In many of William Shakespeare’s plays, the main problem or conflict in the plot or subplots almost always comes by means of a human vice, which is often combined with an external force or influence. In Othello, for instance, the main problem is Othello’s jealousy for Desdemona, all because Iago has wrongly convinced Othello of her unfaithfulness. In one of the Twelfth Night subplots, Malvolio’s pride combines with the mischievous schemes of Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria, resulting in the conviction of Malvolio as a madman. This same pattern can be clearly seen in Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s most famous works. In Macbeth, the main conflict in the story is brought about through the meddling of three witches, who prophesy that Macbeth has become the thane of Cawdor and will later be crowned as the king of Scotland, positions which Macbeth had never even considered before. After having the position of thane bestowed upon him, Macbeth, totally consumed by the vices of greed, ambition, and lust for power, forsakes all of his morals in order to make the second prophecy a reality. The storyline starts off with relative order, descends into disorder and chaos, and the entire plot seems to self-correct back into order with the death of Macbeth at the end of the story. Macbeth exhibits the common pattern of order giving way to disorder correcting back to order that is prevalent across several of Shakespeare’s other works, and the causes and reasons for the disorders are brought
Love is complicated due to the fact that there is a difference of opinion and perception and it is complicated because people see stuff in different ways and interpret things differently as well. In the 3 texts dissatisfaction or complication is shown. Firstly in Othello love is presented as ephemeral and transient while atonement love is presented as unrequited and finally in cat on a hot tin roof love is presented as painful and troublesome due to unreciprocated feelings.
William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice presents a man who is undone by his own insecurities, as well as strong female characters who lead to the downfall of the men. The character of Othello allows others to control how he feels and this leads to a tragedy that could have been prevented. The source of this tragedy comes from within himself. His character is completely wrapped up in his wife Desdemona’s character and interestingly enough, as soon as her character starts to decline from the words of Iago, so does Othello’s. Unable to stand on his own, Othello is more concerned with outwardly appearances than Desdemona. He puts more pressure on her, than he does himself in regards to his character and how he
Love and jealousy are powerful emotions that can induce behavior that would otherwise not normally be warranted. In Othello, The Moor Of Venice, jealousy is a very important component of the play. Iago uses jealousy to control the Moor, Othello, into committing various acts against his wife, Desdomona, and one of his soldiers, Cassio. It can be deduced that the sheer power of jealousy is the most important theme in Othello because the play shows how a strong General, such as Othello, is subject to this malicious emotion and its trickery, how the strong emotion of love can be transformed into the omnipotent emotion of jealousy, and how jealousy can shroud the truth.
Perhaps the most interesting and exotic character in the tragic play "Othello," by William Shakespeare, is "Honest" Iago. Through some carefully thought-out words and actions, Iago is able to manipulate others to do things in a way that benefits him and moves him closer toward his goals. He is the main driving force in this play, pushing Othello and everyone else towards their tragic end. Iago is not your ordinary villain. The role he plays is rather unique and complex, far from what one might expect. Iago is smart.
Love is probably the most important factor in today 's society. That Love can drive us forward, love can drive us back. In Shakespeare 's Othello, the villainous character Iago maintains a well diverse, and deceptive character in the play. Using only his words, we see how he puts magic into the play, to help it move forward and evolve. That we get to see his true identity as he has homoerotic feelings towards Othello. We see Iago try to use his power of speech to try to pursue Othello, but we see him never have gotten close as Othello ignore his advances. That his very own words prevent him from ever be one with Othello. Iago getting rejected for Lieutenancy and at the same time Desdemona being Othello 's closes advisor fuels his rage and drive his vengeance to end Cassio, Desdemona and Othello for all the pain they caused him. Throughout the play we see Iago uses the power of his tongue, the words that roll off of it to seek revenge on them. At the same time he uses words to mask his true feelings towards Othello. That His very words will show his homosexual desire more evident, as he plants sexual scenes into Othello 's head in an effort to pursue him through speech and conversation.
We endure struggles everyday with race that are no different than those that which occurred in Othello written by William Shakespeare. Throughout the play Othello, we see the struggles of a marriage that is not accepted by their society. Othello is a extremely cherished black general living in a primarily white community. The play begins with Othello secretly becoming married to a white woman named Desdemona. This reasons others who are white to become angry and excuse to dislike this black man further more than they already do. Othello is a downward spiral from love, to jealousy, to betrayal, and then ending in a massacre.
William Shakespeare’s plays transcends time and is renowned for their captivating plots and complex characters. Othello by William Shakespeare is a tragedy play that portrays major themes such as racism, manipulation, and jealousy just to name a few. Throughout the whole play, these themes are represented through the conniving character from the play, Iago. Out of all the plays Shakespeare has written, Iago is believed to be the most complex villain of all times. During the play, Othello, a black military commander of the Venetian military of Italy and also a close trustworthy friend to Iago, gives Michael Cassio the general second commander spot instead of Iago. This angers Iago because he was expecting the position instead of Cassio, he
In Shakespeare’s Othello, the titular character, an honorable Venetian general, is driven to madness through the deceptions of his honest right hand Iago. Iago plots to ruin Othello and through his deception, he fuels Othello’s insecurities through implanting the idea of infidelity of his beloved wife Desdemona. Othello goes on to murder his wife, and after he discovers Iago’s plot, he kills himself. In a time when women were looked down upon, Shakespeare crafted a drama in which women took part in major roles. Modeled by Elizabethan England the women in Othello were portrayed in a light justified by society as in Othello, these women were nothing more to than objectified possessions, forced to submit to the ever dying will of their husbands. This is displayed by Desdemona and Emilia’s and relationships with their husbands.
How much is too much?? We can see, Othello serving as an example to demonstrate the expectations of a woman in the society, the practice of privileges in male-controlled marriages, and the suppression and restriction of femininity throughout the play. According to Shakespeare 's society built upon beliefs, women were meant only to be married. As their only occupation, marriage held massive responsibilities of house management and child nurturing. Additionally, women were expected to be silent, untainted, and obedient to their husbands, and all men in general. In our societies women 's subordination is the natural order because women were thought to be physiologically and psychologically inferior to men.
At one point in our lives, we have all disguised our true identity and pretended to be someone we are not. We all have sat abaft a screen pretending to be the antithesis sex, or just someone innominate in order to get our true feelings and emotions out. Similarly, Shakespeare utilizes the theme of disguise in countless plays, specifically in As you like it and Twelfth Night. Although many may postulate that he has disguised certain characters as the opposite gender solely for comedic purposes, the reason behind it is significantly deeper and complex. By disguising the actors as the opposite gender, also known as cross-dressing, Shakespeare introduces incipient views on femininity and sexuality, views that were unmentionable in the Elizabethan times. It’s virtually as if Shakespeare is endeavoring to break the rules of society, break the rules of gender roles and sexuality roles. He represents women and sexuality in a way that was unacceptable in that time in society, but his purpose of doing this is to open up the minds of society to be more accepting of these gender and sexuality roles. He is accentuating to females, that you don 't have to pretend to be all lady like with your pinky out as you drink tea, and though there may not have been many known homosexuals back then, Shakespeare uses cross-dressing to show that society should start to get comfortable with same sex couples as well. Both, As you like it and Twelfth Night utilize disguises to portray these viewpoints,
In any story, the antagonist always scheme their way into getting what they want by any means necessary. In Shakespeare’s play, Othello, Iago is a prime example of this. In fact, he is one of the greatest villains Shakespeare has ever created. Some even believe that he is the source of immorality like in other work Shakespeare has done. According to Sholokhov and Tolstoy, author Helen Muchnic states that the Vice of the morality plays who evolved into Shakepheare’s Iago. He also states that “If Iago, like Falstaff, may be considered a continuation of the Vice figure, he seems, also like Falstaff, to elude the role at every point.” But besides this, Iago is indirectly responsible for the deaths of Othello, Desdemona, and Roderigo. Every act in Othello contains an evil plot set up by Iago. It is ironic because throughout the play he is known as “Honest Iago”(II.iii.7). The readers are the only spectators that understand Iago’s true feelings. Each character believes that he is a trustworthy and noble man, but they are unaware of his thoughts and schemes. Iago is so wicked because he takes advantage of people; he lies while making himself look admirable and he is able to manipulate characters through his words and actions. A very formidable character that can easily do harm without blinking an eye.
William Shakespeare’s play of tragedy, Othello, has an abundant bulk of dynamic characters throughout the duration of the play. The eventuality of the grievous end in Othello could have transpired contrastingly different, assuming a particular character procured a bit of empathy. The antagonist, Iago, and ancient of Othello could have shown a little deeper empathy towards his wife Emilia, from the start to finish of the play. If Iago had shown empathy he would not have suffered a crushing defeat and instead would acquire the revenge he so furtively devised without anybody at all gleaning his traitorous behavior. The first chance Iago missed, in using a little empathy towards his wife, was when Emilia found Desdemona’s handkerchief on the floor.
Women, especially Desdemona but Emilia as well, are obviously targets of male violence in Othello. For some reason Shakespeare’s play often put the emphasis on the role of the female characters and their influence on the main male characters. For instance, the result of the passionate love of Romeo for Juliet, the effect of Ophelia’s insanity had on hamlet, and so on. In Othello, Shakespeare made Desdemona and the other women in the play no different; Othello’s jalousie and love made the play a tragedy. Shakespeare made Desdemona the faithful wife of Othello. She was such a kindhearted and wished to make everything work even when the situation where she lost her handkerchief she tried to fix the situation and calming Othello. However, her innocent sympathy towards Cassio made lago’s lies more credible. Overall, one can say that her naïve nature causes her to become a target for the men in the play.
Throughout the tragedy of Othello Shakespeare does an impressive job of quickly introducing and manipulating his main characters. His talents are no less when it comes to the creation and development of Emilia. Though it appears that Emilia is both a loyal and obedient wife, her actions speak much louder than her words. When Emilia betrays the sisterhood within the play of Othello much is revealed to the reader regarding her character. Through close reading and interpretation the reader may come to the realization that Emilia possessed a dangerously low self-esteem, never honestly loved someone wholeheartedly, and ultimately, acted out of jealousy of Desdemona.
In a historical time period where emphasis was shifting from religion to race and ethnicity, key indicators of differences that perpetuated into racial prejudice and racial ideologies are evident in Othello by William Shakespeare. Although racism was not fully formed at this moment in history, Othello can be interpreted as a representation and an exploration of this shift in ideology. In the past, before this change toward racial differences, religion was the major segretory factor in signifying prejudice towards certain religious groups primarily Islam as a threat to European Christians. Although modern racial ideologies are mostly influenced by European imperialism and colonialism, the justification for their exploitation of indigenous conquered groups required some form of racist ideology. Physical characteristics became “racial markers” which Europeans believed were natural differences that represented inherent internal characteristics. Othello the character and Shakespeare the author are intertwined in this shifting paradigm during this major transformation of ideology from religion to racial prejudice.