The Development of the Character of Othello as Shown by his Use of Language and Imagery in William Shakespeare's Play

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The Development of the Character of Othello as Shown by his Use of Language and Imagery in William Shakespeare's Play

During the course of the play Othello's character goes through a

series of changes, but ends up almost the same as when the play

started, calm and in control. This change in Othello's character is

like a rollercoaster; he starts off calm, collected and in control,

and then quickly progresses to losing control and allowing jealousy to

take him over. However at the end of the play, when Othello is

justifying his killing of Desdemona, he is back to the calm collected

General that he was at the beginning of the play.

The setting that had been chosen by Shakespeare has features that are

linked to the play. For example, Venice, had a reputation for a fair

legal system and an ordered society; Othello presents his 'evidence' -

the extent of his services to the state and his royal blood - and

these, once considered by the 'jury' are found to be enough to find

him 'not guilty' of the 'crime' of marrying Desdemona. At the time,

Venetians also had a reputation for being tolerant towards people with

different religious and political beliefs. This was because Venice had

very successful trading links all around the Mediterranean and

therefore the Venetians were used to dealing with people with very

different backgrounds to their own. The idea of mixing with someone of

another race was fine up to a point, but when it came to marriage,

that point has been reached and the Venetians were not prepared to go

beyond that point, unless it was in their interests, as it was with

the Signiory when it came to Othello and Desdemona.

Before we...

... middle of paper ...

...ar and pity and where the hero moves from a high

position to a low one. In Othello, the audience certainly feels fear

for Desdemona as Othello's treatment towards her worsens and fear that

Othello may do something he will regret. They also feel pity for how

the situation overtook him and took Othello to a point where he was

unable to control himself or the situation and could not draw on any

of the strengths in his character that he displayed at the beginning

of the play. At the beginning of the play Othello has achieved a very

high position which brings him status, respect and power. This is

particularly significant at the time as he is black. From here he

loses everything; as he loses his control and his command of speech

and reasoning abilities he moves to losing the position and status

that he had at the beginning.

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