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Othello Sympathy Essay

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Shakespeare makes the readers feel sympathetic towards Othello to quite an extent, by

highlighting the discrimination against Othello for being an outsider, painting Iago as a

machiavellian character plotting Othello’s demise, and attributing Othello with a Christ like nature.

But Shakespeare’s sympathy evoking portrayal of Othello is often juxtaposed by modern day ideals

that make the readers question whether it his nobility or just mere stupidity that results in his

tragedy.

Shakespeare focuses on Othello’s race, and how that affects him. Most authors around his

time portrayed black people as villains, but Shakespeare uses skin color to create sympathy. He

focuses on Othello’s alienation and maltreatment. Othello is an outsider in …show more content…

On the inside, Othello has internalized the racism and critical astonishment at his

marriage, thus he finds it believable that Desdemona would cheat on him because “I am [Othello is]

black, and have not those soft parts of conversation that chamberers have. Or for I am [he is] declined into the vale of

years” (3.3.265-268).This hamartia created by Shakespeare is sympathetic because it is relatable, as

everybody has insecurities, and those being used against them by a close friend is tragic. It is also

noble, because it is a character flaw of innocence, not corruption or evil. Othello describes

Desdemona’s beauty as a true lover in awe of his wife. Even his violent hatred towards her, and to

let her “rot and perish” (4.1.172) is followed by “the world hath not a sweeter creature!” (4.1.174) So even

when he murders her, he does it because of the ‘honorable’ reason as to save others from being

wooed and then deceived by her charms. When he does find out the reality, and her innocence, he

feels like he was” perplexed in the extreme; one of whose hand, like the base Indian, threw a pearl away”

(5.2.342-343). His guilt is inconsolable and he kills himself. This Christ like action, composed

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