago’s manipulation. However, it could also be argued that Iago is not completely to blame for the misfortune of Desdemona. We as the readers can see evidence of this at certain points in the play where Iago has planted the seeds of despair and Desdemona and Othello have fallen for his plans. In this essay, I will look at key moments in the play where Desdemona is presented as a tragic victim by the writer and justify why she is a tragic victim using quotes from the play.

Desdemona is the innocent and beautiful wife of Othello. She defies what her father Brabantio thinks about marrying Othello and boldly does so anyway. “The courage on both sides in marrying outside their race and social class testifies to the mutual trust and love which lie behind their marriage vows”(Caro, 17). Her naïve personality, however leaves her exposed to those who have learned how to take advantage of others, like Iago. He takes advantage of Desdemona’s good-hearted nature in order to manipulate the image that Desdemona is cheating on Othello with Cassio.

William Shakespeare’s play Othello is a play with a theme of love and jealousy. During Othello’s final speech to Desdemona it becomes clear that Othello’s motives for killing Desdemona is purely based on jealousy and love. After hearing Iago’s false tales of Desdemona’s “affair” Othello becomes enraged with Desdemona and refuses to acknowledge her side of the story. He loves her so much he can’t bear to see her cheat on him, this is clear after analyzing the speech in act V scene V lines 1- 25.

Jews are unfortunately the popular group to be picked on. This goes way back in history. The Jews are accused of being the killers of Jesus which I believe is the main reason they are hated to this degree. Many people are probably band wagon haters and only hate Jews for the fact many people hate them. They probably may not even know the reason they are even hated on. They just follow the crowd. Other big influencers could be Adolf Hitler and William Shakespeare. In many of Shakespeare’s acts, the actors displayed much hatred against Jews like in “The Merchant of Venice” play I saw at the Miller Outdoor Stadium. Adolf Hitler’s voice was so persuasive and direct that some of that energy still lingers in some people today and they kill Jews as

Shakespeare’s play Othello reveals how lives and relationships are ruined by jealousy and betrayal. The story takes place during a time that is referred to as an Elizabethan society in the 15th century. It is referred to as Elizabethan because that was the time of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. It is also sometimes called the Golden Age in history. During this time the arts were extremely popular. In this era woman were not considered the equivalent of men. They were expected to become wives, take care of home and have babies. They were treated as inferior to men and were supposed to obey them and to be quiet and not voice their own opinions. Two of the female characters are Desdemona and Emilia. Desdemona and Emilia are both strikingly beautiful women with distinct personalities. Desdemona is naïve and innocent while Emilia is more abrasive because she is older and has experienced things that Desdemona has not. These two women live extremely different lifestyles because of their social status. They eventually became friends and shared stories about their troubled relationships with their husbands. Even though they are friends she betrays Desdamona by giving Iago her handkerchief. By displacing the handkerchief Iago was able to brainwask Othello and manipulate him into believing that his wife was cheating on him.