The tragic play ‘Othello’‚ written by William Shakespeare‚ is one where the direct impact of themes such as jealousy‚ prejudice‚ and manipulation bring about the downfall of the protagonist Othello‚ a moor who is both a successful military leader in the city of Venice and the lover of the ‘Sweet Desdemona’. The Antagonist‚ Iago‚ weaves webs of deceit and denigrations on almost all of the characters and is portrayed as the puppet master‚ controlling the characters to his own end. The imagery associated
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To what extent can Othello be considered a ‘tragic hero’? The extent of which Othello is a tragic hero has been open to much debate; the basis on which he is judged falls to Aristotle’s established view of the crucial elements that distinguish whether a person is truly tragic. According to Aristotle‚ a tragic protagonist is a nobleman or person from high status‚ who contributes to his own demise and illustrates a flaw or weakness in judgment. The tragic protagonist must make a fall from a high
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Drama Unit: Othello Major Topics Archetype of the Villain In the tradition of the Vice character from morality plays‚ Iago prizes his own self-interest above all else‚ destroying the lives of others with apparent relish. While he does not appear to possess a conscience‚ he exhibits exceptional intelligence and profound insight into human nature. Although Othello is the central figure of the play‚ it is Iago who controls the action throughout. There is a significant focus on Iago ’s
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The Smothering of Desdemona’s Will in Othello Among William Shakespeare’s vast array of deeply flawed characters‚ Desdemona of Othello stands out as remarkably virtuous and pure of heart. Furthermore‚ Desdemona’s character initially displays a sense of independence and agency that is rare amongst other female characters in literature at the time that Othello was written. However‚ by the story’s end‚ Desdemona is a much more submissive and passive character‚ accepting her tragic circumstance without
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Is the story‚ “Othello” Racist? When reading the play Othello‚ a modern day reader cannot help but wonder if the play is racist. After all‚ there are several places found throughout the story that reference derogatory terms towards people of African descent. Comments such as‚ “Blacker devil”(5.2. 131)‚ “an old black ram” (1.1.9)‚ and‚ “Moor are now making the beast with two backs” (1.1.7)‚ may leads the reader to believe that story is racist towards black people. However‚ this may not be true
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themes in Othello and Hamlet‚ honor is used in very strange ways by Shakespeare. He has a way of showing how his characters can be very honorable or have a lack there of. He displays how honor is interwoven with personal integrity and how acts of attempting to keep a reputation can be confused with the acts of personal integrity. Lastly‚ he also displays how honor relates to the foresight seen by his characters. Honor can be connected to almost any actions made by any of the characters in these
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"If Othello didn’t begin as a play about race‚ history has made it one." The Venetian society that Othello is set in is representative of the writers context. The attitudes and values that Shakespeare reveals through the text are those same attitudes and values of Elizabethan society in England in the sixteenth-century. Although Othello is set in Venice and Cyprus‚ the attitudes and values shared in the text are probably reflective of the attitudes and values of Shakespeare’s own
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Othello: The Tragic Hero In William Shakespeare’s Othello‚ Othello is the tragic hero. He is a character of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings‚ his own actions‚ and his fate. His destruction is essentially precipitated by his own actions‚ as well as by the actions of the characters surrounding him. The tragedy of Othello is not a fault of a single villain‚ but is rather a consequence of a wide range of feelings‚ judgments and misjudgments‚ and attempts for personal justification
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Othello is not mentioned by name at all in the first scene‚ he was mentioned as ‘he’‚ ‘him’‚ or as the ‘moor’‚ which is prejudicial reference of his social and cultural background in Venetian society. Iago and Roderigo accused Othello of being arrogant. They solely judged him and his character with his appearance in Act 1. Therefore‚ we‚ as audiences‚ only knew Othello as a threatening and evil moor‚ but in Scene 2‚ we could know that he was chosen as lieutenant and there were fair reasons why he
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Othello Essay William Shakespeare’s Othello tells a story of the tragic downfall of a man through jealousy and mistrust‚ influenced by the manipulative actions of another. Due to innumerable changes within society over time‚ it is inevitable that a wide range of critical interpretations and readings of the text will emerge. My personal interpretation of the play draws from the concepts of the traditional Aristotelian views of a tragedy. An Aristotelian interpretation concerns itself with whether
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