Sacrifice In Othello

Sacrifice is a reoccurring idea over the four texts studied this year. Sacrifice is giving up something you value and this is shown through the compare and contrast of these four texts. All texts chosen show similar but different forms of sacrifice. A Walk to Remember written by Nicholas Sparks demonstrates the idea of sacrificing your reputation, where Landon sacrifices his popularity to pursue love with Jamie who doesn't share the same reputation. This compares with Othello written by William Shakespeare as Othello sacrifices his own life to preserve his reputation. Billy Elliot directed by Stephen Daldry, shows sacrifice for others. Jacky, Billy’s dad’s sacrifices his entire upbringing and beliefs in order for Billy to achieve his dream

Throughout reputation is vital among all characters. Characters such as Cassio and Othello strongly believe in upholding their reputation and believe it is an important part to a person. Cassio shows this after he loses his position as second in command over a drunken feud, “Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself.” This shows the reader that characters in the play, such as Cassio have huge morals in maintaining a positive reputation. In the 1600’s when Othello was set, reputation was so important people were willing to die to sacrifice and uphold their reputation. This is shown through Othello’s character. Iago deceived Othello into thinking that his wife, the “gentle Desdemona” was sleeping with Cassio. Othello killed Desdemona in sacrifice for all other men, “Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.” Soon after Othello finds out that Desdemona was the pure, honest women he married, he realises that he killed Desdemona for no apparent reason. Because reputation back in the 1600’s was a big deal to the people at the time he felt that to keep his well respected reputation he would sacrifice his own life to maintain his positive reputation. As he made the move to kill himself as a sacrifice of his reputation he stated in his final soliloquy, “Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak, Of one

In Billy Elliot Jacky, Billy’s father shows sacrifice his beliefs and values for others. “I’m bustin’ my ass for those 50 pences.” This dialogue clearly shows how Jacky doesn't agree with Billy’s choice to do ballet and because money is tight during the miners strike Jacky believes Billy is wasting the little income they get on ballet lessons. From this we gather that Jacky has a negative view towards ballet as the gender stereotype of 1984 was the girls do ballet and boys box. However later we see an over the shoulder shot of Jacky and Billy in the dance room we see that Jacky has stepped over the invisible barriers which are symbolically represented by cages as he has seen potential in his son to become a ballet dancer. The director included cages to represent how people like Billy feel trapped inside of societies gender stereotype. This is Jacky’s effort of sacrificing his beliefs and the morals he has been brought up with so he can accept Billy’s decision to do ballet. Another way Jacky sacrifices for others is when he sacrifices the strike to become a ‘scab.’ We see this in a close up shot of Jacky on the bus in the foreground and Tony in the background where the symbolic cages are separating the two. The close up shot allows the audience to study Jacky’s face and allows us to see the inner struggle portrayed by his emotions. Jacky is now feeling trapped in his decisions to support Billy.