Blindness In Othello

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Reading A Play p. 82-84
Reading the play vs. Seeing the play Employ conventions: customary methods of presenting an action, usual and recognizable devices that an audience is willing to accept. Antigone. Chorus is a group of citizens who stand to one side of the action, conversing with the principal character and commenting. Othello. introduces the soliloquy a monologue in which we seem to overhear the character's innermost thoughtsuttered aloud. Aside: character addresses the audience directly, unheard by other characters, i.e. evil plans are in place! Muhahal Tragedy: portrays a serious conflict between human beings and some superior, overwhelming force. Usually ends horribly. Protagonist undergoes a reversal of fortune, from good to bad, ending in catastrophe. Many define tragedy as …show more content…

Issues of blindness and sight aren't quite as obvious in AntigOne, but the same basic tension is there. Tiresias gives the current king, Creon, a warning, and the king is unable to see the wisdom of the seer's words. Creon is blinded by pride-his unwillingness to compromise, to listen to the opinions of his people, or to appear to be defeated by a woman. The blind Tiresias can see that the gods are angry and that tragedy will strike if Creon doesn't rethink his decision and change his mind. Creon lacks the insight to see this. In that sense, he is blind. And although he does eventually change his mind, and come to see the error of his stubbornness, it is too late-events have spiraled out of his control, and he now must witness the destruction of his family. Symbolism: Antigone's Tomb-- Ceoil chooses to execute Antigone by sealing her in a tomb alive. As Tresias points out, Creon has ordered that a dead body (Polynices's) be left above ground and has ordered the entombment of a live person. Antigone's live entombment is a symbol of Creon's perversion of the natural order of things, which violate the social and religious customs of death and meddles with the

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