Othello Essay With Strong Quotes and Analysis

Introduction William Shakespeare makes conscious our human flaws in his tragedy Othello (1603), where he explores a tragic hero whose inability to understand himself and others fuel his tumultuous downfall. Within the play, Shakespeare condemns those clouded by manifestations of their purported honour and honesty. He dramatizes Othello as an antithesis to Iago, weak in his inability to read character, further contending that men who lack judgement and assertiveness are weak-minded and thus easily manipulated. Body 1 Shakespeare dramatizes Othello's misconstrued sense of honour and honesty through his deteriorating language. Othello is constructed as an honourable and exotic outsider flaunting his nobility with measured blank verse and poetic language. He articulates, "My parts, my title, and my perfect soul / Shall manifest me rightly." Anaphora relays the emboldening of his piqued sense of honour; which to his detriment, forms an ill-advised and erroneous image of himself. Shakespeare conveys Othello's deteriorating honour, in part, through his switch from verse to prose. In truncated prose, he ironically claims "It is not words that shake me thus"; demonstrating he interprets words as he does with men—that they are as they seem. His naivety is particularly dangerous given the pervasiveness of Iago's poisonous speech. Othello stubbornly insists "Speak of me as I am, nothing extenuate / nor set down in malice," when his honour is anything but truthful. He thinks himself to be a victim of circumstance and "one not easily jealous, but being wrought / Perplex’d in the extreme"; when it is his own self-deception that catalyses his pathetic descent. The parallel structure of the prose signifies his hubris taking on a sinister form, and his frailties compounding upon themselves. In a cathartic denouement, Othello considers "But why should honour outlive honesty? / Let it go all." The rhetorical question marks his renouncement, whereby Othello, the "honourable murderer", has become aware of his dishonour and disillusion. Through Shakespeare's ruinous development of Othello's speech and honour, we are cautioned that a lack of selfunderstanding will prompt our frailties to adopt a sinister form. Body 2 Shakespeare's Othello concerns the weakness of men being unable to tell the honest man from the knave. Shakespeare characterises Iago as a knave, honest in appearance but deceptive in nature; the antithesis to Othello. Othello vouches for Iago as, "An honest man he is and hates the slime / That sticks on filthy deeds." demonstrates Othello’s trust in Iago, captivating the audience in the dynamic of the relationship with emphasis on the dramatic irony and building suspension. Iago exploits Othello's understanding of character, or lack thereof, who "thinks men honest that but seem to be so." He deems Cassio, "A slipper and subtle knave" and "a devilish knave!"; where the repetition of knave ironically establishes his honesty, when in fact, his gestures are self-serving. In the rising action in Act 3 Scene 3, Othello suspects Cassio's knavery, inquiring to Iago "Is he not honest?" to which Iago disingenuously replies, "Honest, my lord!" Bit by bit, Iago unravels his subterfuge, slowly fueling Othello's rage whilst feigning reluctance to incriminate Cassio. Thus, continuing his deceit with the audience aware of his ulterior motives and increasing dramatic tension Iago says "I do not like the office. But, sith I am entered in this cause so far... I will go on"; where the metonym of "office" for his honest theatrics contradicts his duplicitous nature. Thereby Othello, wholly obsessed with honesty, falls prey to a knave disguised as honest. Emilia unknowingly describes Iago as "some most villainous knave, Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow": indicting the unscrupulous through asyndeton, where even she is oblivious of her husband's knavery, who sharing the stage with her. From this, we see that the inability to discern someone's true character makes us vulnerable. Body 3 Shakespeare’s constructs Othello with a lack of judicial capacity for discriminating between his domestic and his military life. Shakespeare places Othello between disparate worlds of Venice and Cyprus, constructed to catalyse his change from honourable general to brutish murderer. Desdemona thinks herself, "A moth of peace, and he go to the war"; where zoomorphic imagery depicts her entranced with Othello's military duties and into his conflict. Desdemona's assertiveness conflicts with Othello's ambivalence, where he thinks he won't "Let housewives make a skillet of my helm." The dramatic irony and metaphor of his helm converted to kitchen utensils ostensibly show a collision of his domestic and military life. Then, as the suffocating milieu of Cyprus begins to take effect, Othello becomes confused and frail, losing touch with his domestic sphere and thus Desdemona. He paradoxically claims "Cassio, I love thee / But never more be officer of mine"; where his inability to discriminate between his two lives has left him confused and victimised by Iago's subterfuge. Shakespeare follows Othello's departure as Desdemona's husband, claiming her a "witness and suborned" and "indicted falsely". The legal diction shows how his wife's alleged infidelity has attenuated his poetic and domestic ability. Shakespeare explores Othello, a man whose lack of judgement has turned him jealous and eventually a murderer. Conclusion Shakespeare constructs a world where our human frailties are thoroughly explored through the tragic hero Othello and his struggles in understanding himself and others. Ultimately culminating in the deterioration of his honour, identity and relationships.