Shakespeare, Rossini and Verdi's Different Versions of Othello
Shakespeare, Rossini and Verdi tell three different versions of Othello. The story is the same, but the different treatments give it different flavors. It is a tragedy, but the nature of the tragedy changes. Shakespeare and Verdi present a saint or a goddess who is destroyed by jealousy, but Rossini presents a human victim of her husband's rage.
In Shakespeare's play, Desdemona orders her wedding sheets to be placed upon her bed. Shakespeare emphasizes this gesture as a symbol of peace and reconciliation, though ironically Desdemona will soon lie murdered on them. She asks to be buried in those sheets. In Verdi's opera, she asks to be buried in her wedding gown. In Rossini's opera, this line is omitted. Thus, she seems saint-like in Shakespeare and Verdi, but she seems more human and less holy in Rossini.
In Shakespeare's play, she sings the "willow" song, unaware of any more immediate menace than the wind knocking upon the door. In Rossini's opera, she thinks the wind is a bad omen, which brings down ...
Othello, a play written by William Shakespeare in approximately 1603, focuses on two opposite characters named Othello and Iago. Othello is a respectable army general who tragically dies in the end. The readers believe that his flaw is jealousy, which ruins his calm and makes him believe Iago, a character nobody should trust. The antagonist of the play, Iago, is a cunning liar who lies and tricks almost every other characters in the play to ruin and manipulate Othello. The play starts on the street of Venice where Iago convinces Roderigo to plot against Othello by planning falsely accuse Othello’s wife, Desdemona, of cheating. Interestingly, another specific detail critics usually look at is that Shakespeare choose to make the character of Othello a dark-skinned man, which was not a common feature a hero should have during the Elizabethan. Some of the common themes in Othello are the role of race and racism, the effects of jealousy, and the differences between genders during the Elizabethan.
Oedipus the King and Othello are both plays in which are known for their dramatic tragedies. Oedipus the King is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed in 429 BC. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, which was written in approximately 1603. These two plays do a profound job at making sure the audience understands the background of the main characters, however, there are minor characters who are just as important. Emilia, Othello’s wife, and Jocasta, Oedipus’s mother and wife, both aid in the understanding of the major characters throughout these plays. These two plays showcase the power of love and how destructive it can be.
Finally, in romeo and Juliet it was pretty obvious who was going to die only because of the little plan that Juliet came up with. But in Othello it made you want to keep reading just to see if anyone was going to die and find out who it was going to be. In Othello all the people who were killingeah other kind of made some people say why only because there was servants killing servants or there was peole who had a servant killed their servant. Then Othello kill his own wife Desdemona. Butin romeo and Juliet there wasn’t so much of a blood bath because not many people knew about the love that they had going on with each other. But for a person to compare two of Shakespeare’s stories picking Romeo and Juliet and comparing it to Othello would be the best idea bcause they are the two that are the most similar.
Nick Potter states: “Othello is a tragedy of incomprehension, not at the level of intrigue but at the deepest level of human dealings. No one in Othello comes to understand himself or anyone else.” Within Shakespeare’s Othello, no character fully understands themselves of one another. This is especially true in human dealings, where the intentions of characters and how others interpret them are often misaligned. Conflict, and eventually, tragedy arises in Othello due to the incomprehension between characters, as well as within the characters themselves. From the reader’s perspective, it is tragic to understand the reality behind all the incomprehension, since the characters are oblivious to what the readers are aware of.
The play “Othello” by William Shakespeare was written in 1604 during the Elizabethan era. Othello is one of the most extraordinary characters in all of Shakespeare’s dramas. He enjoyed unheralded success in the combat zone, which gave him the reputation as one of Venice’s most competent generals. Even though he has great success on the battlefield, he has a dramatic flaw that causes a downfall in his life. The dramatic flaw that caused his downfall is jealousy.
Even on her death bed, Desdemona’s character of an inanimate object belonging to Othello is carried on. It is lead on by Emilia’s question of “who hath done this deed” (5.2.137) referring to Desdemona’s death and her reply, “Nobody. I myself. Farewell. Commend me to my kind lord. Oh, farewell!”(5.2.138-139), overall putting the responsibility of her death upon herself. Leaving the readers impression of Desdemona as one filled with sympathy and rage against her unwillingness to fight her independence as well as against the men of this time period for not realizing the importance of such a woman.
Othello combines modernism and postmodernism in its discussion of language and truth. Although Othello contains many elements from both periods, it is mostly modern, due to it's setting and need for characters. The characters decide to fight the chaos inside themselves and in the world. This fight leads to the tragic ending of the play.
... One day he meets a girl, who happens to be his friend’s daughter, and falls in love. She falls in love with his stories and he falls in love with her passion. One troublemaker tries to cause problems by accusing Othello of stealing his friend’s daughter using drugs and witchcraft. All this happens after Othello and Desdemona gets married. Othello is put in the position of defending his honor, and Brabanzio in the position of defending his daughter’s honor. Iago is the villain who started the nasty rumor. Brabanzio is also a man who does not believe in mixed marriages and Othello was a black man. This is a story that does not end very well. Shakespeare tackles the issues of race, lies, friendship and jealousy.
She does not spew out all the reasons why she loves Othello or say that she is unavoidably attracted to him as she could have. Instead, she picks a practical reason –
William Shakespeare, one of the most inspirational authors, playwrights, and Englishman’s to ever walk the earth. During his time during the 1600's he wrote two great plays. “Shakespeare was prolific, with records of his first plays beginning to appear in 1594, from which time he produced roughly two a year until around 1611” (McDorment”) They share things that are similar but they also disagree with each other quite a bit. What we can really talk about is the two main characters from the two stories. These two stories are Macbeth and Tempest. The two main characters are Macbeth and Prospero. Three things can be compared with these two; they are both the protagonist, they have to do with betrayal, and the tragic loss of something.
Of Shakespeare’s five greatest tragedies, Othello is by far the most passionate and gripping. It is a tale of love, deception, evil, honesty, and virtue. Othello himself is set apart from other Shakespearean tragic heroes by the absolute feeling of affection the audience feels for him even unto the very end of the play. Any discerning reader painfully recognizes the virtue and goodness of Othello throughout the entire play, in contrast to the general degeneration of character so typical of a tragic hero. It is this complete pity that makes the death of Othello so tragic as the audience lends their full support to the inevitable and unavoidable fall.
The tragedy “Othello” is written by William Shakespeare in 1604. The story is based on revenge of two characters, Othello and Iago. Othello, the play’s protagonist and hero, who has great reputation as one of Venice’s most competent generals. However, his jealousy causes the major tragedy in his life. This tragedy is brought by a simple manipulation of Iago, the villain of the play. The jealousy led Othello to a path of constant questioning to his wife, and his friend Cassio. Throughout the play, he sinks deeper and deeper into his doubt and eventually that causes him to kill not only the love of his life, but also himself.
Othello is a play with the ability to transcend time and evolve with changing value systems. It is by considering these different perceptions and their contexts that our understanding and appreciation is enriched.
In the play “Othello” by William Shakespeare, love, jealousy, and conspiracy defined the tone of the play. Desdemona’s beauty makes two men fall desperate in love with her, but their differences make Othello the tragic hero of the play and Iago the despicable villain. Othello is a "tragic hero" because of his self-centered nature and his gullibility. Othello also has a noble stature and a high position in his culture. Othello is great and an honest soldier but not perfect.
Three stories from the same author, but not just an author. Perhaps the greatest author in human history. His name was William Shakespeare, heard of him? Maybe you have heard of these three stories by him Hamlet, Othello, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. These stories have been talked about throughout history because of the similarities and difference in the plots. What is really important to me, is the villains or antagonist in the plays. “Equally well known as the Hero is the Villain. And just as the Hero is actually made up of several distinct qualities, so is the Villain. In fact, for every quality the Hero possesses, the Villain embodies a counterpart.” (Phillips) Each story has certain villains that make the plays, and their names are Hamlet and Claudius, Iago, Puck and Egeus.