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Biographies of William Shakespeare an essay
Biographies of William Shakespeare an essay
Biographies of William Shakespeare an essay
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The Tragedy of Othello
William Shakespeare’s, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, from the sixteenth century is an excellent example of Renaissance humanism. “A poet of unparalleled genius, Shakespeare emerged during the golden age of England under the rule of Elizabeth I.”(Fiero 3:98) He produced comedies, tragedies, romances and histories. According to Webster’s pocket dictionary, a tragedy is defined as a form of drama in which the protagonist comes to a disaster, as through a flaw in character, and in which the ending is usually marked by pity or sorrow. I would like to concentrate on the character Iago and the theme of deceit.
We see humanism in all of Shakespeare’s characters. He does not judge or label them but rather gave them each strengths, weaknesses, and flaws. “Shakespeare transforms these figures into complex personalities, allowing them full freedom to falter and fail through their own actions.”(3:100) The play consisted of human interaction especially in the case of the character Iago, who is the personification of evil. Shakespeare also introduced the hero, Othello, as a black man, which is not stereotypical for that time. Each character makes their own decisions and has their own flaws, which is very humanistic. Shakespeare’s use of tragedy shows, “…in a universe in which order and disorder coexist, human choices play a vital and potentially destructive part.”(3:100)
Shakespeare develops the character Iago into an instigator and evil man. Iago attempts and succeeds to convince Othello that his wife has had an affair with his friend Cassio. We see Iago beginning his plans at the very start of the play. “But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at, I am not what I am.”(Oth 1:1:64-65) He immediately tries to start trouble with Brabantio and Othello over the marriage to Desdemona. Iago want to get in Othello’s way because he was passed over for general and Cassio was chosen instead. We see from the start how he plots against Othello and he involves several characters in his plans. “And what’s he then that says I play the villain? When this advice is free. I give and honest, probal to thinking, and indeed the course to win the Moor again? For tis easy Th’ inclining Desdemona to subdue in any honest suit; she’s framed as fruitful…”(2:3:295-300).
In Shakespeare's play Othello, Iago Is shown to be the villain. With the cunning use of his brilliance and manipulation, he is able to orchestrate an entire plot to take his revenge on Othello the center of all his ill tempered aggression. By lying to characters like Roderigo and many others, including his wife, in order to
“I am not what I am,” proclaims one of Shakespeare’s darkest and most enigmatic villains, Iago, in the tragedy Othello. Iago’s journey for revenge enables him to become capable of immoral acts, and whilst his malevolence excites us, we are no more intrigued by his attributes than we are of the play’s tragic hero, Othellos’. Rather, both characters’ confrontation with jealousy and their subsequent moral demise as a result of failing to control such an emotion provides the true excitement for audiences. Iago’s spiteful manipulation of Othello makes him a multifaceted character — whose corrupt attributes make the audience examine their own morality. However, the same can be said of Othello; his failure to withstand Iago’s ‘pouring of pestilence’
Northrop Frye once said, “Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” Othello is the pillar of tragic heros, first playing the part of a loving husband with a beautiful wife, then being manipulated into believing his wife was cheating on him and killing her. Throughout the play, he played the part of the protagonist, everyone hoping he would figure out Iago was lying to him. Othello being the protagonist made the fact he was also a villain bittersweet. His apparent love for his wife Desdemona, his ‘just’ reasoning for killing her, and Iago’s deserving end all contribute to the tragic work as a whole.
In Othello, Iago is Shakespeare’s most malicious character and serves as a vehicle to these two themes. Iago despises Othello; he has a strong will to destroy Othello’s life, yet the motive behind his plan goes unexplained. Iago is a great manipulator of the tongue and lies to everyone in order to advance his plan; however, every character in the play considers Iago an honest character, and Othello even associates Iago with light and eyesight. Othello continuously asks Iago to explain or make something clearer. Until the very end, Iago appears to be honest and helpful to the other characters, but underneath this seemingly harmless façade, Iago is a demon with the strongest will; he will stop at nothing until he ruins Othello’s life. Iago uses a positive appearance to enact his
The Reason why Iago develop such as evil plan is because Iago suspect that Othello is having an affair with his wife Emilia. He cited when he said "And it is thought abroad that 'twist my sheets he's done my office." The irony behind this line is that he then says, "I know not if't be true, but I, for mere suspicion in that kind, will do as if for surety." That mean, He is not sure that Othello is having an affair with his wife but he will pay anyhow, this show that Iago is so blind with his jealousy that he will do anything on his reach to make Othello for such act no sure committed.
Iago is the main antagonists against Othello, throughout the entire play. Iago is not realistically motivated. Even though Iago makes many of his decisions with careful thought, he does have a main flaw that will come back to haunt him in the end. Iago unlike other characters, doesn’t have true honorable morals. Because of this, he makes many situations which are manageable, and takes them further out of proportion he does this for his own pure enjoyment to create havoc for sport. Iago manipulates the characters who trust too easily, such are Roderigo and Othello. Iago uses them as an addition to his plans, which he manages so they will work in his favor in the end, or so he believes they will.
In the play, Othello, written by William Shakespeare Iago is one of the most unique and interesting characters. Not only is Iago a main character, but he is also one of the most controversial, causing more drama and quarrels than any other character in the play. Shakespeare does a good job with the character of Iago by creating an atmosphere where Iago can keep the reader's attention on each and every individual scene throughout the entire play, as one tries to figure out Iago's true intentions. When reading the play it is easy for an individual to view Iago as an evil person who gets pleasure from malicious acts he inflicts upon others around him.
Throughout history, countless writers have been commended for their work, yet people still had criticized them. Famous Writers like William Shakespeare, Harper Lee and Charles Dickens all have endured much criticism throughout their lifetime by fellow writers. Movie producers also tend to ridicule traditional stories and plays, focusing on a writer’s weaknesses. One of the most famous plays by Shakespeare, Othello, can be seen in bits of the story Tom Thumb, in which Fielding most definitely ridicules the famous play.
As early as the first scene of the play Iago shows us strong motives for his actions. In this first scene we see Othello, a general of Venice, has made Cassio his new lieutant. Iago feels he truly deserves his promotion as he says "I know my price, I am worth more no worse a place."(l.i.12) Iago over here is confused why Othello has made such a stupid decision. Iago is a man with a tremendous ego who knows, sometimes overestimates, his worth. Roderigo, a Venetian gentleman, understands Iago when Iago said that he is "affined to love the Moor."(l.i.41-42) What Iago really means is "I follow him to serve my term upon him."(l.i.45) Iago wants to use Othello for his personal goals. We also must put ourselves into Iago's shoes. He is a man whose self-esteem and professional carrier have just been torn apart. Iago makes his actions of revenge toward Othello almost immediately by informing Brabantio, a Venetian senator and father of Desdemona, that "an old black ram (Othello) is tupping (his) white ewe (Desdemona)."(l.i.97)
Shakespearian tales always leave us with a plethora to ponder about the Elizabethan age and Shakespeare himself. “Othello” is no break in this mold, leaving us to ponder the roll of Iago within the harsh tale of love and murder. Iago is the one to tell Othello of his wife’s betrayal with Cassio, hence making up a story that will work to his favor yet betray those around him. Iago betrays his wife, Emilia, but not only her as he drags Othello, Desdemona, and Cassio into the mix of lies and the hatred he is spreading to improve his rank with Othello. But were Iago’s acts unjust and done for the sake of it? Is he a heartless man who’s only happiness is to bring sorrow upon others? No, Iago has a just reason for what he does, even though he causes the deaths of Cassio, Emilia, and Desdemona in his search for revenge; Iago is not a heartless fiend, just a man wronged.
Tragedy is an intrinsically human concept; tragic heroes are damned by what they themselves do. Othello is not so much felled by the actions of Iago, but by a quality all people possess-- human frailty. Accordingly, Othello is not a victim of consequences, but an active participant in his downfall. He is not merely a vehicle for the machinations of Iago; he had free agency. Othello's deficiencies are: an insecure grasp of Venetian social values; lack of critical intelligence, self-knowledge, and faith in his wife; and finally, insecurity-- these are the qualities that lead to his own downfall.
He has a very strong character of virtue and nobility that is intact up to the horrid end. Iago’s deceit and trickery are more the cause of Othello’s tragic fall than any fault of Othello himself. This innocence and greatness of the tragic hero, unequaled in any other Shakespearean tragedy, is what gives the play its terrible irony and passion. Othello plays on the most powerful of all human emotions: faith and love, both embodied to the fullest in the great and honest Othello.
... the character Iago. Revenge is also a flaw that most people wish to inflict upon others and have to deal with at one time or another in their lives. It is also one that many people are able to connect to, as they have either been seeking payback or have been avenged. Due to these flaws, a strong connection between today’s society and the well-known character of Iago exists. These humanlike qualities in Iago give to him an appeal to modern-day society. The Othello characters Othello and Iago have many flaws that make them seem even more realistic. Shakespeare incorporated flaws into his characters, allowing for more truth to be seen in them and as a result, there is a wider public appeal. The modern world is still able to connect to Shakespearean literature; (omit) it can be deduced that characters with flaws have more of an influence on society than those without.
In Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago is the antagonist and villain who causes all the trouble and disorder. Othello is the protagonist, and is the main person Iago’s destruction and revenge is aimed towards. Othello is naïve and gives everybody his trust even though he may not know them or they haven’t earned his trust yet. He often refers to Iago has “Honest” Iago, which is a direct showing of irony because Iago is not honest at all (Shakespeare, I, iii. 289). Iago is so angry that Othello didn’t give him the promotion that was given to Cassio that he plans to seek revenge against Othello. He seeks his revenge against Othello by manipulating and lying to all of the people around him including his closest friend Roderigo, Cassio, Othello’s wife Desdemona and even his own wife Emilia. In the end, Iago’s lies and manipulation led to the deaths of Roderigo, Emilia, Othello and Desdemona. This isn’t the first time many of these individual characteristics have shown up in one of Shakespeare’s plays.
In the tragedy Othello, Shakespeare creates a mood that challenges the way a person sees his or her self and the world. Subjects like racism, sexism, love, hate, jealously, pride, and trickery are thoroughly developed in the play of Othello to enable the audience to view the characters and also themselves. The Shakespearean tragedy of Othello was written in a time of great racial tensions in England. According to Eldred Jones, in 1600 just three years before Othello was written, Queen Elizabeth proclaimed an Edict for the Transportation of all "negars and blackmoores" out of the country ("Othello- An Interpretation" Critical Essays 39). It is in this atmosphere that Shakespeare began the masterpiece of Othello, a drama about a noble black Arab general, Othello, who falls in love with and marries, Desdemona, a young white daughter of a senator. From the above knowledge one may conclude that Shakespeare wrote Othello to express that all people, of all ethnicity, are basically the same in human nature. Shakespeare borrowed the idea of Othello from an Italian love story by Giraldi Cinthio. However, Shakespeare focuses more on the differences in color and age between Othello and Desdemona than Cinthio. Shakespeare does this to escalate Othello’s isolation from the rest of Venetian society and to display Othello’s vulnerability due to his color. In the tragedy not only is Othello susceptible to weaknesses but so is every major character . The tragedy reminds humans that even one’s good nature can be taken advantage of for the worse. The drama Othello expresses, through relationships and emotional attitudes, a theme that all humans are vulnerable to destruction even if they are in positions of power and glory.