In both “Othello” and “Oedipus Rex” to a great extent, the emotions provoked by familiar human experiences are acceptable to all people of all times. It is a fact that “Human nature remains the same (Kiernan Ryan 1989).” Both plays explore issues surrounding emotions like love, envy, jealousy and pride provoked by life experiences such as racism, fate, rifts between parent and child, a quest for position through deception or for justice or an intoxicating sense of being all powerful which transcend time. Most importantly they all are familiar to traditional and contemporary time periods.
Love, that is unconditional love, a universal emotion, is said to transcend all barriers. Desdemona falls in love unconditionally with the idea of a bold, courageous, romantic adventurer who is black and her heart fully consents. Othello confirms this, “She lov’d me for the dangers I had pass’d.” (I.iii.167). She boldly professes her love and devotion to Othello before the Duke and an already angry father when she says, “ That I did love the Moor to live with him…Othello’s visage in his mind, And to his honour and his valiant parts … my soul and fortunes consecrate…Let me go with him.” (I.iii.247-258)
In “Othello” racism and inter-racial marriage have both traditional and contemporary implications. “ In loving and marrying each other, Othello and Desdemona instinctively act according to principles of racial equality and sexual freedom which are still not normative, still far from generally accepted and practiced even in our own day, let alone in Shakespeare's (Kiernan Ryan 1989).” The inter-racial marriage between Desdemona and Othello ‘the Moor’ is unacceptable and untraditional. In light of this fact, one can assume that perhaps this is why they eloped. Similar social pressures of our time, for the same reason of sharing their love, force cotemporary couples to elope just as these two have done in the traditional period. Any audience of any time will be willing to excuse this decision given the situation under which it is done.
Consequently, this results in a rift between parent and child. Surrounding the timeless emotion of love are feelings of pain and betrayal. Desdemona dishonours her father and risks not receiving his blessings. To this day couples elope and marriages that do not receive the blessings of the parent are still considered doomed. Brabantio’s half warn...
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...with little or no respect. They do the biddings of their men without question. Othello calls his wife a ‘whore’, slaps her in public based on circumstantial evidence that she is sleeping with Cassio. Her reaction is one of understanding and the making illogical excuses for her husband’s actions. Bianca is seen as a pastime for Cassio. Emilia becomes a mere pawn to her husband and is used to get the handkerchief from Desdemona. She does not question his motive. To this extent the universality comes to an end in “Othello.” In “Oeddipus Rex” on the other hand, Jocasta has very little involvement in her husband’s public life.
In conclusion, based on the evidence presented, both of the plays Othello and Oedipus Rex, appeal to all people of all times because they touch human nature to the soul. For this reason, one is left with no choice but to hold up the mirror of life’s truths that is held up for him on the stage. Aristotle sums it up aptly, “Where History deals with “particular facts’(44) that have already occurred, poetry is concerned with ‘universal truths’ that is ‘the kinds of things a certain type of person will probably or necessarily say or do in a given situation” (44).
The interracial marriage of Desdemona and Othello is in the forefront of the play. As mentioned above, this was extremely unusual in Elizabethan England. In fact there is one case when an English woman, Millicent Porter, a seamstress, slept with a black man and had to do a public penance for it (Elizabethan England Life). Also just three years prior to the release of Othello in 1603, Queen Elizabeth threw all of the Africans out of England ("Othello- An Interpretation" Critical Essays 39). All of this makes the marriage of Othello, a famous black general, and Desdemona, a senator’s daughter, who is white and beautiful, very bizarre to the viewers in Elizabethan England. Most if not all of the characters seem to be just as appalled at the interracial marriage as the audience. Specifically the racism the other characters show toward Othello is apparent. Rodrigo, a man who pays Iago to hel...
Of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, the story of the rise and fall of the Moor of Venice arguably elicits the most intensely personal and emotional responses from its English-speaking audiences over the centuries. Treating the subject of personal human relationships, the tragedy which should have been a love story speaks to both reading and viewing audiences by exploring the archetypal dramatic values of love and betrayal. The final source of the tragic action in Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice has been attributed to various psychological, mythical, racial, social sources: Othello’s status as racial outsider in Venetian society, his pagan roots in Christian society, hubris and/or hamartia in Othello or in Desdemona.
The story of Othello and Desdemona is one of forbidden love. She, a white Venetian and he, a black Moor, fall in love with each other despite the disapproval of Desdemona’s father, Brabantio. Her father accuses Othello of using black magic on Desdemona. This is the only reasonable explanation for Desdemona falling in love with Othello in his mind. Othello’s rebuttal to this accusation shows his inexperience when it comes to love. He states, “When I did speak of some distressful stroke that my youth suffered. My story being done, she gave me for my pains a world of sighs. She gave me for my pains a world of sighs. She swore, i’faith, ‘twas strange,” twas passing strange; “twas pitiful, ‘twas was wondrous pitiful.” He continues by stating, “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, And I loved her that she did pity them. This is the only witchcraft I have used.”(pg. 1199 Act 1, Scene 3 Line 157-169). Othello explains that Desdemona listened to him about his struggles in life ...
The great Sophoclean play, Oedipus Rex is an amazing play, and one of the first of its time to accurately portray the common tragic hero. Written in the time of ancient Greece, Sophocles perfected the use of character flaws in Greek drama with Oedipus Rex. Using Oedipus as his tragic hero, Sophocles’ plays forced the audience to experience a catharsis of emotions. Sophocles showed the play-watchers Oedipus’s life in the beginning as a “privileged, exalted [person] who [earned his] high repute and status by…intelligence.” Then, the great playwright reached in and violently pulled out the audience’s most sorrowful emotions, pity and fear, in showing Oedipus’s “crushing fall” from greatness.
The theme of reason versus emotion can be found by analyzing individual character’s actions in William Shakespeare’s Othello. However, the line between to the two decision-making mindsets is not always very apparent. Three characters – Iago, Desdemona, and Othello – will be analyzed to show that Shakespeare wanted to blur the line between reason and emotion and demonstrate that individuals do not necessarily operate with only one or the other.
Oedipus is a story about a few basic human emotions. Among them are rage, passion, humility, and guilt. The Ancient Greeks understood these emotions well; their society was based upon the logical emotions, but always threatened by the violent ones. Oedipus was at first told that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Fearful of himself, he fled showing a lack of humility away from his home, thinking that his problems would be solved. Later on, he gets into a tumultuous fight with a passerby on the road to Thebes. Enraged, he kills the man and his servants; this turned out to be a big mistake. After saving the city of Thebes from the Sphinx, he marries and then passionately sleeps with the queen. Towards the end of the play, he realizes that he has indeed killed his father and married his mother, thus echoing the lack of humility that first drove him away from his adopted parents.
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.
Othello is one of Shakespeare’s four pillars of great tragedies. Othello is unique in comparison to the others in that it focuses on the private lives of its primary characters. When researching the subject of Othello being an Aristotelian tragedy, there is debate among some critics and readers. Some claim that Shakespeare did not hold true to Aristotle’s model of tragedy, according to his definition in “Poetics,” which categorized Othello as a classic tragedy as opposed to traditional tragedy. Readers in the twenty-first century would regard Othello a psychological thriller; it definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat creating the emotions of terror, heart break, and sympathy. This paper will focus on what Shakespeare actually intended regarding “Othello” and its Aristotelian influences.
As Othello is known in the play as the Moor, he often faces discrimination that his peers did not face. When Brabantio finds out that Othello married his daughter, he claims that Othello must have “enchanted her” (1.2.64) and that his daughter “…t’incur[ed] a general mock,” (1.2.70) by “run[ning] from her guardage to the sooty bosom.” (1.2.71) In other words, Brabantio is saying that he is in disbelief as to why Desdemona would marry a Moor when her socioeconomic status was so much higher. As a result of being treated as an inferior due to skin colour, Othello puts more weight on honour and reputation. Since his high ranking position in the army set him apart from other Moors, he uses it as compensation towards many aspects of his life such as marriage. For example, Othello associates the “…services which [he] has done the seignniory” (1.2.17) to Brabantio’s criticisms about him. Othello knows that his position holds power, and he is able to confidently articulate why he is suitable candidate to marry Desdemona. Unfortunately, Othello’s confidence does not last later in the play when his honour is suddenly threatened by presumptions that Desdemona is engaged in unfaithful acts. Soon thereafter, he loses his
Love is a force that can overtake large adversities and can stumble over small challenges. Love is an intense feeling of deep affection. Love is eternal, but can be deflected. Different forms of love are expressed by Othello, Desdemona, and Iago in Shakespeare’s play Othello. As a result of romantic love, Desdemona splits from her family, and Othello slays his wife. Next, familial love, not as dominant as romantic love, is evidenced in Desdemona's choice to marry Othello against her family's requests. Lastly, Self-love is the basis for characters such as Iago and Othello to abandon moral reason. Love comes in different forms.
Later, when he is speaking to the duke, Othello says, “Most humbly, therefore, bending to your state, I crave fit disposition for my wife” (I.iii.231). Once again, he continues to stay calm and nonchalant as he explains to the duke that he has done nothing in his life involving witchcraft but that Desdemona and he got married because “She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd, And I lov'd her that she did pity them” (I.iii.167), meaning Desdemona fell in love with Othello because of the stories he told her, not be...
William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Othello” shows how a manipulative villain can create chaos within a society. The play was written around the year 1603 and takes place in Venice Italy before it is repositioned to Cyprus. This Shakespearean tragedy shows the effects of jealousy, love, desire, betrayal and passion in a society with an imbalance of power in a race, gender, and social position.
To begin with, Othello’s race and the racism around him ruined his marriage with Desdemona. Othello and Desdemona made a good couple, but you know what they say, all good things must come to an end. Almost everybody had a problem with their relationship. In that time, interracial relationships and marriage was not allowed. While Brabantio (Desdemona’s father) was sleeping, Iago and Roderigo woke him up saying that Othello was having sex with his daughter Desdemona at that very moment (Shake...
Emotions have some control over our actions. However, there are other factors that influence what we do. In the play Othello though, emotions have way more power over the characters' actions. For example, the actions committed by characters consumed by love are greatly amplified. Another example of this is that the characters in the play that are consumed by jealousy go to far greater lengths than one normally would to quench their thirst for vengeance. The last instance that proves this is that the actions of characters overcome by despair are based solely on their hopelessness. These three points all help to show that in the play Othello, Shakespeare exaggerates how much our actions are affected by the major emotions of love, jealousy, and despair.
Second, a human must be able to love. Without love, there is no suffering. Love does not have to mean sexually, it can mean a mutual bond between friends, family, and for oneself. In William Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello’s love for Desdemona is a strong, passionate love as is Desdemona towards Othello. Desdemona says: