Response to Shakespeare’s Jealous Husbands: Othello and Leontes
In Shakespeare’s Jealous Husbands: Othello and Leontes by Paul Dean is a play that dramatized the comparison on how Jealousy in Othello with Jealousy in Shakespeare’s late romance The Winter’s Tale, serves as a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change for further action. Shakespeare’s ideas about jealousy came from a variety of literary and cultural traditions, beginning with narrative of the Fall as he read it in the Book of Genesis and as he saw it in the medieval mystery plays still being performed during his adolescence. Jealousy is a leading motive in this story in the form of ‘‘covetousness, because the serpent offers Eve equality with God in knowing good and evil’’ (Genesis 2:5). The trace by Dean of the theme of Jealousy in other Shakespearean plays, and analyzes the differences and the similarities that connect both Jealousy in Othello and Jealousy in Shakespeare’s late romance The Winter’ Tale, where it serves as a motivation for further action.
First I will talk about the traces of theme of Jealousy in other Shakespearean plays, when the location of Othello moves from Venice to Cyprus, jealousy remains a key theme: but when the location of The Winter’s Tale moves from Sicilia to Bohemia, the emotional ‘‘tonality of the play undergoes a profound change’’ (Dean). For example, she desires the fruit because she desires the knowledge she is told it will bring. She is made to feel that God is keeping this knowledge from her and Adam because he is selfish, and would feel threatened by challenges to his omniscience. In turn (but less often remarked), God force Adam and Eve out from Eden in a...
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... there forever. We must all hope that there will be a Paullina to bring us to our senses says Lenotes.
Works Cited
Dean, Paul. "Shakespeare’s Jealous Husbands: Othello and Leontes." Use of English 62.3
(2011): 240-255. Rpt. in Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol.
149. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 May 2014.
Lyne, Raphael, Shakespeare’s Late Work (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
Taylor, Gary, “Divine [ ] sences”, Shakespeare Survey 54: Shakespeare and Religions
(Cambridge, 2001), pp. 13-30.
Groves, Beatrice, Texts and Traditions: Religion in Shakespeare 1592-1604 (Oxford: Clarendon
Press. 2007).
Hunter, G. K., “Othello and Colour Prejudice” (originally published 1967), in his Dramatic
Identities and Cultural Tradition: Studies in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries
(Liverpool, 1978), pp. 31-5 Press, 2007)
The play, Othello is one of the most famous tragedies composed by William Shakespeare during the Renaissance period. It powerfully portrays a world where the acts of evil ultimately vanquishes fidelity, nobility and integrity. The central themes jealousy and manipulation embodies the foretold tragedies and the downfall tragedies of the characters due to one’s insecurities. Through the use of literary techniques and figurative language, Shakespeare has effectively explored the themes of jealousy and manipulation.
The William Shakespeare tragedy Othello features various types of love, but none compare to the love we find between the protagonist and his wife. In this essay let us examine “love” as found in the play.
Before coming directly to the forming of the love-theme that differentiates Othello from other Shakespeare plays that utilize the same theme, I turn arbitrarily to Iago to inspect a distinguishing mark of his of which the relevance to thematic form in the play will appear a little later. When Iago with unperceived scoffing reminds Roderigo, who is drawn with merciless attraction to the unreachable Desdemona, that love effects an unwonted nobility in men, he states a doctrine which he “knows” is true but in which he may not “believe.” Ennoblement by love is a real possibility in men, but Iago has to view it with bitterness and to try to undermine it. (333-34)
The love of the protagonist and his wife in William Shakespeare’s trgedy Othello can not stand up against the repeated assaults of the sinister Iago. Let us in this essay search for and comment on the examples of love found in the play.
William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Othello” shows how a manipulative villain can create chaos within a society. The play was written around the year 1603 and takes place in Venice Italy before it is repositioned to Cyprus. This Shakespearean tragedy shows the effects of jealousy, love, desire, betrayal and passion in a society with an imbalance of power in a race, gender, and social position.
But jealousy, and especially sexual jealousy, brings with it a sense of shame and humiliation. For this reason it is generally hidden; if we perceive it we ourselves are ashamed and turn our eyes away; and when it is not hidden it commonly stirs contempt as well as pity. Nor is this all. Such jealousy as Othello’s converts human nature into chaos, and liberates the beast in man; and it does this in relation to one of the most intense and also the most ideal of human feelings. (169)
The common thread of jealousy ties together the main plots in Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, and The Winter's Tale. In each of these plays, the main conflict is centered around some form of jealousy. While jealousy is the mutual, most prominent cause for turmoil in these plays, its effects on the characters, and ultimately the plots, is different in each case. This difference has much to do with the way in which the concept of jealousy is woven into each play, and what it is intended to accomplish.
Therefore, this scene reflects various concepts of contemporary ideas in the modern world of social justice issues and relationships between people, particularly the modern day romance which is transmuted through social networks. These human natures are evolved as the transcension of time continues, to create an image of one’s self and compare to the rest. The fundamental ideologies with the conveyance of ideas of Othello are seen through its themes, specifically deception, romance and jealousy and the use of language techniques of emotive language to portray an authentic outlook to the comparison to today’s society. There are still social justice issues that relate to these themes which is a concerning issue as it may lead to downfall’s, death’s and other unfortunate ravel of events that will discontinue the balance of human nature and its peaceful assets.
In the play Othello, there are many jealous and selfish characters. Each of the characters at one point or another let their jealousy take over. It seems like they all have these plots and plans on how to hurt another character in the play either physically or emotionally, as an act of selfishness, so that they can feel better about themselves. One main character who seems extremely jealous in this play is Iago. Infact, probably the most jealous. Many bad things happen because of Iago. The first bad thing that Iago did, was tell Barbantio (Desdamona's father) that Desdemona has married Othello, the Moore. Iago was mad at Othello, because Cassio had made Othello a higher position and not Iago. Iago thought that he was the one who qualified for the position as general, not Othello. Iago was jealous because of this, so he decided to tell Barbantio about Desdemona and Othello. This was bad, because Barbantio did not know yet, and something like that should have been said by his own daughter, not someone who was not part of the family. The way Iago went about telling him was also bad. He called to his house in the middle of the night. He yelled it to Barbantio from downstairs into his window in a rude manner. " quote from Othello here." He wanted Barbantio to be upset about what had happened, and most of all, he wanted Barbantio to be mad at Othello and do something bad to him.
Within playwright William Shakespeare’s fantastic work The Merchant of Venice, the character Iago cries out, “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green ey’d monster” (Enotes). Jealousy is justly called a beast, and it is a hideous creature that is illuminated in William Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies, and by Woman Warrior, the memoir of Maxine Hong Kingston. Through the use of the literary elements of plots, characters, symbols, and additional plots, both pieces illustrate how, by torturing people and driving them to rash decisions, jealousy is the most destructive emotion.
The Web. 4 Dec. 2009.. Nordlund, Marcus "Theorising Early Modern Jealousy: A Biocultural Perspective" Shakespeare's Othello. Studia Neophilologica: A Journal of Germanic and Romance Languages and Literature 74.2 (2002): 146-160. MLA International Bibliography.
“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock.The meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in bliss. Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger; But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er. Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves” (3.3.163-168). In Shakespeare’s Othello, jealousy is the common theme that becomes Othello’s undoing. Through text in the play, the audience can notice Othello slowly begin to become crazed through his speech.
A.C. Bradley describes Othello as "by far the most romantic figure among Shakespeare's heroes"(Shakespearean Tragedy, 1). This is an unusual description of a man who murders his own wife. However, Othello's feelings of hate for Desdemona started as an overwhelming love for her when their relationship began. This transformation from love to hate also inflicted the characters Iago and Roderigo and like Othello their hatred resulted in the murder of innocent people. Roderigo's love for Desdemona was transformed into hate towards any man that he thought was loved by her. Iago's love for his job and his wife, Emilia changed into a destructive hatred of Cassio and Othello. As a result of their hatred Cassio, Emilia, and at the end themselves were killed. The connection between love and hate in William Shakespeare's "Othello" is the ugly feeling of jealousy that caused such transformations. Jealousy can be described as a fear of losing something or someone that is valuable (Godfrey 2). As minor as this feeling appears to be by that definition, it can take on varying degrees of damaging behavior. Othello, Roderigo, and Iago became paralyzed by jealousy. Their thoughts, actions, and behaviors were ruled by it. Jealousy caused their inability to the act rationally. They became paranoid and unable to love. This paper will examine the jealousy that caused love to turn into hate for Roderigo, Othello, and Iago.
Jealousy and judgement, or rather misjudgement, seem to be major themes in Shakespeare’s plays, in which most judgements are assumed by no logical basis or intellectual wit. King Leontes, unlike Othello, comes to his conclusion by his own means, without any outside verification of truth or logical explanation for his jealousy. However, there are many similarities, based on their situation, between him and Othello. Both men transform, emotionally, into beast like figures whose actions ultimately end their lineage. Although Perdita remains alive, and is able to carry on King Leontes’s bloodline, his name will die with her marriage to Florizel. Othello and King Leontes also adapt a diction that transforms their language into something that resembles the baseness of humanity by the presentation of bestial images and rape that signify the personal anxieties of each men. However, King Leontes’s transformation is different in that his jealousy and language seem to adjust abruptly and without warning. In act one, scene 2, lines 180-208, of The Winter’s Tale, one can see King Leontes’s complete alteration into a desperate man who eventually kills his wife and son. Through an analysis of these lines, it is easy to see the desperation and hate King Leontes develops towards his wife and Polixenes by the treatment of nature and property as a means to talk about sex and betrayal.
The role of jealousy, love and betrayal play a major role in The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. The entire play is based on the human interactions of the characters as related to Othello and Desdemona. The characters’ personalities, their social status, and their relationships to each other control the story line and their fate in the play. Othello is portrayed early in the play as an outsider with animalistic characteristics by Iago and Roderigo because of jealousy. “Your heart is burst; and have lost half of your soul/Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/Is tupping your white ewe”.(531) Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, accuses Othello of using witch craft on his daughter. “If she in chains of magic were not bound/ Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy/ So opposite to marriage that she shunned…” (535) This point is important because Othello must defend himself not only to Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, but to the entire Venetian Senate. “And till she come, as truly as to heaven,/ I do confess the vices of my blood./ So justly to your grave ears I’ll present/ How I did thrive in this fair lady’s love, / And she in mine.” (539) Othello proves himself to be an intellectual hero early in the play. He has worked hard to gain respectability and power, but because he has a different background, is from another country, is dark-skinned and is older than Desdemona, he becomes jealous very quickly of Cassio. Cassio is from the same social class, is compatible with Desdemona and is a young handsome man. Iago has also convinced Cassio to seek favor with Desdemo...