He thinks of himself as no one, someone on the periphery of social and political power. Furthermore, he also believes that being black will impact his interactions with people, especially his relationship with Desdemona. The critics who believe that Othello’s skin color is important for the character and for the interpretation of the play also suggest that this is in fact the reason why he experiences lack of confidence. Racism is a powerful issue as Shakespeare presents the color and ethnicities as social constructs that can be made to havoc with one’s own sense of self. The author shaped his character in that way in order to assert that race and implications of being an individual in the position of power push Othello’s into his own self-destruction nature rooted in doubt and fear.
When people of one race believe themselves to be superior to those of another, only catastrophe can result. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, racism was extremely prevalent, and white supremacy was much more pronounced. In William Shakespeare’s play Othello, both covert and overt racism, assimilation, and jealous dispositions all foreshadow the untimely death of Desdemona and Othello. Most characters in Othello display both covert racism and overt racism towards Othello. In the beginning of the play, during the initial dialogue between Brabantio and Roderigo, the first references made of Othello are “his Moorship” and “the Moor,” which is echoed by most of the characters.
Also, each relationship in Othello provokes jealousy in one partner. In a typical Venetian society, a woman was considered to be a man’s property, so if a woman was disobedient, it negatively impacted the man, while also questioning his masculinity. The hyperbolic soliloquy as Othello expressed he would “rather be a toad” than “keep a corner of the thing I love” is Othello’s justification of killing his wife, as her untrustworthiness challenged his masculinity and reputation. Referring to Desdemona as a “thing” emphasises the idea of women being property. Iago’s jealousy of Desdemona and Othello’s relationship is emphasised through the degrading comment of Othello, “an old black ram” “tupping” Brabantio’s “white ewe”.
The Root of All Evil People have a tendency to act crazy when power and love do not go their way. Shakespeare’s Othello is a classic tale of jealousy that negatively influences all actions of each character. However, unlike a dramatic chick-flick watched on Friday nights, jealousy acts as an animal that creates racism, distrust, eats away at the identity of characters, and leads to death within the play. Steve Criniti references Caroline Spurgeon in a book written saying, “the animal images found in Othello are of ‘low status’: ‘insects and reptiles, swarming and preying on each other, not out of special ferocity, but just in accordance with their natural instincts’” (Criniti 117). What he does not mention is jealousy and the devil that is
As a tragic hero, Othello must have a high position to fall from, but his high position must not keep him from being likeable. He must be noble in position and personality. The audience must be able to recognize his humanity, feel sympathy for him, in order to experience the catharsis a tragedy offers. When Othello is forced to defend himself before the duke and senators against Brabantio’s accusation that he used witchcraft to seduce Desdemona, his noble personality is clearly established. Details of his speech, specifically diction, syntax, repetition, imagery, and figurative language, characterize Othello as noble, one worthy of both admiration and sympathy.
For example, Othello is a colored man who is married to a white women, Desdemona. Due to his skin tone, Othello believes he is undermined by the people around him and it leads to a lack of self confidence; this can be noted as one of his many character flaws brought out by Iago. Othello’s confidence level, being lower than normal, makes it easier for Iago to plant false stories in his mind about his wife. Iago won’t stop at just planting false thoughts into Othello’s head, he also targets Desdemona’s father. “IAGO Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/Is tupping your white ewe.
There are four characters in the manga version of Othello that are particularly interesting to look at: First, the main character Othello himself, his wife Desdemona, his right-hand man Cassio and finally the malevolent mastermind behind the chaos, Iago. For the visual analysis, I shall also focus on pages 3-11 of the manga, since they are an exposition of the characters and color. Othello Othello in the original play is a righteous man that has earned himself a high reputation by hard work, even though he has a disadvantage due to his race. He seeks to be virtuous and appears to be calm, collected and fearless. He is loyal to his wife and confident about his own capacity to carry out instructions given by the Venetian court.
Othello is the protagonist and the tragic hero of this tragedy play. Tragedy plays were so common in the Renaissance and they involve the death of the protagonist who is usually a man of high position and exceptional abilities. The death of the tragic hero is brought about by a conflict between him and some powerful force whether it is fate, God or established authority which limits his hope and ambition and destroys him at the end of the play. Othello begins as a respected warrior and hero but ends up as an irrational husband who murders his wife because of his insane jealousy after Iago deceives him and convinces him that his wife was having an affair with his lieutenant, Cassio. Othello is a Moor who has his own insecurities that he thinks of himself as an outsider in the Venetians ' society,
This is a play about Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian armed force. He is a definitive miscreant in this play instead of Iago, the high positioning officer. Most would concur indeed that Iago is without a doubt the antagonist of this sad story. So as to see this, a shallow appraisal of the two main characters in the play; Othello and Iago, should be made. The specialty of investigation all alone rejects the basic simple clarifications yet rather bargains in the mind boggling actualities.
Othello’s Complexity In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, the main protagonist Othello may not be as simple of a character as you might think. This notion stems from two different ideas that create an aura of complexity around Othello’s character. The first idea is that even though Othello is a black man living in Venice during the sixteenth century (a predominantly white and racist city during that time) he is able to obtain a high status in society. The second idea is how drastically different Othello’s personality is at the beginning of the play compared to the end of the play. Throughout the play, the fact that Othello could become the General of Venice becomes more and more astonishing.