Dear All
We are late submitting this response because we haven't been able to access
the Internet at school this week. This is our response to Rap Points 2 and
3 combined. It has made us think and argue! but at least we won't have to
revise so hard for our exams. Good luck for the remainder of the year and
Year 12.
The Stratford Chronicle Volume 1 17 August 2001
Editorial
In studying the play, Othello, it is clear that Othello is one of
Shakespeare’s tragic heroes, much like Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear.
Through a combination of his own human faults and the evil plotting of his
enemy, Iago, Othello falls from his position of power and high rank. By the
end of the play he has lost his reputation, has been dishonoured by those
who respected him and his world has been brought into chaos with the death
of innocent people.
Shakespeare’s tragic heroes, who are men of high status and importance in
their societies, are honoured and respected by those around them. They are
noble and true at the beginning of the action and contribute significantly
to the orderly nature of their world. But they also have human failings and
weaknesses and usually do not know themselves or others well enough to be
able to see the truth. Othello is one of these.
Being a tragic hero, Othello must undergo a complete change of character in
a short period of time, even more so than Shakespeare’s other heroes, as a
result of the condensed action of this play. Some people may contend that
since Othello is black, Shakespeare constructed him to fail and therefore,
he is not really a tragic hero. Othello’s over exuberant reaction to events
often seems irrational and may be based on racial insecurity. His jealous
rage and grand speeches may coincide with the “norms” of a black man,
expected by Shakespeare’s audience. However, the high respect he commands
and his military achievements raise him above the conventional stereotype.
Shakespeare gives Othello some of the finest poetry in the play, which helps
the audience to identify him as a man of importance and worth. He speaks
with authority when he intervenes in the “fight” between Iago and Roderigo
and his words show he is a warrior:
Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
His dignified speech to Brabantio where he addresses the senator on the
matter of his marriage to Desdemona is eloquent and respectful. His imagery
relates to the might of the natural world at the beginning of the play:
“anters vast and deserts idle”, but after Iago’s poison has worked on him he
begins to show another side of his character with lewd and filthy images.
It is hard to believe that he can address Desdemona as a “strumpet” or
“cunning whore” or refer to her body as a “foul cistern”. Just before he
dies he again seems to speak sincerely when he says that he has been a man
“who loved not wisely but too well”. We wonder whether he is thinking of
the trust he placed in Iago as well as of his love for Desdemona and if the
silence speaks of his love of honour and reputation. At this point in the
play he seems to find some of his heroic qualities but his circumstances now
are deeply tragic.
There is a threat to the ordered life and autonomy of Othello when we hear
Iago express his bitter hatred of his general. Iago’s scheme to bring down
Othello and Cassio stems firstly from his jealousy and secondly from his
immoral nature that recognises the goodness of his enemies. Othello’s trust
in “honest” Iago demonstrates one of Othello’s tragic flaws. He is unable
to see the truth about Iago because his experience is on the battlefield and
not in sophisticated circles. He cannot imagine any situation where Iago
would mislead him and never seriously doubts Iago for very long.
Iago seizes every opportunity to bring confusion into Othello’s life and
plots with decisive cunning to bring him down. He knows the value Othello
places on his gleaming reputation and uses Desdemona and Cassio as objects
to destroy that reputation. If he can turn Othello against those close to
him and break down the trust between them, he will succeed in gaining
revenge for the anger he feels in not being appointed Othello’s lieutenant.
His suspicion that Othello and Cassio may have been "'twixt his sheets"
gives him another reason to hate them both.
The marriage of Othello to Desdemona causes a breach in the social fabric of
Venetian society since it was unthinkable for a young woman of her grace and
stature to fall in love with a black warrior some years older than herself.
She falls in love with him for his courageous and heroic deeds and Othello
witnesses the development of her love. He becomes a person of compassion
and consideration, a new experience for him and gradually learns to love her
for pitying him. But he does not have time to get to know her thoroughly or
to build up their trust or put it to the test. It is Othello’s inexperience
of women and the way they act that leads him to mistrust her and to believe
Iago’s despicable suggestion that it does not matter to Venetian women what
they do as long as they are not found out. Iago points out that Desdemona
is likely to be tired of him and inclined to turn to someone younger and of
her own colour which adds to Othello’s confusion and insecurity. He also
builds on Othello’s fear by reminding him that Desdemona deceived her father
in loving him and may deceive her husband in loving Cassio.
When he is given the “ocular proof” of the missing handkerchief on top of
all Iago’s insinuations, Othello is beyond reason. He loses all sense of
reality. Why does Othello never ask Desdemona or Emilia for proof of Iago’s
accusations and why does Emilia not confess to giving Iago the handkerchief?
Although there is a gap in the text we suppose that Emilia does not
suspect her husband of doing anything wrong with the handkerchief and also
that she knows she may be dismissed if she admits that she took it. We have
evidence of Othello’s reaction to someone he perceives to be doing the wrong
thing in the way he dismisses his trusted lieutenant, Cassio, after his
brawl with Montano. Othello does not give Cassio a chance to answer to the
charge or explain what has happened. He acts on what he sees, as a soldier
might be expected to act, but does not wait to investigate the reality of
events and again places his trust in the wrong person.
Othello causes the first alarm among his company when he strikes Desdemona
in rage. Lodovico and others cannot account for the change in the Duke’s
trusted governor. Othello’s natural reaction as a warrior is to destroy the
enemy and protect his honour. He feels that by her betrayal, Desdemona has
dishonoured both of them and fears further dishonour if she is allowed to
live. Although he expresses his violent hatred for Desdemona once he
believes she is unfaithful, as he kills her he also expresses his fear of
condemning her soul to eternal torment. Othello cannot see that in
destroying the physical element of Desdemona whose body he believes brought
disgrace to them both, he is destroying the being who loves him most and
tries to protect his reputation with her last breath.
Othello’s fall is inevitable. Iago’s scheming destroys his peace of mind
and brings about his moral decay. When he renounces his command and his
career we feel sorrow for him, because we can see that his life is lost. He
learns the truth too late to save his wife, himself or the innocent Emilia.
His ignorance of the evil of Iago and the pride that made him value his own
honour more than the truth combine to bring about his downfall.
At the end of the play, Othello’s noble friends are left to try to make
sense of these terrible events and to come to terms with Othello’s fall from
power and honour. His star has been “put out” like the light of Desdemona’s
life. Othello himself, through his own blindness and pride has sacrificed
all that he held dear, his reputation, love, military career and life. His
situation is essentially tragic.
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