Sacrifice In Othello

Sacrifice is a reoccurring idea over the four texts studied this year. Sacrifice is giving up something you value and this is shown through the compare and contrast of these four texts. All texts chosen show similar but different forms of sacrifice. A Walk to Remember written by Nicholas Sparks demonstrates the idea of sacrificing your reputation, where Landon sacrifices his popularity to pursue love with Jamie who doesn't share the same reputation. This compares with Othello written by William Shakespeare as Othello sacrifices his own life to preserve his reputation. Billy Elliot directed by Stephen Daldry, shows sacrifice for others. Jacky, Billy’s dad’s sacrifices his entire upbringing and beliefs in order for Billy to achieve his dream

to be in the ballet. The short story Job written by Dan Preston contrasts to this where Job sacrifices his old life for a new life. Between all four texts the authors and director have shown the same idea of sacrifice in a variety of ways.

It is unusual to see a comparison between a classic novel and a modern day novel through the idea of sacrificing your reputation. A Walk to Remember portrays your typical high school love story where boy meets girl and they fall in love, although in this love story Landon has to make a huge sacrifice in order to pursue love with Jamie. Landon was big on reputation and at the beginning of the story he was a “self-centred teenage boy.” He valued his reputation and popularity over the potential he had in this world, this was until he fell in love. Jamie wasn’t typically your popular teenage girl. She was the schools plain Jane as mentioned by Sparks, “she looked sort of plain.” Landon was never known as someone who would fall for a girl like Jamie but to allow him to fall deeper for Jamie he needed to sacrifice his precious reputation and adjust his look on life. “Without suffering, there'd be no compassion.” This shows the reader that Landon was willing to sacrifice his friends and the reputation he was beholding to suffer the consequences of being not so popular anymore, but to love Jamie. As a reader we can relate to Landon and Jamie’s love affair as in today’s society we are faced with similar situations which require sacrifice of our values to be with the one we love. Having to sacrifice beliefs for loved ones can help us to understand other people we wouldn’t generally know about. As in A Walk to Remember Landon sees sides to Jamie he never would have realised by just looking at Jamie. “Believe it or not, that was the first time I recognised that in some ways she was just like the rest of us.” Showing that through sacrifice Landon realised Jamie isn’t so different after all. This teaches the audience that we can fall in love with those that aren't typically in our social class. This text compares to Othello as Landon, just like Othello, had to sacrifice their valuable reputation for love.

The play Othello shows a similar form of the idea of sacrifice.

Throughout reputation is vital among all characters. Characters such as Cassio and Othello strongly believe in upholding their reputation and believe it is an important part to a person. Cassio shows this after he loses his position as second in command over a drunken feud, “Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself.” This shows the reader that characters in the play, such as Cassio have huge morals in maintaining a positive reputation. In the 1600’s when Othello was set, reputation was so important people were willing to die to sacrifice and uphold their reputation. This is shown through Othello’s character. Iago deceived Othello into thinking that his wife, the “gentle Desdemona” was sleeping with Cassio. Othello killed Desdemona in sacrifice for all other men, “Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.” Soon after Othello finds out that Desdemona was the pure, honest women he married, he realises that he killed Desdemona for no apparent reason. Because reputation back in the 1600’s was a big deal to the people at the time he felt that to keep his well respected reputation he would sacrifice his own life to maintain his positive reputation. As he made the move to kill himself as a sacrifice of his reputation he stated in his final soliloquy, “Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak, Of one

that loved not wisely, but too well; Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought.” This means that he wants people to remember the positive reputation he had as a solider that has done the, “state some service” and not as the man who killed his wife out of jealousy. Othello shows the reader how much people will sacrifice to uphold a reputation. Shakespeare’s writing is timeless and relates to the reader as people today strongly believe in their reputation. Reputation is important in our daily lives as it determines how we go about and make a decision, as our reputation is what people think of us and judge us by and no one wants to be known as the person with a bad reputation. Othello compares to A Walk to Remember because of the sacrifice made by male characters for the women they love. The sacrifice made by both Othello and Landon was due to the reputation they were both known by. Shakespeare and Sparks have both expressed how different characters sacrifice reputation for love. The comparison is shown as Othello is a historical novel with ideas surrounding the sacrifice for reputation and even 500 years after the reoccurring idea is shown in a modern novel, A Walk to Remember.

Billy Elliot shows a type of sacrifice that contrasts to the other three texts.

In Billy Elliot Jacky, Billy’s father shows sacrifice his beliefs and values for others. “I’m bustin’ my ass for those 50 pences.” This dialogue clearly shows how Jacky doesn't agree with Billy’s choice to do ballet and because money is tight during the miners strike Jacky believes Billy is wasting the little income they get on ballet lessons. From this we gather that Jacky has a negative view towards ballet as the gender stereotype of 1984 was the girls do ballet and boys box. However later we see an over the shoulder shot of Jacky and Billy in the dance room we see that Jacky has stepped over the invisible barriers which are symbolically represented by cages as he has seen potential in his son to become a ballet dancer. The director included cages to represent how people like Billy feel trapped inside of societies gender stereotype. This is Jacky’s effort of sacrificing his beliefs and the morals he has been brought up with so he can accept Billy’s decision to do ballet. Another way Jacky sacrifices for others is when he sacrifices the strike to become a ‘scab.’ We see this in a close up shot of Jacky on the bus in the foreground and Tony in the background where the symbolic cages are separating the two. The close up shot allows the audience to study Jacky’s face and allows us to see the inner struggle portrayed by his emotions. Jacky is now feeling trapped in his decisions to support Billy.

Jacky’s sacrifice for Billy shows us how invested our parents are and that they are willing to sacrifice everything they have ever believed in order for their child to succeed. It relates to society today as we know that our parents make sacrifices for us everyday in order for us to reach our potential. It also teaches us that as a child we shouldn't give up on a dream or opportunity due to society’s expectation as we know our parents will support us if they see potential in us. Billy Elliot contrasts to Othello and A Walk to Remember as the sacrifice Landon and Othello made were for love and to secure their positive reputation. Where as Jacky’s sacrifice was of his own beliefs for the good of his son.

The important idea of sacrifice expressed in Job contrasts with Othello, A Walk to Remember and Billy Elliot. In Job his sacrifice was for himself whereas in the other four texts the sacrifice was for the benefit of others. Othello's sacrifice was based upon love for the good of Desdemona. Jacky’s sacrifice was for Billy to achieve his dream and lastly Landon’s sacrifice was also through love and was beneficial for both himself and Jamie. Job came from a dysfunctional family. Where his mothers love was never seen but instead was labelled as an abusive mother and so was her “scumbag” of a boyfriend. His mother was verbally abusive which was shown when she told Job and his friend Luke to, “Piss off you faggots, go play on the road.” or when she told Job “You’re not nearly as smart as you think,” and the he was a “Smart-a*** but dumb-f***, that’s you.” His mother’s boyfriend was later caught for “heap of photos of a young boy, naked and covered with the evidence of abuse.” Job felt as though he didn't belong in the family he was born into and deserved a better life for himself. Job knew in order to live a better life he would have to make some sort of sacrifice. When Job blew up the p-lab his parents were secretly running he was getting even with his parents for the troubles he had faced growing up. But in getting revenge he was sacrificing his home and parents for himself in order to escape to the Gold Coast which was indicated when Luke received a post card from Job, “The pink fluoro script in the corner told me that they were on the golden sands of Beautiful Surfers’ Paradise, on the Gold Coast.” The importance of Job’s self-inflicted sacrifice is that it teaches the audience how sometimes we need to sacrifice family for ourselves in order to be happy and live a better life. Job is important to society as it contrast to Othello and A Walk to Remember, as in both novels reputation is highly respected and cared about whereas in Job he doesn't care what people think of him and isn't worried about upholding a positive reputation.

Throughout the four texts the idea of sacrifice is compared and contrasted in different ways. Othello and A Walk to Remember show the reader the idea of sacrifice and emphases that sacrifice was important over 500 years ago. And because Shakespeare’s writing is timeless the similar representation, the sacrifice of reputation, is still written about and important in today’s society. Both Billy Elliott and Job contrast with the other texts while still showing the important idea of sacrifice. Billy Elliott is a contrast as the sacrifice Jacky made was for the good of someone else which he had no benefit from. Job contrast due to the self sacrifice he made which was for the good of himself. The four texts teaches the reader and myself the different ways people are faced with sacrifice and the extreme measures people will take in order to sacrifice for reputation, family or themselves.