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Short notes on Shakespeare's historical plays
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The play “Othello” by William Shakespeare was written in 1604 during the Elizabeth era. Othello is one of the most extraordinary characters in all of Shakespeare’s dramas. He enjoyed unheralded success in the combat zone, which gave him the reputation as one of Venice’s most competent generals. Even though he has great success in the battlefield, he has a dramatic flaw that causes a downfall in his life. The dramatic flaw that causes his downfall is jealousy. This was brought on by a simple persuasion of Iago, the evil character in the play. Even though Iago used extreme manipulation to get Othello to be jealous, Iago did not really have to try very hard to get Othello in a jealous state of mind. Othello was blinded by his jealousy which led him down a path of constant questioning of his wife and his friend Cassio. Throughout the play we see his dramatic flaw sink him deeper and deeper into a cloud of doubt which eventually leads him to kill not only his love of his life but also himself. In the beginning of the play we see Othello as a strong character. His stature, tall, dark, African Moor, combined with his personal charisma, assist him in gaining the respect and allegiance of the Venetian people and senators. Since Othello has been a soldier all his life, he is seen as a very admirable man. His title alone, governor-general, presents an air of nobility, strength, and confidence. Othello’s title defines someone who is held in extremely high esteem by people of Venice. An example would be when the Duke and a few Senators are discussing issues around the table when Othello enters the room. It’s clear that Othello is held in admiration when, as he enters, one of the senators states “Here comes Barbantio and the valiant Moor” (I... ... middle of paper ... ... Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 4 Dec. 2009. Janet C. "Love and Age in Othello." Shakespeare Studies 19.(1987): 125-142. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 4 Dec. 2009. Nordlund, Marcus "Theorising Early Modern Jealousy: A Biocultural Perspective on Shakespeare's Othello." Studia Neophilologica: A Journal of Germanic and Romance Languages and Literature 74.2 (2002): 146-160. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 4 Dec. 2009. "Othello: The Moor of Venice." Masterplots, Revised Second Edition (1996): Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 4 Dec. 2009. "Othello." Sparknotes. 2009. Spark Notes LLC, Web. 04 Dec 2009. Shakespeare, William. No Fear Shakespeare/ Othello. New York: Spark Publishing, 2003.
In Peter Singer’s “Famine, Affluence and Morality,” Singer makes three claims about moral duty; that avoidable suffering is bad, that it is our moral obligation to help others in need, and that we should help those in suffering regardless of their distance to us or if others are in the same position as we are to help. First, I will elaborate on Singer’s arguments for each of these positions. Next, I will discuss two objections to Singer’s position, one that he debates in his writings and another that I examine on my own, and Singer’s responses to those objections. Then I will examine why Singer’s rebuttals to the objections were successful.
Say that someone donates their excess money to charity, and a short time later a sudden illness comes up and they need expensive medical treatment. What then? If this situation were to actually happen, the person who donated just put themselves in the same exact situation as the people they were originally trying to help. Corbett claims that following Singer’s absolutist principle is not a moral obligation, but quite simply decent human
Othello, a play written by William Shakespeare in approximately 1603, focuses on two opposite characters named Othello and Iago. Othello is a respectable army general who tragically dies in the end. The readers believe that his flaw is jealousy, which ruins his calm and makes him believe Iago, a character nobody should trust. The antagonist of the play, Iago, is a cunning liar who lies and tricks almost every other characters in the play to ruin and manipulate Othello. The play starts on the street of Venice where Iago convinces Roderigo to plot against Othello by planning falsely accuse Othello’s wife, Desdemona, of cheating. Interestingly, another specific detail critics usually look at is that Shakespeare choose to make the character of Othello a dark-skinned man, which was not a common feature a hero should have during the Elizabethan. Some of the common themes in Othello are the role of race and racism, the effects of jealousy, and the differences between genders during the Elizabethan.
Throughout Othello the Moor of Venice we experience a rather uplifting story that seems to somehow come crashing down on not only the characters in the story but the reader also. Author William Shakespeare does a tremendous job at connecting us with the characters in the play. Othello, the protagonist in the play, falls slowly into the pit of destruction where jealousy takes control. He along with many other characters in the play are manipulated by Iago and slowly taken down from a peaceful, love filled, and triumphant place in their lives to one that is dark and revengeful. Many are led to their deaths because of the terrible deeds done by Iago, some of which include Othello himself who commits suicide only after murdering his new wife over nothing but the mindset of jealousy and hate. Shakespeare explores a vast amount of literary content here some of which delve into Jealousy. Jealousy alongside intense deceitful manipulation can introduce a person to another sinister side of themselves they never knew to existed. Iago 's ultimate goal in the play is not yet clearly laid out; there is much to
Landau, Russ. "The Singer Solution to World Poverty By: Peter Singer." The ethical life: fundamental readings in ethics and moral problems. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. 229-236. Print.
In Shakespeare’s Othello, the character of Othello is seen as an unfit man due to his propensity to jealous and his weak character. Leavis’ evaluation of Othello’s character can be seen to be true to a very high extent because during the course of the play, Othello evolves into a weak, jealous character who is easily manipulated and made jealous by the scheming of Iago. We can see this change in his character through the use of a number of techniques such as stage directions, soliloquies, dialogue and stage action. This makes it easier for the audience to follow and plot exactly where during the play Othello begins to show jealous and a weak character.
Othello is noble, tender, and confiding; but he has blood of the most inflammable kind. Unfortunately, Othello was naïve enough to be swayed by Iagos misplaced trustworthiness and the accusations cause the entire play to unfold. Once someone brings up a sense of all his wrong doings, he cannot be stopped by considerations of remorse of pity until Othello has extinguished all that fuels his rage and despair. Othello is described as a “Moor” by his critics (Brabantio, Iago). A “Moor” is a slang word used for the dark skinned appearance of the Muslim people from the northwest part of Africa.
“Othello”, by William Shakespeare, is a story of jealousy’s potential to manipulate thoughts and eventually lead to ultimate demise. The key to extremely detrimental jealousy lies within one’s ability to recognize it or deny it. It seems that the important theme of “Othello” is that if jealousy is not recognized and immediately dealt with, it receives a head start to commence the process of rotting away all normal human reason. Othello’s speech in Act III scene iii beginning with line 178 is the first and most important indicator of the trouble ominously looming on Othello’s horizon. His immediate response to Iago’s accusations is that of total denial. By depriving himself of that initial venting process, Othello gives his jealousy the perfect culture on which his jealousy can turn cancerous and grow out of control. Othello does not spit out the seed that Iago has planted within himself soon enough and thus lets Iago water it with smooth speech until its roots spread and cannot be uprooted. The only way to appropriately illustrate this point is through an in depth analysis of specific text from the play.
In The Tragedy of Othello, William Shakespeare tells the tale of the “noble Moor” whose honor and innocence bring about his downfall. Shakespeare writes of the power of jealousy, and the art of masterful deception and trickery. The story primarily takes place in Cyprus, during a war between the people of Venice and the invading Turks. In this play Shakespeare shows the feelings of Othello’s embittered right-hand man of, Iago, who feels he is passed over for a promotion and swears his revenge. He proceeds to manipulate his friends, enemies, and family into doing his bidding without any of them ever realizing his ultimate goal. He makes Othello believe that his new wife, the innocent Desdemona, is committing adultery with his newly promoted officer Michael Cassio. After this seed of jealousy has been planted, Othello’s mind takes its course in determining the true outcome, with a little more nudging from Iago. The course of action he proceeds to follow is one that not only ends his own life, but also the life of his wife and others. In Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Othello, Othello is a man who is still truly honorable, despite the course of action he takes to resolve his perceived problem.
Singer seems to suggest an almost socialist view on how people should treat their earned income. If the strive to live beyond one’s needs is removed, what reason is there to exceed bare minimums? There is a reason this philosophy has never been successful. Taking away people’s incentives leaves less general innovation and forward momentum in the world. Whether people appreciate the origins or not, selfish incentives often drive such innovation. These innovations could possibly even improve the lives of the impoverished; however, realistically speaking, even if they generally do not, there is the simple matter of less supply and demand. This could result in buying less from countries that will suffer greatly due to lower product demand. Without the incentive to exceed basic needs, less money will be made on an individual basis, too. This hinders the individual’s ability to contribute to those in need, having put them in a position much closer to those which Singer believes should be
In Peter Singer’s, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” Singer defends his utilitarian-derived moral theories on the basis of two assumptions: “suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad,” and “if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it,” in order to justify his conclusion that once an individual meets his basic needs, he is morally obliged to use his resources to assist those who are in need, regardless of proximity (Singer 231).
Although many arguments could take place over the blame of Othello’s fate, the one murderer no one doubts is jealousy. Although Othello’s insecurities and “blindness” along with one of the most duplicitous villains in all of literature definitely catalyze the deaths at the conclusion of the play, in the end Othello must suffer the consequences manipulated or not. Despite the number of uninteresting characters in the play, Othello, the Moor of Venice contains one of the most intricate characters in any of Shakespeare’s plays, and will be discussed and intensely argued forever.
Moral obligation is a controversial matter. We currently live in a “world of plenty”, however, the number of human beings dying or suffering from hunger, malnutrition or disease is staggering. In this essay, I am going to examine the arguments for and against moral obligation to helping the poor and starving, and in particular I will take into account Singer’s opinions on the matter.
Peter Singer practices utilitarianism, he believes the consequence of an action matters more than the reason behind the action. Singer is trying to convince his audience to donate their money to end world poverty. He believes it is moral to give as much money as the person can give, allowing them to purchase just enough for them to live on, and this will be the right action to take. Singer is aiming toward the United States to contribute more to charity. Singer does not consider specific aspects that do not support his argument and causes his argument to not list specific aspects of his belief. Singer’s argument is not a good argument because he does not consider the ramifications of people donating their surplus of money would do to the economy; is it our duty to feed the poor; and that our moral intuitions are not consequentialist at all when it concerns what our rescue duties entail.
Shakespeare’s Othello consists of the themes betrayal, love and dishonesty. At the centre of this play is the tragic downfall of Othello at the hands of his so called friend Iago. In this essay I will be discussing the reasons for and against Othello being responsible for his downfall through looking at critical interpretations of his character and actions.