In a modern relationship, if a person was unfaithful to their partner, a divorce would be a common solution. However, when a Moor man believed his Venetian wife was unfaithful, he murdered her in their wedding bed. Was death too serious a punishment? Not in the eyes of the Moor. This theme of fidelity and trust is the most prominent of the many themes presented by Shakespeare in his play, “Othello.” By breaking the trust between Othello and Desdemona, Iago succeeds in obtaining his revenge and destroying his greatest adversary. When Othello married his beloved Desdemona at the beginning of the play, the two were deeply in love and their faith in each other seemed unbreakable. As he is accused of stealing Brabantio’s daughter with witchcraft, …show more content…
Iago attempts to put thoughts in Othello’s head to make his distrust his wife. At first, Othello replies with, “I do not think but Desdemona’s honest,” but after a while he begins to give in and cannot stop thinking about this issue, later leading to an epilepsy. The more and more corrupted thoughts that Iago fills Othello’s mind with, the more Othello doubts Desdemona’s fidelity. Growing like a flame, Othello’s doubt changes to distrust, then to anger. He stated that, “her name that was as fresh as Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black as mine own face.” Othello finally decides that, “she’s gone, I am abused, and my relief must be to loathe her.” Once Iago tells Othello that Cassio had been sleeping with Desdemona, Othello was enraged, calling his wife a “subtle whore” and repeatedly calling her “devil.” In her defense, Desdemona insisted to her husband that she was, “your wife, my lord; your true and loyal wife.” Emilia also tried to defend her mistress by telling Othello how innocent and pure Desdemona was, but he just ignored her stating, “She was as false as water.” Heart now turned to stone, Othello could only think about murdering Desdemona and purging her infidelity. Not wanting to bruise or scar her skin, Othello took Iago’s plan to “strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated.” This is symbolic because by doing this action, Othello would not only …show more content…
What was once undoubted and unbreakable love has changed to the complete opposite. By listening to Iago’s lie rather than his own innocent wife, Othello destroyed everything important in his life. And so, like all tragedies, the story sadly closes with the death of Desdemona, punished for being unfaithful, when all she ever did was love her
In one of William Shakespeare’s most renowned and celebrated plays, the story of a General named Othello unravels in tragic form as he falls victim to the lies created by Iago. Once revered as a war hero and wed to the beautiful Desdemona, Othello’s life spirals downward with the untimely death of his beloved in his own hands, ultimately ending with his own demise. Love is the force behind this tragedy. Tragedy is the main driving force that brings happiness and tragedy to the characters within the play. But even as such a prominent force, it lacks clear definition. Love has a different meaning to the characters in the play. Characters like Othello, Desdemona, and Iago all have different perspectives on love, which informs their behavior in different ways.
Though her world was fall apart with Iago creating false images of an affair between her and Cassio to Othello, Desdemona strangely remains kind, innocent, and willing to grant grace. When Cassio approaches her for help, she quickly agrees to help her old friend. While she discusses relationships with Emilia, she rejects all thoughts of infidelity. She had every reason to fight Othello when Othello carries out her murder, yet she resist only a little, She responses, “The Lord have mercy on me…[and] mercy on you too” to Othello’s “Thou diest” (Othello 5.2.50; 71-74). When she is briefly revived and quested by Emilia as to who her murderer is, Desdemona only replies, “I myself” (Othello 5.2.152).
Love and story of Othello and Desdemona is full of dramatic irony which was caused by differences between reality and appearance, result and expectation, intention and meaning. Their love was beautiful and ugly at the same time. It was beautiful because they seemed to be truly in love with each other. On the other side it was crippled by distrust and jealousy. As it was stated before, Othello was a different person with a totally different outlook on life and reality. Unfortunately Iago was pretty skillful in manipulating Othello and using situations to his advantage. He managed to distort Othello’s reality and made him think Desdemona was not true
Within Shakespeare’s Othello, it conveys moral and subsequent reflection of events in its current society. In Act 4, Scene 2 (Part 1) demonstrates the road to Othello’s downfall and the success of Iago’s revenge. Within this scene, Othello interrogates Emilia for suspicion of Desdemona and Cassio’s affair, in which they have none, and with Othello's confrontation, he questions and insults her of her unfaithfulness and infidelity leaving Desdemona confused about what happened to Othello. Iago, called by Emilia, pretends to offer Desdemona comfort and Emilia raises notions of the possibilities and hypothesising that someone is 'feeding' Othello lies. Iago hastily covers these ideas to avoid exposure of the truth. This strong and indecisive scene twists the ideas of human nature within Othello’s mind and convinced perceptions of Desdemona, fulfilling Iago’s Revenge.
...race, beauty and status put her on a pedestal like a goddess allowing him to idolize her and therefore never truly deserve her. Beneath his noble persona on display for all to see, the idealistic view of his wife, leads him to believe that she will never be able to fully reciprocate the love he has for her. Iago’s exploitative tactics used for revenge trigger Othello’s fatal insecurities to surface for the ultimately climactic ending in which he smothers Desdemona with a pillow before discovering “honest” Iago had been deceiving him, as well as the majority of the other characters, the entire time. Outraged, Othello attempts to stab Iago as revenge for being manipulated into killing his beloved wife, however when his hasty murder attempt fails, the heartbroken and worn-out man stabs himself next to the already dead Desdemona, whom he never believed he was worthy of.
In the Shakespear’s play “Othello” it is clear to see that the relationship between him and Desdemona is a complicated one wrought with passion and confusion which leads to emotional trauma and physical abuse. At point and times in the story of “Othello” love was transmuted different. Othello was not as gentle and kind as Desdemona when it came to his lover he a times exhibited symptoms of insanity. He also at times exhibited lack of confidence that is found in the perceived unity of marriage. This was apparent that the two lover on loves battlefield were on two opposing sides, Desdemona was honest and faithful to Othello until their tragic end.
In The Tragedy of Othello, William Shakespeare tells the tale of the “noble Moor” whose honor and innocence bring about his downfall. Shakespeare writes of the power of jealousy, and the art of masterful deception and trickery. The story primarily takes place in Cyprus, during a war between the people of Venice and the invading Turks. In this play Shakespeare shows the feelings of Othello’s embittered right-hand man of, Iago, who feels he is passed over for a promotion and swears his revenge. He proceeds to manipulate his friends, enemies, and family into doing his bidding without any of them ever realizing his ultimate goal. He makes Othello believe that his new wife, the innocent Desdemona, is committing adultery with his newly promoted officer Michael Cassio. After this seed of jealousy has been planted, Othello’s mind takes its course in determining the true outcome, with a little more nudging from Iago. The course of action he proceeds to follow is one that not only ends his own life, but also the life of his wife and others. In Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Othello, Othello is a man who is still truly honorable, despite the course of action he takes to resolve his perceived problem.
The society in which Othello takes place is a patriarchal one, where men had complete control over women. They were seen as possessions rather than being just as equally human and capable of duties performed by men. All women of the Elizabethan were to obey all men, fathers, brothers, husbands, etc. Which leads me to the most reliable and trustworthy character of Desdemona, whom goes through many trials just to satisfy her love. Shakespeare brings the thought of Desdemona into the play by Barbantio, her father, “It is too true an evil. Gone she is....Oh, she deceives me Past thought! …” (1.1.163)(1.1.168-169), whom has just found she has taken off with Othello and firstly suspects they have been hitched. Shakespeare gives reader the impression Desdemona is a devious imp full of disrespect towards her father. However, surpassing normal tradition of asking of her fathers’ permission to wed, Desdemona ran off and did marry the moor. This in a sense was her emancipation of her father’s possessiveness and oblivion of Othello’s dominance over her. Othello replies to Barbantio’s accusation, sedating or using black magic on his daughter, by saying, “My very noble and approved good masters, That I have ta’en away this old man’s daughter. It is most true.” (1.3.79-81), which brings me to the claim that Desdemona’s character in this tragedy, was only to become and to serve as Othello’s private possession rather than a typical beloved daughter or wife as in modern time. Shakespeare bases this tragedy on the foundation of Desdemona’s character by the symbol of the discrimination of women in the Shakespearean time era. Desdemona even for the first and only time within the play stands up and challenges her inferiority under her father’s aut...
The reason she married Othello is because ‘she feared to look on’ him. Brabantio seems sure that this is the daughter he knows so well. believes that she must have been ‘wrought upon’ as he does not think. it is possible that she would disobey him and marry him behind his back. We see Desdemona as an innocent victim through Brabantio’s eyes.
Othello is a man of romantic nature. He fell in love with the beautiful Desdemona. He was accused of stealing her away from her father. Othello was of a different race and did not fit in with her family. Othello makes a plea for Desdemona and tells his story which wooed her to begin with. Othello tells of the love that her father showed him since his boyish days. This was like a match made in heaven that overcame many obstacles which got in their way. Othello could not understand why he was good enough to work and fight alongside of her father, but was not good enough for his daughter.
Desdemona is a victim of both Othello’s jealousy (the ‘green-eyed monster’) and Iago’s malevolence. However, as a literary construct, she is unable to prevent herself from falling victim to the hamartia of Othello and his hubris, an essential flaw in the tragic hero according to Aristotle. His pride is wounded by the idea that society would consider him emasculate due to having been cuckolded – in this sense, her fate was inevitable. Another of Aristotle’s theories purports that catharsis (often experienced following the death of the tragic victim) is a vital component of tragedy; as a great tragedy, catharsis must certainly be felt by the audience of Othello. However, the purging of emotions should surely only be felt towards characters which are genuinely liked, demonstrating the intricate link between pity and likability and highlighting the paradox in Auden’s statement: the audience must like Desdemona to some extent for her death to have a dramatic effect. Regardless of personal opinions on Desdemona, it is an upsetting final thought for the audience that there seems to be little hope for their own lives if evil can prevail over someone so good and taint something as beautiful as Othello and Desdemona’s love.
This awareness expresses some of his doubt regarding Desdemona’s faithfulness and true love for him. Cahn argues that “Iago does not plant suspicion inside Othello. Rather the seed is there from the start, and Iago brilliantly cultivates it” (Cahn 111). The objects meaning to Othello is the most important as it is what determines his actions towards his wife.
It is a psychological fact that any good relationship or marriage should be based on mutual respect for it to work out. Othello is about how one person can deviously influence that respect, just for his own benefit. Anyone who understands Othello knows that Iago’s deception leads to a lack of deference between Othello and Desdemona’s relationship throughout the play. Iago implements his plan through Roderigo, Othello, and Cassio. In William Shakespeare’s
Iago shakes the grounds of Othello’s marriage. Othello goes from a loving, trusting husband, to a man blinded by jealousy determined to kill his wife. But Iago never destroys the love Othello and Desdemona once shared. Iago has Othello convinced that the only way to save their marriage is to continue it in the afterlife. If Othello doesn’t kill her, “she’ll betray more men.”
In Othello, the main character Othello is newly married to his innocent wife Desdemona. They are a perfect couple, until Othello’s “friend” Iago, starts to