Examples Of Grit In Othello

Faith George

Ms. Milliner

EES21QH-05

01/20/2017

Othello and Grit

According to the article Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck, Dweck’s research showed that the way you perceive yourself and the way you adopt it, affects the path you take throughout the course of your life. Mindset is viewed from two different perspectives; fixed mindset and growth mindset. These perspectives affect motivation and impact achievement. The fixed mindset is the belief that your abilities are permanent which causes traits like moral character, intelligence and personality to be limited also causing a sense of self consciousness. As said by Dweck, it’s “a hand you’re dealt and have to live with”, meaning it’s accepting what you have and dealing

with it. On the other hand, growth mindset is the complete opposite. In growth mindset, the abilities you had during fixed mindset are now abilities that you can grow through efforts because of development. According to Carol Dweck, there are two meanings to ability, a fixed ability that needs to be proven, fixed mindset, and changeable ability that has the flexibility of development, growth mindset. Growth mindset also coincides with grit. Grit is the perseverance and passion for long term goals, having stamina, sticking with your future day in day out (for years) and working really hard to make that future become reality, even if it’s slow and steady. According to Duckworth’s research, high achievement demonstrates that grit is as important and equivalent to intelligence; therefore having grit shows the level of intelligence within a person.
Throughout the reading of the play, Othello by William Shakespeare, I realized that many of the characters, for the duration of the play, displayed characteristics of grit and mindset, whether it was fixed or growth. Most of the characters’ attitudes and motivations were more evident than others, but their connections made the play such a great tragedy.
Othello, the Moor, is set apart from the dramatic kin of the play as the outsider.

He is seen to be strange but it’s both threatening and intriguing because he dramatically differs from the rest of the characters of Othello. Othello shows qualities of a person with grit and growth mindset, which later forms into fixed mindset. He is filled with love and passion, especially for his wife, Desdemona, whom is European. Othello is open to being married to a European woman knowing that Africans with dark skin are usually known to be beasts. He was determined to prove his love for his wife and he wouldn’t stop until everyone accepted his marriage for what it was, a Nigerian in holy matrimony with a European woman. But, thanks to the evil Iago, Othello’s growth mindset changes to fixed mindset when he is manipulated to believe his lovely Desdemona is sleeping with his Lieutenant Cassio. “Haply for I am black, and have not those soft parts of conversation that chamberers have, or for I am declined into the vale of years - yet that’s so much - she’s gone. I am abused, and my relief must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage, that we can call these delicate creatures ours, and not their appetites! I had rather be a toad and live upon the vapor dungeon than keep a corner in the thing I love for others’ uses. Yet ‘tis the plague of great ones; prerogatived are they less than the base. ‘Tis destiny unshunnable, like death.” (Othello Act 3.3.263-275). When he says “and have not soft parts of conversation” he is starting to believe all of the things people say about those with darker skin, barbaric and inarticulate. This shows that Iago’s lies are starting to affect Othello’s humane character. Iago’s lies also bring out Othello’s perseverance and grit to prove himself as a warrior who rid Venice of a whore, Desdemona. After discovering the true lies of Iago, Othello begins to feel guilty for taking part in Desdemona's killing. With all the guilt killing him inside, he stabs

himself causing him to die. His suicide is a symbol of his last act as a loyal servant to Venice, killing the only enemy he has to conquer, himself.
Desdemona, the wife of Othello, is a delicate woman who isn’t afraid to say what she wants. She looks beyond a person's body into their heart and spirit, showing that there is more to a person than just physical attributes. This explains why she was so comfortable going against the customs of Venice and marrying Othello. Desdemona is fine with change taking its position in her life. Desdemona makes it clear that she is the wife to Othello as much as she is the daughter to Brabantio.“My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty. To you I am bound for life and education. My life and education both do learn me how to respect you: you are the lord of duty; I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband; and so much duty as my mother showed to you, preferring you before her father, so much I challenge that I may profess due to the Moor my lord” (Desdemona, Brabantio Act 1.3.181-189). The words in which she speaks to her father, shows her bravery and courage, that she doesn’t have to force others to believe her love for Othello but to simply tell them how it is and how it will be till the end. To further the reasoning of Desdemona having growth mindset, she was also fine with the fact that she had to die and protected her husband when he killed her, showing loyalty as a wife not dishonesty, in which Othello mistaken it for. Grit is also a part of the long list of qualities within Desdemona. The commitment towards her marriage, even when the relationship began to resemble a plateau, the propensity and dogged attitude towards her marriage all showed her grittiness.
Motivation has to be established for a coherent change, and Iago had the motivation to drive his gritty attitude. Iago, is the villain character who is beyond jealous, manipulative, and insensitive but the way he did it shows his intelligence. He is also considered to be a narcissistic lover. Iago knew what he was doing and knew who to target to make his plan a successful one. With that, he got closer to Othello only as a strategy to exploit him and his life. His motivation was simply to become Lieutenant for Othello and revenge for what Iago thought was Emilia, Iago’s wife, sleeping with Othello. When Othello denied him and chose Cassio, his anger rises and that was motive enough for him to push towards destroying the power Othello built for himself. “Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago. In following him, I follow but myself Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, but seeming so, for my peculiar end, for when my outward action doth demonstrate the native act figure of my heart in complement extern, ‘tis not long after but I will wear my hearts upon my sleeve for daws to peck at. I am not what I am” (Iago, Roderigo Act 1.1. 56-60). Iago believes people are foolish so he will use this assumption to continue to play deception on the characters throughout the play. The grit he shows is nothing but negative. He also entered a world where he stretched himself to developing and finding different ways to approach every situation to corrupt the characters’ minds with a lot of effort, showing a strong sense of growth mindset.
The extreme opposite to Desdemona’s angelic character is Bianca. She is another outsider like Othello, not only because she is a courtesan but because she is a muslim like Othello once was. Bianca shows growth mindset because despite the fact that she is the local prostitute, she has an open mind to love and having the ability to change for her love. She also demonstrates grit because she has the perseverance and commitment to get Cassio, her love interest. This grit also shows that a prostitute has room for loving someone.
The battle the characters have throughout the play for power is domestic, emotional and more than ever personal, for example the intense relationship between Othello and Iago. According to Russ Mcdonald, “If Othello’s tragedy is seen as a paradoxical self-annihilation of his imaginative talent, a trait that ought to be beneficent and consolatory, then it is hard not to see Shakespeare the artist as exploring his own distinctive vulnerability” (p.iii). Shakespeare tackled his own vulnerability to make such a great tragedy, demonstrating that even many years ago people struggled with grit and mindset.