Shakespeares Othello Essay Example for Free

Shakespeares Othello EssayShakespeares Othello, as a tragedy, offers a plot and guinea pig which are so closely connected that one can only be interpreted in regard to the other. For example, Othellos assumption is explored through the use of raillery while, during the course of the play, Iago manipulates Othello (a yearn with the other characters) into progressively more damaging and violent acts of self-destruction. Iago realizes, as the audience realizes, that Othellos prideful nature along with his professional and temperamental propensity for strength will probably end in blood-shed. This realization which the audience enjoys is not kn give birth to Othello himself and that is where Shakespeares use of irony is both brilliantly executed and highly communicatory of the plays deepest theme that of self-knowledge. Although it may be somewhat of an oversimplification to suggest that the entirety of Othello is based around the idea of self-knowledge, such a suggestion is, i n fact, innate(p) out by the play itself due to the aforementioned tight link between the plays plot and theme, which can be taken together as the chemical urinateula of Othellos character development.In other words, Othellos internal state is mirrored thorough the action of the play and both the plot nd dialogue give the gay audience member or reader many clues as to exactly how Othellos character development has contributed to the outward manifestation of action in the play. For example, Othellos known monologue in Act 5, Scene 2, where he addresses Gratiano, after murdering Desdemona demonstrates his (and by extension, a universally tender) self-reflective capacity. The passage is both introspective and humourous.The impact of Othellos preponderantly militaristic orientation to the world hence, a primarily masculine perception of the world, has collided tragically with the more delicate, ambiguous and feminine domestic sphere of love and versed monogamy. For Othello, force is the most applicable tool for confronting crisis, or had always been but through the rising tension of his monologue in Act 5, Scene 2, the once-great normal realizes his current enemy is himself and that enemy must be dispatched by force. So, the monologue is, in effect, a self-eulogy.By looking deeply into the construction of this pivotal scene, including the prosody, imagery, and wording of the lines, a sort of microcosm of the plays them can be extracted. Othellos monologue opens Behold, I have a weapon (256). in a smooth iambic pentameter and later humble by anapests, spondees, and dactyls, is a powerful blank verse, with admirable modulation in both meter and imagery. Behold, I have a weapon A improve never did itself sustain Upon a soldiers thigh (256-58)A basic iambic meter is established with a markedly powerful use of alliteration the s sound of itself sustain/ Upon a soldiers thigh creates a sense of onomatopoeia with the marque be drawn from its scabbard. Or slic ing to the heart. The next give voice I have seen the day (V, ii, 258) begins Othellos descent into self-realization, lines 258-260 follows through with several technical elements, notably a rhyme between day (258) and way (260) which implies a particular fatalism and also the continuation of the anthropomorphization of the sword, begun in the use of the word sustain (257).This is an extension of irony, suggesting that Othellos former glory as a soldier has passed to his sword alone, or that his noble characteristics have devolved there. I have made my way through more impediments Than twenty times your stop but, O vain overdraw (260-261). These lines are anchored powerfully by the O vain boast spondee, a tremendous precursor to the dominant O vowel-assonance that carries the breadth of the thematic and aesthetic free weight of the monologue in its latter half. The sense of fatalism is extended in the following lines Who can control his fate? / Tis not so now.Be not afraid, tho ugh you do see me weapond/ Here is my journeys end, here is my poove,/ And the very sea-mark of my utmost sail (262-265). Interestingly, the rhyme on here is my butt and of my utmost lend a sense of grim finality, although the monologue here reaches its midpoint. The extension beyond doom now creates dynamism in the use of spacious alliteration, built on the O vowel. Where should Othello go? / Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starred wench / Pale as thy smock When we shall meet at compt, (268-270). The continuation of this motif is hypnotic and rings as though the speaker andaudience are being simultaneously initiated into the deepest, most dire expression of human despair, essentially that of self-confrontation, or self-realization. One might readily observe the letter O itself as not only a sight-rhyme, but an almost cover expression of this self-confrontation ro realization, as a symbol of wholeness, unity and perfection. This unity is applied in ironically in tragic conseq uence reflecting not only Desdemonas essential purity, but now longed for wholeness of Othellos former self Cold, cold, my girl / Even like thy chastity. O cursed slave (272-273).The invocation to ye devils to knock me about in winds / roast me in sulphur / Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire (275-277) crescendos into the despairing refrain of O Desdemona Desdemona dead / O O O (278-279). Othellos monologue, based thematically on the two central tensions of irony and self-realization, is carried forward technically by an iambic meter which is out through torturous variations featuring the use of pyrotechnical spondees, dactyls, as well as the use of the refrain, the use of onomatopoeia, internal rhyme, sight rhyme, and controlled imagery.This is basically an illustration in poetic form of the inner-chaos which has taken over Othellos mind and for all intents and purposes his body. The utter irony and self-destruction which has been building throughout the play is at la st released through Othellos murder of the stark Desdemona. The mood of the monologue is despairing, building from a level iambic rhythm to the broken spondees of the closing lines. The jarring, indelible alliteration of O Desdemona Desdemona dead demonstrates the essentially nihilistic or tragic essence of Othellos monologue.The central irony of the passage is that Othello discovers his tenderness in his despair of Desdemonas death, but he realizes this too late. This ironic realization, along with the rising crescendo of the poems meter and diction creates a powerful aesthetic tension, framing a bridge to Othellos death later in the play. The idea that Othello could have recognized what was actually going on earlier in the play and in doing so prevented both his own and Desdemonas death is an interesting idea, but it is specious because the whole point of the play Othello is to demonstrate that character is destiny. In other words, Othello was destined to self-destruction so lo ng as he retained the magnificent fault of pride, coupled with violence, which was, in fact, the center of his personality. Asking whether or not the tragedy could have been prevented involves not simply the capacity for Othello to enact self-realization earlier in the play, but for his entire personhood to be reconfigured in order that he not possess the destructive pride and violence which brought about the tragedy depicted in the play.