The emotion shown by characters in a play appeals to an audience, the emotional impact characters have on us makes them interesting and attractive as in a way, emotion is the universal glue that binds us together. Emotional quality within a character hooks the audience by taking them through a series of different feelings throughout the play allowing the audience to relate to both the positive and negative qualities of the character’s search for meaning. This allows the audience to connect with the characters, therefore, breaking down the wall between characters, players and the audience. ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare portrays the progressive downfall of a noble soldier due to his over-emotional nature and self-pride. ‘Othello’ is a play that portrays a manipulative antagonist, Iago plants the seed of doubt in Othello’s mind about his wife supposedly committing adultery. Othello is emotionally innocent and naive which makes it easy for Iago to plant a seed of doubt in his mind, as he begins to distrust his wife and leads to his eventual downfall. This chaotic emotional journey evokes an array of emotion within the audience as they watch and pity Othello’s fated journey and cruel ending. Goodness and innocence in the form of Desdemona does not triumph. The conflicting emotional ground swell stirred up by this dichotomy grips and appeals to our own emotional life. Othello is a tragic character skilfully crafted to show his heroic and noble nature. Iago and Brabantio,
Human as the main body stream of the society, their spiritual world is extremely complex and rich, these varieties of human nature shape us unique and distinct from each other. Real human nature has both human creativity and limitations, the imperfections in a person’s characteristics sometimes will perform negatively but in some cases, it won’t harm the whole character’s image. The Shakespearean play Othello reflects the profound social contradictions of the Renaissance, and William Shakespeare develops the idea of one’s ruling passion would falsely leading to the tragic path and creating misunderstandings between loved ones which will act as a double-edged sword that not only harms other but later on will harm oneself. This idea is showing through three main characters of the play, Othello, Iago, and Desdemona; Othello’s ruling passion leading to his jealousy which blinds his logic and gentle nature, Iago’s cruelty in order accomplishes his intelligence which gives him a weapon of language to manipulate people with his ruling passion, Desdemona and her sweet kindness motivates her ruling passion for helping Cassio without noticing her husband's transformation which later caused her own death.
The highly emotional scenes in Othello give the audience a means of catharsis for the audience. It is necessary for this to transpire within a tragedy. H.A. Kelly writes in his book “Ideas And forms Of Tragedy From Aristotle To The Middle Ages” that “the representation generates certain passions in souls that moderate themselves, to pitying or fearing.” The reader connects with the powerful emotions of sadness in the story. The overwhelming feelings allow the reader to let out the suppressed feelings in a way that is allegedly therapeutic. Furthermore, Professor W.A. Neilson of Harvard University says “This is in part due to the splendor of its poetry, the absorbing nature of the plot, and the vividness of the drawing of characters who marvelously combine individuality with a universal and typical quality that makes them appeal to people of all kinds and races.” In the tragic story of Othello and Desdemona, pain and heartache is a paramount emotion from the beginning through to the end of the play. For example, the story begins with Iago and Roderigo enacting their plan to tell Desdemona’s unknowing father, Brabantio, of her marriage to Othello. Brabantio then becomes irate with emotions of anger and betrayal. In scene III, he expresses these emotions while addressing the Duke and a handful of senators by saying “She is abused, stol’n from me and corrupted.” (Shakespeare) The reader can connect and
The ability of passion to bring destruction upon the lives of the unsuspecting is illustrated in Shakespeare’s Othello with the use of both manipulation and deceit. The curse of fierce passion fell namely on Othello as he transitioned from a respected general to an unstable murderer. His downfall is demonstrated through his increasing self-doubt, lack of ability to articulate, and violence. In the start of the play, he is an accomplished general and happy newlywed, and has yet to be significantly held back due to his being a Moor and outsider in Venetian society. As passion overtakes him, however, Othello truly ingrains the idea that he is less than, and those around him begin to blame his actions on the nature of his ethnicity. He has completely lost his identity to his desires and is unable to think rationally. Shakespeare juxtaposes this version of Othello with his initial composed self in Venice to demonstrate the damage of ignorance to logic and heighten the sense of tragedy. The effects of an overwhelming passion involving love, jealousy, and revenge are shown through Othello’s degradation and loss of stability.
Othello, a play that was written in 1604 by William Shakespeare, is an example of a type of story called a “tragedy.” Throughout the course of the work, Othello proves himself to be very easily misled, despite his heroic status. This causes him to lose his ability to make good judgments and decisions. Even though Othello had a reputation as a hero, he ends up being one of the most gullible characters in the play when he completely falls into the evil trap that Iago set for him. As the story unfolds Othello’s character evolves in an extremely tragic way as Iago manipulates him and leaves him to rot in his misery. Eventually, this leads to Othello’s suicide.
Having high status and being respected really helps the idea of a tragic hero. Othello is a man of high rank in Venice. He is the general of the Venetian army and a well respected man by the towns noble men. People
"Othello is essentially an noble character, flawed by insecurity and a nature that is naive and unsophisticated". Looking at William Shakespeare's Othello The Moor Of Venice, the central character, Othello is revered as the tragic hero. He is a character of high stature that is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. His destruction is essentially precipitated by his own actions, as well as by the actions of the characters surrounding him. The tragedy of Othello is not a fault of a single villain, but is rather a consequence of a wide range of feelings, judgments and misjudgments, and attempts for personal justification exhibited by all of the participants. Othello is first shown as a hero of war and a man of
In William Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello is the tragic hero. He is a character of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. His destruction is essentially precipitated by his own actions, as well as by the actions of the characters surrounding him. The tragedy of Othello is not a fault of a single villain, but is rather a consequence of a wide range of feelings, judgments and misjudgments, and attempts for personal justification exhibited by the characters. Othello is first shown as a hero of war and a man of great pride and courage. As the play continues, his character begins to deteriorate and become less noble. Chronologically through the play, Othello’s character
Shakespeare is known for his use of recurring themes throughout his work, including love, death and betrayal. These themes are present in his work of Othello. However, the most fundamental issue is jealousy. The lives of the characthers in Othello are ruined by jealousy from the beginning to the end of the play. The telling of the story is carried out by passion, jealousy, and death. Shakespeare’s Othello reveals devastating tragic inevitability, stunning psychological depth, and compelling poetic depth; the fragility and mysterious power of love, as well as demons of doubt, and how suspicion can be triggered by manipulative villain (Barthelemy 12).
The extent of which Othello is a tragic hero has been open to much debate; the basis on which he is judged falls to Aristotle’s established view of the crucial elements that distinguish whether a person is truly tragic. According to Aristotle, a tragic protagonist is a nobleman or person from high status, who contributes to his own demise and illustrates a flaw or weakness in judgment. The tragic protagonist must make a fall from a high state of being to a low state or death. The tragic hero’s downfall, said Aristotle, was brought upon by some error of judgement. Aristotle’s theory is not the final word on tragedy, however it can support in pinpointing the pivotal traits in
Tragedy is an intrinsically human concept; tragic heroes are damned by what they themselves do. Othello is not so much felled by the actions of Iago, but by a quality all people possess-- human frailty. Accordingly, Othello is not a victim of consequences, but an active participant in his downfall. He is not merely a vehicle for the machinations of Iago; he had free agency. Othello's deficiencies are: an insecure grasp of Venetian social values; lack of critical intelligence, self-knowledge, and faith in his wife; and finally, insecurity-- these are the qualities that lead to his own downfall.
Emotions have some control over our actions. However, there are other factors that influence what we do. In the play Othello though, emotions have way more power over the characters' actions. For example, the actions committed by characters consumed by love are greatly amplified. Another example of this is that the characters in the play that are consumed by jealousy go to far greater lengths than one normally would to quench their thirst for vengeance. The last instance that proves this is that the actions of characters overcome by despair are based solely on their hopelessness. These three points all help to show that in the play Othello, Shakespeare exaggerates how much our actions are affected by the major emotions of love, jealousy,
Though the name of the play written by William Shakespeare is called "Othello," the character Othello is not the main character, but rather Iago is. Iago is the character who drives the play, he is the one who makes things happen. Without his greed and hated, there would be no play at all. The whole play is centered around Iago's revenge and in doing so, he is willing to make other people's lives miserable. Through "Othello," Iago uses the other characters to avenge the wrong doings which Othello has inflicted upon him, and will go to any means to do so.
In Shakespeare?s play Othello, Othello himself is the tragic hero. He is an individual of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. His destruction is essentially precipitated by his own actions, as well as by the actions of the characters surrounding him. The tragedy of Othello is not a fault of a single person, but is rather the consequence of a wide range of feelings, judgments, misjudgments, and attempts for personal justification revealed by the characters.
William Shakespeares Othello uses different and unique techniques in his language to express the nature of evil throughout the play. Verbal twists and the characters most importantly stress the act of evil. Iago, most of all is portrayed as the villain or protagonist in the play. Shakespeare uses this character to set the basis of evil. Each plot point is spiraled further into tragedy due to the nature of Iago and his manipulative language towards the other main characters.
"The Tragedy of Othello Written by William Shakespeare" highlights a variety of ways in which males and females reacted to intense situations." The emotions of the characters changed from the start of Act 1, the end of Act 1, and continued as the story of Othello progressed. In Act 1, the main protagonist named Othello started off conveying the emotion of happiness because he and his wife Desdemona were newlyweds. Othello was the general of the army of Venice. Iago, who was a soldier desired the rank of lieutenant, but Othello skipped over him and chose Cassio as the lieutenant even though Cassio had no experience in war but was exceptionally knowledgeable. Iago feels envious towards Cassio gaining the rank he wanted, Iago decided to work with Roderigo, a man who loves Desdemona, to pressure Brabantio, Desdemonas’ father, into thinking Othello used a “magic charm” to build up Desdemonas’ love for him. ("The Tragedy of Othello Written by Shakespeare” Book) In addition to Iago’s actions, Brabantio conveying anger approached Othello by accusing him instead of talking to him calmly. Brabantio told Desdemona of the rumor and asked: “who do you choose?” Meaning, she had to pick either her husband or her father. Desdemona projecting love towards her husband chose Othello. In conclusion to Desdemona's actions, it appeals to the reader that the female character represents