The Tragic Traits Of Othello The Play English Literature Essay
Normally we find in the Hagiographas of William Shakespeare, he writes his dramas environing a chief character who because of their traits and actions either take them to a tragic destiny or a gracious rebellion. Many times we find one of the characters dies from a tragic event that they themselves have caused and merely can non get the better of. One such character who follows this word picture is Othello. Othello is one of Shakespeare ‘s most good known characters. I will discourse how his ain traits and actions lead to his death and a tragic stoping that he could non alter.
In Shakespeare ‘s drama Othello, we find a adult male who suffers great calamity when he is betrayed by his sure friend Iago. Trust is an admirable trait of Othello ‘s, but he places all his trust and religion in his friend Iago instead than in his loving married woman Desdemona. In Othello we have the calamity of adult male as “ angry ape, ” devoid of any inkling of his religious nature. The character of Iago in intentionally pursing a class of psychological offense reaches a pitch of about intolerable strength in the effects ( Wild 9 ) . The drama has barely begun when Iago casually reveals the key to his character to the audience as he softly confides to Roderigo, “ I am non what I am ” ( I.i.65 ) ; ( Wild 9 ) . We will see as the secret plan unfolds that Iago will invent a craft program to utilize Othello ‘s ain natural traits against him.
Iago was really covetous of Othello since Othello held a high place in the Venetian forces. Othello had upset Iago by advancing Cassio alternatively of Iago to be his second-in-command. Cassio, in Iago ‘s words, was a adult male “ That ne’er set a squadron in the field, / Nor the division of conflict knows ” ( I.i.19-20 ) . This publicity of Cassio did non set good with Iago. Because of Iago ‘s inner hatred for Othello, Othello ‘s tragic destiny is played out in a aforethought love trigon that in the terminal was all a prevarication. We will see, when the drape stopping points, it is Iago who has manipulated all other characters at will, commanding their motions and pin downing them in an intricate web of prevarications. We can non overlook the obvious though ; it was Othello ‘s ain traits that in the terminal lead to his eventual death.
Othello was a proud adult male, non one to be made merriment of or to be mocked. Some may reason that his award was his undoing, while others might state the intimations of instability in his individual lead to his eventual death. Were these traits excessively much for him to get the better of? Were they excessively much for him to see the obvious prevarications being told to him by his loyal trusted friend Iago? To better understand Othello we need to look deeper into his lineage. Could it be that he has inherited these tragic traits from his ascendants, the Moors?
The “ Moors ” , as they were known in ancient times, were African Americans who were thought of as smooth speakers. The Moor ‘s idea and genuinely believed that they were traveling to populate secure, plentiful, and happy lives with no force. They were besides known to be really smart people. They showed their thankfulness for their faith by go toing church maps on a regular basis. All the people who knew them believed they lived a more honest life than any other known African Americans of their clip. ( Africanus 2007 )
In Africa, during Shakespearean clip, many African American people were non known to be as baronial and honest but were known to be destitute and extremely addicted to wrath. They would bring down hurting on anyone merely so they would retrieve who they were. They could non prolong any friendly relationships because of their manner of life. Africans ne’er spoke quietly with a soft tone but spoke loud with choler in their voices. Their authorities looked and frowned upon them as if they were Canis familiariss. It was their spiritual belief that if they did non alter the traits they were born with so those traits would take them to their Gravess. Othello lives his life with the same traits his ascendants have lived with for many old ages. He shows during the drama how his traits are taking him to his ain death ( Africanus 2007 ) . The calamity of this state of affairs is that Othello ‘s baronial qualities are deficient to get by with the universe ( Newton 2 ) .
We find as the drama unfolds, another one of Othello ‘s tragic traits was being excessively trusting or possibly more exactly, mislaying his trust. Othello loved in a heartfelt way a miss named Desdemona, he loved her non merely because of her beautiful pale tegument but because of the manner she admired him. Desdemona ‘s love for Othello was both religious and sexual ( Newton 3 ) . She adored him and would listen to his narratives over and over once more. He loved her because she loved him non for his place but for the adult male he was. Others adored and honored him for his past achievements as a war hero, but non Desdemona. Her true love for him was revealed as she said, “ I saw Othello ‘s countenance in his head / And to his honours and his valiant parts / Did I my psyche and lucks consecrate ” ( I.iii.247-249 ) . At the clip of their matrimony, Desdemona could hold ne’er imagined the traits she admired so much in Othello would finally take to both of their deceases.
Another one of Othello ‘s traits, his covetous nature, finally overpowered him. Othello admitted this defect to himself when he said, “ O, beware, my Godhead, of green-eyed monster! / It is the jealous monster which doth mock / The meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss / Who, certain of his destiny, loves non his wronger ; ” ( III.iii.165-168 ) . Iago uses this jealous monster of green-eyed monster against Othello. He was continually taunted by the ideas of criminal conversation fed to him by his sure friend Iago. Iago wanted Othello to believe his married woman Desdemona was being unfaithful. In his most dare secret plan, Iago used the simple error of a dropped scarf to put in gesture misgiving between Othello and his married woman.
Othello had given his married woman a scarf that had one time belonged to his Mother. The scarf was really of import to Othello and held a particular topographic point in his bosom. While out walking one twenty-four hours in the garden, Desdemona accidently dropped the scarf where Iago ‘s married woman Emilia, who was the keeper of Desdemona, found it. Iago took it from her and his immorality program started to develop. Iago knew if he planted seeds of uncertainty in Othello ‘s head, that Othello swearing him as he did, would believe him over Desdemona. Iago so convinced his married woman to fall in his program by innocently seting the scarf with Cassio to do it look Desdemona had given it to him and they were holding a secret matter. Since Othello was covetous by nature and because of his trust in loyal Iago, Othello began to believe the seeds of uncertainty planted by Iago ‘s narratives of her alleged criminal conversation. Iago went every bit far as to conceal Othello in nearby shrubs while he had a good crafted conversation, purportedly sing Desdemona, with Cassio as Cassio casually strolled by the topographic point where the enraged Othello ballad in delay. Iago deliberately drew Cassio near to the shrubs where the eavesdropping Othello lay hidden and said “ Ply Desdemona good, and you are certain o n’t ” ( IV.i.108 ) . Iago so skilfully and rapidly moved Cassio off from the listen ining ears of Othello before Cassio could answer. The conversation between the two continued, now out of earreach of the eavesdropping Othello. Iago began talking of his ain married woman to Cassio, both express joying aloud. The misrepresentation had worked merely as Iago had planned. Othello automatically assumed they were talking of his married woman Desdemona and he was overcome with rage at the idea of his married woman lying down with Cassio. Unfortunately, Othello ‘s trust for his loyal friend Iago blinded him to the cunning misrepresentation being played out before him and his jealousy overtook him doing him unable to comprehend his married woman ‘s existent trueness which in the terminal was merely for him.
Now it was his 3rd and most tragic trait of choler and fury that overtook him in the terminal. The mere idea of his married woman in the weaponries of Cassio blinded him with fury. Bing the proud adult male he was Othello could non bear to hold people express joying and mocking him as he imaged his married woman mousing out to be in the weaponries of her lover. With jealously, choler, and fury coursing through his venas and being blinded by his trust for his loyal friend Iago, the Moor stood beside his married woman as she slept wondering at her pure beauty. Gazing at his married woman, he quietly whispered, “ Yet she must decease, else she ‘ll bewray more work forces ” ( V.ii.6 ) . She heard him and awoke, smiling at him she said, “ Will you come to bed, my Godhead ” ( V.ii.23 ) ? At this clip, unbeknownst to Desdemona, her destiny had already been sealed ; Othello had made up his head. He knew what he now must make. Somberly he urged her to believe of any wickedness she might hold committed for which she might implore for Eden ‘s forgiveness. Trying to acquire her to squeal, he stated “ Well, do it, and be brief ; I will walk by. / I would non kill thy unprepared spirit. / No, heavens fortend! I would non kill thy psyche ” ( V.ii.30-32 ) . Desdemona spoke in sudden fright pleading for her life, “ O ostracize me, my Godhead, but kill me non ” ( V.ii.78 ) ! The traits of trueness to Iago, jealously over a married woman who in fact had ne’er betrayed him, and overpowering fury all converged into a individual minute of tragic proportions as Othello overcomes Desdemona with his strength and slowly clutters her. She struggles and pleads, calls out to God, but she is no lucifer against his choler fueled by his pride and green-eyed monster. Her life easy slips off, but her love for Othello remains true, as her death words she professes to his artlessness by stating, “ A innocent decease I die ” ( V.ii.121 ) . When asked by Emilia who did this, Desdemona loved her hubby so much that she defended him to the terminal stating, “ Nobody-I myself. Farewell. / Commend me to my family Godhead. O, farewell ” ( V.ii.124-125 ) !
As the last act unfolds, we see that Shakespeare has woven a tragic narrative stoping with Othello ‘s realisation of what he has done, killing his loyal and loving married woman with his ain bear custodies. Othello learns from Emilia, Iago ‘s married woman that Desdemona has been loyal to him the full clip and in fact it was her hubby, his loyal swearing friend Iago, who had deceived him. With Iago ‘s craft secret plan eventually revealed to all in the room, Othello sees no other action than to take his ain life. In a concluding minute of desperation, Othello proclaims, “ I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No manner but this, / Killing myself, to decease upon a buss ( V.ii.354-355 ) . With those simple words, the title is done. We find in the terminal, it was non Desdemona that had betrayed their love but Othello ‘s ain tragic defects that had sealed their destiny forever.
As we apply Othello to today ‘s clip, work forces fall urgently into jealousy merely as Othello did. This is a trait non merely of work forces but adult females every bit good. We all suffer from this green-eyed monster and fury at some point in our lives. In life we all encounter this quandary at some point in a relationship, even though most of it turns out to be similar to Othello ‘s instance of a made up confederacy. Some believe and act upon what they hear before they know the whole truth.
Take for case my ain life. I can associate my ain male parent to Othello. My female parent was loyal towards my male parent and was a really trusty honest individual merely as Desdemona. She loved him really much for who he was merely as Desdemona loved Othello. But my male parent heard from a trusted friend rumours and lies much like the prevarications told to Othello by Iago. He began to believe that my female parent was non loyal to him at all and was non the individual he thought her to be. When my female parent was pregnant with me, he questioned if I was even his kid. In world, my female parent had ne’er been with another adult male. When the twenty-four hours came to convey me into this universe my male parent assumed that because I came early I was n’t his, so he left her without of all time happening out the truth.
Fortunately in my parent ‘s instance, it did non stop in a slaying self-destruction such as the one portrayed by Shakespeare in Othello. But it does turn out that the traits possessed by Othello, trueness to those who you trust, green-eyed monster, and in the terminal overwhelming choler, merely as the traits possessed by my ain male parent, can take to lay waste toing and life altering events that one time you take action upon them there is no turning back. Somewhat like Othello, my male parent found out that what he had heard was incorrect. He wished he had non done what he had, but like Othello he could non alter what had been done. I did non cognize my male parent until I was 13 old ages old and those are yearss neither he nor I can of all time acquire back. Just as the actions of Othello, no affair how much he wanted to take his actions back, in the terminal he could non. We as worlds are our ain worst enemy. In the tragic instance of Othello, because of his natural traits, non merely his destiny but the destiny of his loyal married woman had been sealed and this unluckily was a destiny that could non be undone.
