Othello is a tragic Shakespearean play about a Moor named Othello who is driven mad by jealousy via his flag bearer, Iago, based on Othello’s insecurities about his relationship with his wife, Desdemona. Othello has many adaptations through both theatrical performance and movies. One of the performances were the 1990 version with Laurence Fishburne. It was one of the first portrayals of Othello with an actual black man playing Othello rather than a white man with black face (a white actor who paints their face and other visible body parts black to portray a black character). Throughout this play, the common themes of deceit and emotional warfare exists, portrayed by both the actors and director.
One way these themes are shown is through directors’
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During the beginning scenes when Othello and Desdemona get married, they share what could be considered as a cringy kiss. When they go in for the kiss, Othello and Desdemona keep their eyes open from the moment they move closer until after their lips touch. After staring into each other's eyes for a couple of seconds, Desdemona is the first one to break, quickly squeezing her eyes shut. Through this actors’ choice, you can see a bit of foreshadowing of the basic plotline. With the soft approach to the beginning of the kiss, you can see the beginning of the story with their love shining. As they get closer, you can see the tension growing in the kiss, symbolizing the rising action of the play with Othello’s growing unease. With the eyes open, you see the two of them regarding each other, Othello with suspicion and Desdemona with confusion, trying to work out what is wrong with Othello. By the end of the kiss, Desdemona desperately squeezes her eyes shut, trying to appease to Othello on last time and stop him from harming her, but from Othello’s wide, unwavering eyes, you can see his decision of killing Desdemona has been made and he will not back down from it. Another actor’s choice is when Desdemona strokes Othello’s face as she is dying from him smothering her. Through this action, it is shown that despite his wanting to kill her, she still loves him. This shows her emotions are at war because she is not sure if
At the time when Othello is about to kill Desdemona his heart is tried to find a reason not to. Othello cried, “O balmy breath, that dost almost persuade/ justice to break her sword, one more, one more!/ Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,/ and love thee after. One more, and that’s the last!/ So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep,/ but they are cruel tears. This sorrow's heavenly;/ it strikes where, it doth love (Act 5: 2; lines 16-22). Even though his hatred for Desdemona was strong, his love for her was even stronger and sweeter than ever before. For almost half of the play, Othello had grown a deep hatred for his newly wed Desdemona but exactly at the moment when he was about to kill her, his weak heart did not have the courage to commit his heroic duty. This shows how unbalanced his emotions are and how he cannot seem to get his mind straight. Even after his spouse’s death, Othello would still continue to reveal his darkest
As the details of her recent marriage to Othello unfold, Desdemona appears to be a woman driven by emotions. She marries a man because he has shared his stories of grand adventure. In order to do so, she elopes from her loving father’s house in the middle of the night. These seem like actions of emotion stemming from her love – or possibly infatuation – for Othello. Contradictory to this, when asked to speak about her willingness to enter the marriage, she responds with a very clear and sensible reason for staying with Othello:
Othello is a man of romantic nature. He fell in love with the beautiful Desdemona. He was accused of stealing her away from her father. Othello was of a different race and did not fit in with her family. Othello makes a plea for Desdemona and tells his story which wooed her to begin with. Othello tells of the love that her father showed him since his boyish days. This was like a match made in heaven that overcame many obstacles which got in their way. Othello could not understand why he was good enough to work and fight alongside of her father, but was not good enough for his daughter.
These lines are the first hint given that Desdemona may not have always been completely captivated by her husband. These words, not denied by Othello, sit in contrast to his own. Upon hearing her words, Othello seems a changed man, depressed and submissive, his new attitude brought on by “Desdemona’s own honest account of her original feelings for Othello and the role Cassio played in Othello’s winning of her” (Macaulay 269). With just a little concern for Othello’s own pride, Desdemona have chosen to withhold some words or soften their blow. Instead, her own pride continues to lead her headlong onto a destructive
The tragedy of Othello, written by William Shakespeare, presents the main character Othello, as a respectable, honorable, and dignified man, but because of his insecurities and good nature, he is easily taken advantage of and manipulated by his peers and alleged friends. The dynamic of Othello’s character significantly changes throughout the play. The contrast is most pronounced from the beginning of the play to its conclusion, switching from being calm and peaceful to acts of uncontrolled venomous rage. Othello’s motivation in the play appears to be his love and concern for his wife Desdemona, which ironically, ends up being his downfall in the end.
Othello is a man who comes from a hard life. In the time period the play is set in, racism is common and Othello is a target for it due to his dark skin. He fought in many battles and was put into slavery for a time. Now he is a high ranking General in the army. Othello, for all that he has been through, is also kind, caring, and trusting of those close to him. He cares and trusts his comrades and is loving and kind to his wife, Desdemona. Othello is also r...
The statement “The only journey is the one within” accurately depicts the demise of a character’s psychological development. The play Othello by Shakespeare (1603) and the short story Death by Landscape by Margret Atwood (1990) both display their character’s inner journeys through a single experience to develop their characteristics and their psychological development. Paranoia and obsessiveness are the catalyst of their demise and inner journey.
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.
Othello was written by Jacobean playwright William Shakespeare in 1603. It proved a huge success when first performed in 1604, in front of a huge audience. The story is one of Shakespeare’s great tragedy themed plays. Othello is the black protagonist and highly esteemed Venetian general. Iago is the ambitious but scheming villain of the play. When Othello promotes a man called Michael Cassio over Iago, he is furious and launches a malicious campaign against Othello. Meanwhile, Othello has married a white woman, Desdemona, without her father knowing. Through Iago’s plotting, Othello suspects that his wife is having an affair and after many murders and plots, Othello smothers his wife. But he finds out the truth about Iago, and horrified at his actions, kills himself.
The main character, Othello, is a very interesting character. He is bold is every wear. He is an insecure person. His only experiences are the ones that he has had on the battlefield. He is a General who is a strong willed and is demanding, in his own way. He is socially inexperienced, and you can tell by the marriage that is apparent. The way that Othello treats Desdemona. You almost feel as if he has a kind of control over her. When Othello thought and suspected that Desdemona was having an affair, he confronts her. That is then followed by her death. [scene 5 act 2]Desdemona "O banish me, my lord, but kill me not!Othello: Down, strumpet! Desdemona: Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight. Othello: Nay if you strive- Desdemona: But half an hour! Desdemona: But while I say one prayer!- Othello then proceeds to strangle Desdemona. He was best described as " one that loved not wisely, but too well." It almost seemed as if he had so much love and trusted D...
Virtue Ethics is a form of normative ethics which focuses on the moral character of an individual, rather than the ethical duties, rules or the consequences of particular actions. Unlike Deontology, which emphasises duty to rules and consequentialism which derives rightness or wrongness from the outcome of a particular action, Virtue Ethics is more concerned with the positive, long-term character development towards the eventual state of Eudaimonia, or 'happiness', which is considered the supreme goal of human life. Eudaimonia is not a natural disposition, it is a state that is desirable by all rational human beings. Aristotle, the founder of Virtue Ethics, believed that human beings are unique in having a potential they can fulfill by their
Shakespeare’s “Othello,” one of his most well-known works, tells the story of a Venetian Moor named Othello and his tragic fall at the hands of a manipulating and deceptive Iago. The 1995 film adaptation of “Othello” by Oliver Parker attempts to capture the spirit of the play that Shakespeare envisioned. Though trying its best to stay as true to the original play as possible, it does at times depart from Shakespeare’s version. In Oliver Parker’s version of Othello, the film relies heavily on the setting, costumes and acting of the actors, portrays the characters differently than they are presented in the original work, and adds a variety of scenes while removing other aspects of the play.
There was justice in this play for all of the characters who were involved in the killing of the four characters. Act V Scene II in many ways represents the emotional climax of the play. The events which have preceded this point have led Othello to the decision to kill his beautiful wife Desdemona. The major themes of this act are the emotional conflict felt by Othello and the protestation of innocent express by Desdemona. The play's final, bloody scene opens in the bed chambers of Othello and Desdemona as the deranged Moor battles between his love for his beautiful young wife and his desire to murder her.
Othello wrote by William Shakespeare is a story describe many things that happened during one’s relationship among different characters, but the most typical couple that I’m going to talk are Othello and Desdemona. After they are both married at the first act of the play, then there are controversy has started offen between two of them. First of all, causes of these controversial are from that they both have different color of skin as Othello is black and Desdemona is white, which is the issue of the long time ago when people still judgment and believe that is a bad thing. Second of all, Othello is older than Desmona which mean he believes he has more control on his wife. But moreover, Othello was cheated by his subordinate then he turn his back on Desdemona and doubted on Desmona oftenly, this is the beginning of all the troubles in the story.
Othello begins with Othello’s love for Desdemona, but his love becomes thoroughly twisted by the end of the play; he even