What is the reason for suicide? Most people would say, that person was depressed, or maybe they were lonely. In Henrik Ibsen’s book, Hedda Gabler, the play results in a character shooting themselves. As well as, William Shakespeare’s Othello, the play ends in a suicide. To find out the reason for those suicides, you must take it back to the start of it all…the beginning of the play. Why exactly did these two characters find it necessary to take their life? It seems that Hedda took her life because it was the easy way out. For Othello, he could not live with something horrible he had done, so suicide was his only answer.
Hedda Gabler should change her name to manipulator, because that’s what she does. Who does she manipulate? The answer is,
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Unfortunately, that love does not stay there long, as Othello finds out a treacherous thing about his wife. The horrible act she has committed, is supposedly cheating on him. The reason the word supposedly is used, is because you find out that she has not cheated on him. Meet Iago, the man who has plotted against Desdemona, simply, setting her up. The reason he is doing this, is because is plotting revenge against Othello as well. He suspects that Othello has slept with his wife, “For that I do suspect the lusty Moor Hath leaped into my seat; the thought whereof Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards; And nothing can or shall content my soul Till I am evened with him, wife for wife.” (Act 2, Scene one, page 1037-1038). He concocts an evil plan against Othello and his wife. Iago eventually tells Othello of how his wife, Desdemona is cheating on him. Othello does not completely believe him at first, he will need convincing. Iago had left Desdemona’s handkerchief at a man name Cassio’s house, to make it look like she left it there. Othello starts acting strange and his poor wife has no idea why. He eventually accuses her after she claims to be faithful to him, “Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell” (Act 4, Scene 2, page 1075). She seems genuinely confused and shocked that he would accuse her of such a terrible thing, “By heaven, you do me wrong! (Act 4, Scene 2, page 1077). …show more content…
It resulted in horrific death, as well as many deaths along the way. Suicide seemed to be the only way out in these two plays. Both Hedda as well as Othello decided that they could not live anymore with the circumstances that surrounded them. You realize throughout these plays that both characters, as well as others have many flaws. Their flaws follow them every step of the way, and ruin them as well. Othello’s main flaw in this play is jealousy. You see his jealousy overtake him and control his actions. If he not been so prideful, he may have been able to hear what his wife had to say, and understand that she was telling the truth. His pride and jealousy not only ruined his marriage, but resulted in murdering his wife and himself. Hedda on the other hand, had many flaws that ruined her as a person. She was quite rude, ungrateful, prideful, and even a manipulator. Her flaws affected in her in the ways that she had treated other people. These two plays show you that your flaws can overtake and control you. It is only right to address them, and admit where you are wrong so that everyone can live in peace. These two plays also teach you that when you are prideful or jealous, it never results in something positive. It can ruin friendships, families, and most importantly, your marriage. Although these two plays did not end on a positive note, they did teach a great lesson on how us humans have many flaws. If
Othello has many positive traits, including being a great leader and loyal. He also has one negative trait that ultimately leads to his death; jealousy. Iago provokes deep, strong emotions in Othello, jealousy being the strongest. Jealousy is a nasty little emotion. It causes people to do terrible things because once it is on a person’s conscience, it stays for quite some time. Because of these effects, jealousy can impact some of the strongest people such as Othello. The love between Desdemona and Othello was portrayed so elevated and pure and was filled with religious words and phrases that just added to the strength and sanctity of their love. Othello has such a strong mind, but jealousy caused by the manipulation of Iago, negatively impacts him. Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona is cheating on him with his friend Cassio. When Othello asks Iago for proof of Desdemona’s deceit, Iago describes scenes and events in which Othello has a reason to be jealous. In Act III, Scene I Iago is describing to Othello, Desdemona and Cassio’s imagined relationship, “It is impossible you should see this/ were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, as salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross as ignorance made drunk.” These images planted themselves inside Othello’s mind and haunted him until he did something about it. These images led to Othello believing Desdemona really did love
Hedda Gabler is a text in which a very domineering society drives a woman to her suicidal death. Many argue that Hedda’s death is an act of courage, as rebellion against the rules of the society, however other believe that Hedda’s actions show cowardice, as she is unable to cope with the harsh reality of the her situation. Hedda's singular goal throughout the play has been to prove that she is still in possession of free will. Hedda shows many examples of both courage and cowardice throughout the play, differing to the character she is with.
Feeling betrayal from the person you love can be one of the most hurting and painful feelings somebody gets to experience in life, but the feeling of being betrayed accompanied by publicity can cause more harm to the situation. That feeling of “Everybody knew except for myself” can be extremely excruciating and can cause extreme harm like portrayed on the story written By William Shakespeare Othello. In the story Othello, we have the protagonist Desdemona and Othello who are married to each other, and the antagonist, Iago, who ruined their marriage by lying to Othello that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him. This story ends in a tragedy as we would expect from the author Shakespeare, but the key that led to the tragedy was the theme of pride. Othello was a very powerful and prevailing male character, who believed his men above anyone including his wife. Othello wouldn’t have been able to go on with the embarrassment of knowing people believe his wife has been lying to him. Othello’s self-conscious and pride was the motive that led him to killing his innocent wife, Desdemona.
The first snowfall signals the true arrival of the winter season in the Canadian tundra and woodland. A gray wolf sets out on a hunting expedition in the fresh, brisk air of the morning. A young, innocent bison, has been separated from its herd, it will soon be killed. In the eye’s of an unaware onlooker, the act is pure evil; that little bison did not deserve to die; however, the wolf is a mother and has hungry pups to feed. The pups would otherwise starve to death if she didn’t go hunting. Hedda Gabler is that wolf in Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler. On the superficial level, Hedda establishes herself as immoral and with a sole intent to hurt others. Sympathetically, the wolf was purely hunting for survival. Similarly, Ibsen progressed
In the Shakespear’s play “Othello” it is clear to see that the relationship between him and Desdemona is a complicated one wrought with passion and confusion which leads to emotional trauma and physical abuse. At point and times in the story of “Othello” love was transmuted different. Othello was not as gentle and kind as Desdemona when it came to his lover he a times exhibited symptoms of insanity. He also at times exhibited lack of confidence that is found in the perceived unity of marriage. This was apparent that the two lover on loves battlefield were on two opposing sides, Desdemona was honest and faithful to Othello until their tragic end.
Hedda is a product of the nineteenth century, when women were ordained to become either proper old maids (like George's aunts) or modest housekeepers (like Mrs. Elvsted), however Hedda is an anomaly. She has been raised by a dominating father and rebels against his leadership at the same time she revels in his power. General Gabler taught Hedda to ride and shoot, which symbolizes the origin of her attraction with the violent and the romantic, Hedda's intense preoccupation with pistols, her desire to have control over the fate of another individual and take part in the public life of men, her rejection of family life shown in her at times mal...
The first love one may want to peer into in both Othello and King Lear is the Love one may hold for a significant other. This type of love is prevalent in Othello between Othello and Desdemona, and can be compared to King Lear through Goneril and Regan with their husbands and having Edmund thrown in the mix. Desdemona's love for Othello is made very clear right from the start when she goes to bat for him against her father. This is seen when her father was so upset that he brought charges upon Othello to try and revoke their vows. She gives reasons why her explanation of the reasons she loves Othello defines her essential character as a woman of loyalty and fidelity to him, and not simply to a picture of him gleaned from a story told by him (B. Long). Later on in the play Desdemona's loves continues to shine through until the very end when Othello has became so enraged he is over her about to take her life she pleas to keep through her reinstating her love for him. According to the critic B. Long this is not just a scapegoat to save her life but that she truly loves him in a very genuine way; one may have a hard time finding text to prove otherwise. If Desdemona's love for Othello was a subservient love, generated by seeing his facade in his mind and fueled by her delight in his honors and heroic parts, Othello's love towards Desdemona is rather different.
Hedda Gabler is a play with an undoubtedly interesting main character; Hedda herself. While she may have her faults, neurotic traits and undeniable issues it would be glaringly ignorant to ignore the fact that she is, above all a tragic victim. In order to properly showcase how Hedda falls somewhat perfectly into the mould of a tragic victim we must first figure out what exactly a tragic victim is. The most prominent and fitting description seems to come from the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his ‘Poetics’, while his definition is actually of a tragic hero instead of victim it is never the less still an extremely accurate definition and is still able to depict both victims and heroes equally well; he tells us that a tragic victim –or hero- is usually of noble birth, had a tragic flaw that usually leads to their downfall, be a character that the audience can relate to and feel pity or fear for and that the fall of the character is at least partially of their own making. By this definition Hedda is most certainly a tragic victim, and there is little room to argue against this.
In Act 1. Desdemona admits that she fell in love with Othello's eloquence and harrowing adventures; 'I saw Othello's visage in his mind'. This outlines his sense of nobility in language,which empahsis how much of an experienced warrior ans revered noble man he is. Moreover Desdemona reveals Othello's nobility of love, 'She loved me for the dangers I had passed/ I loved her that she did pity them'. She succeeds in unveiling a side in Othello's nature which show him as a loving, respectful husband. He is clearly trustful of Desdemona and is not by any means jealous of him, as he allows her to travel to Cyprus with Iago,' To his conveyance I assign my wife'.
Othello is one who believes in justice and fairness and will make no exception, even for the love of his life. Ultimately, he murders her because he is, “One that loved not wisely but too well.” (V, ii, 398) This, above all, gives the play its powerful end. Othello’s true flaw is not vile, destructive jealousy, but rather pure and prevailing love.
Throughout Othello’s journey, it is apparent he had many drastic changes in his behavior and how he reacted to people as he became more and more upset. He went from being a gentle and calm character, to a paranoid and insecure character, to an out of control and enraged monster. In the end, he finds out the truth as to what was really going on, ultimately resulting in Othello’s suicide.
It has been suggested that Hedda Gabler is a drama about the individual psyche -- a mere character study. It has even been written that Hedda Gabler "presents no social theme" (Shipley 333). On the contrary, I have found social issues and themes abundant in this work.
This tragedy is brought about by a simple manipulation of Iago, the villain of the play. The jealousy led Othello to a path of constant questioning of his wife, and his friend Cassio. Throughout the play, he sinks deeper and deeper into his doubt and eventually that causes him to kill not only the love of his life, but also himself. In her work, “This that you call Love”: Sexual and Social Tragedy in Othello, Gayle Greene (2004) argues that the tragedy occurs from adherence to patriarchal rules and stereotypes (Greene 655-659). According to Gary Greene, the tragedy is caused by “men’s misunderstandings of women and women’s inability to protect themselves from society’s conception of them” (666).
This quote brings light to how Hedda acts on a daily basis where she is driven by possessions. In Hedda Gabler the theme of internal pressure is portrayed throughout the play. This can be seen through Hedda’s greed and materialism, her uncaring attitude and her manipulative personality. Firstly, Hedda is shown as a very uncaring person towards the people around her.
Hester was very trustworthy, she kept in secrets that could have possibly changed her and her daughter