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Tragedy in Shakespeare’s Othello

Introduction

Recognized as the greatest playwrights, William Shakespeare had written dozens of dazzling plays, most of which have been turned into movies. Othello, the Moor of Venice is considered as Shakespeare’s ultimate tragedies regarding a black general within an Italian army known as Othello including what transpired between him and Desdemona, his wife (Golden, 2014). Typically, a tragedy is a play that ends unhappily because the author lays most focus on unfortunate events throughout the plot (Oort, 2016). Othello, the Moor of Venice best illustrates this aspect because Shakespeare hinges the plot on disguises and deception while still dealing with love and marriage. This paper will seek to discuss William Shakespeare’s Othello as a tragedy and support Aristotelian view that Othello is a tragic hero.

Analysis

Othello’s setting is that of outside the notion of civilization coupled with a number of supernatural events demonstrated through various characters who contradict the normal or standard rules of society (Golden, 2014). Shakespeare’s Othello, the Moor of Venice consists of various elements of comedy nonetheless, multiple deaths are witnessed towards the ending not withstanding Othello, who is the tragic hero. Shakespeare illustrates Othello as a well-respected individual by the Senate besides being a military hero who is also treasured by his new wife (Shakespeare, 1623). Although he is demonstrated as a controlled, calm and eloquent man, towards the end of the play, Othello surrenders over to the violent jealousy. In fact, towards the ending, Othello was too weak to speak as a result of epileptic fit that he suffered thereby, demonstrating Shakespeare’s success in exemplifying Othello’s advancement to a tragic hero from a military hero (Golden, 2014).

As an Aristotelian tragedy, Shakespeare brings out Othello as a gracious, open hearted and simple soldier who is also doomed (Oort, 2016). Othello was an easy victim because despite having been regarded as a hero by the Senate his simple nature allowed him to fully trust people who he thought were his friends but who, ultimately betrayed him. One friend betrayed Othello because he was self-seeking and weak while the other, through angry malice (Oort, 2016). The audience is able to see that Othello is indeed a dramatic puppet who exhibits or lacks any psychological uniformity from showing love to jealousy because in the end, everyone trusts Lago, the villain, who is the cause for his downfall.

The most conspicuous theme in Othello is ethnicity highlighted through the character of Othello who managed to get to the rank of a general (McCoy, 2013). During the period when the play was written, blacks were considered to be murderous heathens and barbarians. In this case, it was a rare occurrence to have black men to achieve the rank of generally within the army, which was predominantly of Caucasian origin. Othello’s achievement caused a lot of friction with other officers who became extremely jealous, thereby, fueling Lago’s drive to lie as a result of his hatred against Othello (Shakespeare, 1623).

Also, Shakespeare successfully illustrates this hatred and jealousy after Desdemona got married to Othello, which was predominantly uncommon and unaccepted during the period when the play was written (McCoy, 2013). In fact, their marriage sparked anger to other people including Desmona’s father who got extremely furious following his daughter’s decision to marry a moor. To demonstrate his opposition against his daughter’s marriage to the moor, Desmona’s father resulted to present the matter to an Italian court (Shakespeare, 1623). During that period, an individual found to be guilty such as Othello, would have been executed but was permitted to stay married to his wife since he was needed by the army (McCoy, 2013). In this case, the court’s decision successfully emphasized yet another element that led to Lago’s betrayal because Rodrigo obtained a motive of paying Lago for spreading deception and lies against Othello.

Shakespeare has created the theme of trust between Lago and Othello, even though Lago’s duty as a servant invariably annoys him since he hates acting as Othello’s subordinate (McCoy, 2013). However, the audience is shocked when he gladly accepts assignments allocated to him by the general. In fact, the audience grows more suspicious after Iago advices Othello to be careful and not to be jealous so as to surreptitiously allow the flow of calamities planned against him. As a result, Othello tragedy becomes evident through his behavior that seem to have changed following Iago’s negative impact (Shakespeare, 1623). For instance, Othello is no longer a loving and trusting husband because he begun to doubt everything around him and further goes ahead to intentionally create a situation where he could lay blame against his wife for betrayal.

Nonetheless, it is worth to note that despite the fact that Othello is the main tragic figure, Shakespeare has underscored Lago as a predominant and main character throughout the play (Bradley, 2015). Lago’s jealousy against Othello stemmed out after failing to obtain promotion thereby, explaining the revenge plot. As the play progresses, readers are able to see that Lago is in fact a bad man because of his manipulative ways against other characters within the play. In fact, Lago was responsible for the deaths of a number of characters within the play, most of whom were innocent (Bradley, 2015). In order to demonstrate his hatred and hunger for revenge, Shakespeare illustrates Lago killing his own wife after stabbing her and still made plans to revenge against other characters apart from Othello.

Most events within Othello, occur on the Island of Cyprus as opposed to the region of Venice, which is ruled by the Senate (Shakespeare, 1623). While Othello is demonstrated as an individual who is well-spoken and calm within Venice, strong emotions, deception as well as lack of control is predominant in Cyprus. Othello consists of extremely troubling murder scenes compared to various literature written during that period such as during the wedding night between Othello and his new wife, Desdemona (Shakespeare, 1623). In this particular scene, Shakespeare successfully demonstrates how jealousy and unchecked emotions can lead to horrendous consequences.

Characters in Othello are common with many works written by Shakespeare who are unusual to him as evidenced by high intellectual activity coupled with total demand of moral principles (Bradley, 2015). This is particularly evident with the character of Lago who reveals himself as a highly morally individual at the expense of other individuals. In addition, Shakespeare exposes the quest of such individuals who tend to seek to bring about confusion in regards to practical distinction between what is wrong or right. Shakespeare is able to achieve this by referring the character of Lago as an overreached standard of hypothetical or speculative enhancement (Bradley, 2015). Therefore, the aspect of tragedy is revealed through such individuals such as Lago, a poet whose character is revealed as being nicer as opposed to being wise.

Also, Othello has efficaciously painted the eurocentive perspectives regarding African men who are mostly illiterate, barbaric and promiscuous (Adamson, 2017). As such, African men were only good enough because they served the interests of the white man whilst regarded as white men’s property. This notion has been perpetuated through space and time as evidenced by racial discrimination against minor ethnic communities in the modern society. Nonetheless, Shakespeare’s Othello shocks the audience when he presents an African man who is able to contradict extreme stereotypical perspectives and successfully diverges from the norm (Adamson, 2017). Indeed, the African has been demonstrated as literate, civil and more importantly, faithful husbands. In effect, the tragedy highlighted in Othello effectively transcends racial bias and is mainly founded by natural human weakness such as Othello’s lack of self-esteem that makes Lago to effortlessly prey on him.

Shakespeare illustrates the character of Lago as being two-folds through his actions and revenge plans (Adamson, 2017). For instance, after recounting the elopement of Desdemona with Othello to her father, he went ahead to caution Othello against the outrage of Brabantio. The audience is able to see how Lago shrewdly plotted one plan after the other and ended up succeeding therefore, illustrating that people may not be what they appear to be (Adamson, 2017). In this case, the character of Lago plays a significant role in causing tragedy throughout the play. In fact, Lago takes advantage of various events within the play to revenge against Othello such as when the whole army arrived at Cyprus.

Shakespeare demonstrates that Lago is not only shrewd but highly intelligent individual because he is able to recognize the fact that the whole organization regarded Othello as a respectable and worthy man (Adamson, 2017). As such, Lago was careful when uncovering his plot by telling lies about how abhorrently Othello’s character is on the ground because he had to fulfill his plan of crushing Othello’s reputation and life despite his trustworthiness. More importantly, Lago was able to exploit the trust offered to him by Othello, which was a significant flaw in Othello’s character since he is principally a sensible and consistent individual (Adamson, 2017).

Conclusion

Under Othello’s command, Lago who is a soldier is depicted as the main villain in the play. Lago is known to tell plenty of lies regarding Othello’s friend and Desdemona including Cassio, a former right-hand man. Othello, the Moor of Venice is considered a successful play because it is able to highlight several issues that the modern society faces through a number of themes such as betrayal, ethnicity and love. Othello is a tragic hero as demonstrated throughout the play’s plot because he always allowed himself to be controlled by his heart but not his brain whenever he was sincerely or furiously moved by events in his life.

References

Adamson, J. (2017). Othello As Tragedy: Some Problems of Judgement and Feeling. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Bradley, A. C. (2015). Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. New Delhi, India: Atlantic Publishers & Dist.

Golden, L. (2014). Othello, Hamlet, and Aristotelian Tragedy. Shakespeare Quarterly, 35(2), 142. doi:10.2307/2869923

McCoy, R. C. (2013). Othello and the Stakes of Tragedy. Faith in Shakespeare, 82-112. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945764.003.0004

Oort, R. V. (2016). Shakespeare's Big Men: Tragedy and the Problem of Resentment. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Shakespeare, W. (2014). The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. The Oxford Shakespeare: Othello, the Moor of Venice, 191-192. doi:10.1093/oseo/instance.00000011