The Development of the Character of Othello as Shown by his Use of Language and Imagery in William Shakespeare's Play

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The Development of the Character of Othello as Shown by his Use of Language and Imagery in William Shakespeare's Play During the course of the play Othello's character goes through a series of changes, but ends up almost the same as when the play started, calm and in control. This change in Othello's character is like a rollercoaster; he starts off calm, collected and in control, and then quickly progresses to losing control and allowing jealousy to take him over. However at the end of the play, when Othello is justifying his killing of Desdemona, he is back to the calm collected General that he was at the beginning of the play. The setting that had been chosen by Shakespeare has features that are linked to the play. For example, Venice, had a reputation for a fair legal system and an ordered society; Othello presents his 'evidence' - the extent of his services to the state and his royal blood - and these, once considered by the 'jury' are found to be enough to find him 'not guilty' of the 'crime' of marrying Desdemona. At the time, Venetians also had a reputation for being tolerant towards people with different religious and political beliefs. This was because Venice had very successful trading links all around the Mediterranean and therefore the Venetians were used to dealing with people with very different backgrounds to their own. The idea of mixing with someone of another race was fine up to a point, but when it came to marriage, that point has been reached and the Venetians were not prepared to go beyond that point, unless it was in their interests, as it was with the Signiory when it came to Othello and Desdemona. Before we... ... middle of paper ... ...ar and pity and where the hero moves from a high position to a low one. In Othello, the audience certainly feels fear for Desdemona as Othello's treatment towards her worsens and fear that Othello may do something he will regret. They also feel pity for how the situation overtook him and took Othello to a point where he was unable to control himself or the situation and could not draw on any of the strengths in his character that he displayed at the beginning of the play. At the beginning of the play Othello has achieved a very high position which brings him status, respect and power. This is particularly significant at the time as he is black. From here he loses everything; as he loses his control and his command of speech and reasoning abilities he moves to losing the position and status that he had at the beginning.

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