Similarities And Differences Between Iliad And Othello

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Othello written by Shakespeare and The Iliad written by Homer both consist of a big hero in their story/play. The heroes share many of the same attributes while also having great differences. Othello is a combination of greatness and weakness, in his own words "an honorable murderer" (V.2, 295). He is the general of the Venetian defense forces, and, although a foreigner from Africa, he has won his post by his overall excellence in the field of war. Under pressure, he makes a great and inspiring speech. He has courage, intelligence, the skill of command, and the respect of his troops. When the colony of Cyprus is threatened by the enemy, the Duke and Senate turn to "valiant" Othello to lead the defense. After many years, Othello has come …show more content…

In the Iliad, Achilles is the main protagonist. He is a demi-god and is the son of the nymph Thetis and Peleus who was the King of the Myrmidons. He was a Greek hero of the Trojan War. He falls in love with a battle prize called Briseis. He is to portray, “as a brave, loyal, cocky, intelligent and even superhuman soldier. In Achilles ' case, the word "superhuman" is literal; he is the result of a union between a god and a mortal.”(Harvard 1) “Achilles has over-reached himself, and as he attempts to punish all the Trojans for Patroklos ' death and to deny them burial rites for Hector, so the river god now attempts to drown Achilles, bury him in the mud, and deny him glory and proper burial rites. It is also significant that the river god is the only god to confront Achilles with excessive cruelty and lack of pity. Later, however, the other gods come to view Achilles as the river god …show more content…

The Iliad is a book based on the true event such as the Trojan War and has focused on true past religions which are Greek or Greek Mythology and is written by Robert Homer. Othello is a play written by Shakespeare and is at the time of his own era. One major difference would have to be skin color. They have very different skin color from our knowledge we are led to believe and or see that the greeks are light or fair skinned people with blonde or brown hair. Achilles would be like that as well and another contributing factor is that there are portraits of him and paintings to back up our understandings of him. From reading the play about Othello we can conclude that he is very dark or black skin and he also is of African descent. One thing is very known from readers of the play Othello is that he seems to be very angry that is powered by his jealousy and driven by hate. He causes a lot of tension but it all began with a lie told to him by his friend after that it all went downhill a lot of deaths occurred he even murdered his wife due to jealousy. Achilles also was a very angry person due to the stealing of his love interest and the death of is servant boy. He did get very angry and killed people also. One big connection is that both killed the main character Othello killed Desdemona and Achilles killed

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