A Play of Love Turned Bad Shakespeares Othello Essay

Shakespeare’s famous play Othello is a play of love that has turned bad by the unfounded jealousy of the protagonist character Othello. Arguably the contribution of Othello’s susceptibility to manipulation, his weaknesses and the manipulation of other characters tactics such as Iago each contribute to the downfall of Othello. However, to the extent of which each is more significant varies and this is what will be analysed in this essay. Like many of Shakespeare’s tragic plays each has to have a tragic hero. Each of these tragic heroes would have a tragic flaw, they were all from a noble class and would each face their tragedy with dignity. The ultimate flaw of each of these characters would vary in each of Shakespeare’s plays; Macbeths’†¦show more content†¦This racist attitude exposes him to the racist predigest from Roderigo and Brabantio who refer to him as an ‘old black ram’ and a ‘thick-lip owe’. This contributes to the downfall of Othello as he ’self-destructively internalizes the prevailing racism’ (Jyotsna Singh,2004) and is what sets the tragedy in motion. The reason being that, Brabantio wouldn’t have revolted against the marriage of Othello and Desdemona if Othello wasn’t a Moor and Rodrigo wouldn’t have been motivated to pursue his love for Desdemona if he didn’t believe that the relationship between Othello and Desdemona was unnatural. The most significant is that Iago plays on Othello’s racial insecurities constantly bringing them to the surface and also acting as a primary cause for Iagos’ destruction of Othello. Othellos’ relationship with Desdemona and Iago also plays a vital part to the downfall of Othello. Othello and Desdemona are portrayed as two great innocents who are romantically in love but with love being the most powerful emotion this ironically leads to vulnerability. Iago, Othellos’ lieutenant armour and a character full of spite and jealousy, uses this vulnerability to turn this romance into a profane love that ends in disaster. From the start of the play the friction between Iago and Othello was apparent because in Act 1 Scene 1 Othello promoted Cassio, a promotion which infuriated Iago as Iago had pleaded lieutenancy. This is shown when Iago says In personal suitShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Shakespeare s Romeo And Juliet 868 Words   |  4 PagesFAMILY IS FOREVER When I read Shakespeare, one of the main things I think about is how great women have it today as compared to Shakespeare’s time. While may be arguable that as of recently that we may be living in a post patriarchal society, in Shakespeare’s day the patriarchy was undeniable. Women were property and were utterly controlled by men. They had to look a certain way. act a certain way and most of all be obedient to the men closest to them. 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