Othello – the Universal Appeal
For 400 years the audience has found William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello to be relevant to their lives and tastes. Why? What enduring qualities does the play possess in order to ensure its continuing success?
Does the reason lie in the great heterogeneity of characters and scenes and actions within the play? Robert B. Heilman in “The Role We Give Shakespeare” relates the universality of Shakespeare to the “innumerableness of the parts”:
But the Shakespeare completeness appears graspable and possessable to many men at odds with each other, because of the innumerableness of the parts: these parts we may consider incompletenesses, partial perspectives, and as such they correspond to the imperfect (but not necessarily invalid) modes of seeing and understanding practiced by imperfect (but not necessarily wrongheaded) interpreters and theorists of different camps. Each interpreter sees some part of the whole that does, we may say, mirror him, and he then proceeds to enlarge the mirror until it becomes the work as a whole (10).
Indeed, the reader finds a wide variety of “parts” from beginning to end of Othello. This is seen in the fact of about 20 characters with speaking roles; and in their variety of occupations from duke to clown; and in the numerous scene changes; and in the differentiation in speech, actions, manners between every single individual character.
Is characterization another cause of the dramatist’s broad popularity? Harry Levin in the General Introduction to The Riverside Shakespeare finds other reasons for his appeal:
Universal as his attraction has been, it is best understood through particulars. Though – to our advan...
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‘O is a modern spin on Othello that attempts to address issues that are relevant for a contemporary audience. However, ultimately the literary value of Othello is lost in this appropriation”
Letter while discovering that a hidden lie left to fester causes more grief and pain than he
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a cult classic. And with good reason. Anyone who simply believes that the title of this book just signifies that the protagonist wears a scarlet “A” on her dress in punishment of her adultery is ignorant. Obviously this paper would not be required if such were true. Instead, The Scarlet Letter is extremely ambiguous. One can argue that the scarlet letter is a character itself. I intend to flesh this out in literary, historic, and symbolic terms.
11 Dec. 2011. The "Othello". Shakespeare for Students: Critical Interpretations of Shakespeare's Plays and Poetry. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht.
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Snyder, Susan. "Beyond the Comedy: Othello" Modern Critical Interpretations, Othello Ed. Harold Bloom, Pub. Chelsea House New Haven CT 1987. (page 23-37)
Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. "Shakespeare." Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.
Hester knows she has done something wrong. She has committed a sin and knows she will be punished for it. She is punished by being forced to wear the letter 'A'; on her bust and never remove it and to also stand in front of everyone on the scaffold in the center of town. She is reminded of her sins because of her daughter who was a result of the affair. She sees her everyday and cherishes every moment she has with her. They try to take Pearl away but Hester will not allow them to.
Cohen, Walter, J.E. Howard, K. Eisaman Maus. The Norton Shakespeare. Vol. 2 Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor. New York, London. 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-92991-1
While Hester was publicly shamed, Arthur Dimmesdale, who was also to blame for the adultery crime, was fighting within himself. Hester was shamed and forced to wear the Scarlet Letter A on her bosom for 7 years; Dimmesdale hid behind lies and secrets for 7 years and it tore him apart. This time Dimmesdale, Hester, and their daughter Pearl, stand on the scaffold together. The whole town began to realize who the lover of Hester was this whole time and who became the father of Pearl 7 years ago. As years went on, people began to forgive Hester. Hester then began to start over. After she is released from prison, she is allowed to leave Boston, but she decides to stay. She supports herself and starts over by her needlework. Although for so long her shamed destroyed her, she had a change in attitude. The people in the town began to look at the A on her chest as “Able” and not “Adulter”.This allowed Hester to change from an easy going and tender women to a strong and passionate women. She realized that she needed to be strong and independent. I believe that once she stood on the scaffold with Dimmesdale and Pearl she found happiness and strength within herself. Her attitude changed from negative to a positive outlook; she realized that her past made her stronger as a woman. The people of the town had forgiven her and some even respected her. This scene of the book showed that Hester
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne analyzes Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. In the story, Hester is the main character of the story and was called Mistress Prynne (Hawthorne 70). Dimmesdale, in the story was referred to as Reverend Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 90). Chillingworth was originally named, Roger Prynne but later in the story he changed his name to Roger Chillingworth. In the story, Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale against Chillingworth and in the beginning she got punished and sent to prison and later she got to get out of prison but with the exception of having to wear the letter A on her breast every time she went out in to town.
Evans, G. Blakemore. Ed. The Riverside Shakespeare. by William Shakespeare. 1552- 1616. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974.
Snyder, Susan. "Beyond the Comedy: Othello" Modern Critical Interpretations, Othello Ed. Harold Bloom, Pub. Chelsea House New Haven CT 1987.