Othello

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The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The story is about Othello, who is a general in the Venetian army and is convinced by his trusted ensign, Iago that his wife is cheating on him. Eventually Othello kills his wife and when he finds out the truth he then kills himself. Most of the conflict in the play stems from Othello’s value assumption that women are not equal to men, which leads to dramatic and value irony. Othello’s relationship with Desdemona, his trust in Iago and Othello’s jealousy indicates Othello’s belief that women are not equal to men.
Millicent Bell wrote an essay entitles “Othello’s Jealousy” which talks about Othello’s sexual jealousy. The author talks about how Othello’s jealousy eats away at him and his determination to make his wife turn out to be a cheater. A.C. Bradley’s “The Noble Othello” goes into depth about how the author thinks that Othello is innocent in the play. He sees Othello are noble and one of Shakespeare’s best characters.
In the play, Othello views women very differently. He see’s women almost as an object. Something that should never be seen nor heard unless wanted. This is a value assumption because it derives from ethics and morals. In the play this is shown through verbal irony. Throughout the play he is seen talking to Desdemona in a very demeaning way. He sees his wife not as a partner and a lover but as someone who works for him and must follow everything he says. That is one of the reason’s he was so angry when Iago told him that his wife was cheating on him. He felt betrayed, but not by a wife, by a soldier. A.C Bradley explains that Othello “was newly married; in the circumstances he cannot have known much of Desdemona newly married” (831)...

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.... This is an example of dramatic irony used throughout the play, because the audience knows that Desdemona didn’t cheat on Othello and this is all part of Iago’s plan.
Othello claims that his guilt impelled him to commit suicide, but before he pleads only to be commemorated with nobility. “Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, / Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak / Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought / Perplex’d in the extreme” (v.ii.342-346). Othello solicited to be known as a man so bewildered that he became unaware of his own actions when he accused Desdemona of disloyalty and dispatched of her without mercy. He doesn’t kill himself because of guilt, he kills himself so his legacy will be noble Othello, not as the man who killed his wife for simply hearing a rumor. This shows the audience that he is not sad that he killed his wife.

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