Othello: The Unveiling of Pride and Its Consequences - Essay Sample

Introduction

Othello, well known as The Moor of Venice, is a masterpiece tragedy play by William Shakespeare. The play is significant in every aspect and delves deeply into the conflict regarding love, positions, and race. Through the character of Othello, critical flaws are realized that brings his excellent reputation into a downfall. Through different scenes, the play develops into a fascinating narrative as it embarks on showing to the audience the character of Othello and the manner in which pride affects his perception of things. He is quickly turned into prey by one of his ensigns known as Iago, who compromises him in every bit and leads to his final destruction. The play is an excellent portrayal of Elizabethan Era when racial aspects, love, and military prowess were sources of conflicts among the leaders. The tragedy depicts the way Othello's pride brings his downfall and which is well exacerbated through elements of race, jealously, deception, betrayal, isolation, revenge and love, and militarism.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Conflict and Deception: The Role of Iago as the Antagonist in Othello

Othello's tragedy is overwhelmingly centered on the conflict among the characters. The plan to bring Othello down is the central aspect of the play and is planned from the first to the last scene. The protagonist and the main character are Othello, but then Iago, his ensign, emerges as a critical antagonist across the play. He is the man responsible for all the evils and compromises all the others in ensuring he achieves his mission. All other characters are developed by Iago, who appears to be a witty person able to identify weaknesses in his accomplices and turns them into followers. Through soliloquies and directs acts, it is evident that Iago is an archetypal villain who is out to achieve everything he wants. His most significant achievement is to render Desdemona back to Roderigo (Shakespeare, p.3).

Othello's downfall is triggered by his jealousy. Through the play, Othello is reflected as a strong man and a warrior who has won many battles. This makes the audience to want to side with him as he even goes ahead to marry a beautiful daughter of a wealthy man known as Brabantio again his will. The marriage of Othello to Desdemona is the beginning of all the veils in the play (Mukhtar, p.3). This is because, while Iago has a personal hatred for Othello for failing to promote him, he gets an easy target to harm Othello through his marriage. His jealousy for Cassio's promotion to the position of lieutenant is evident in the first scene. Othello fails to see this nature in Iago and continues to use him as a close ensign and which triggers his future downfall. In addition, Othello makes a big mistake by supposedly sleeping with Iago's wife, Emilia (Mukhtar, p.3). This is Iago's other aspect of jealously that Iago has towards Othello and which makes him more willing to bring him down. Having felt the impact of jealousy in a man's heart, Iago hatches his tactics of making Othello suffer from it. He knows that jealousy is psychological torture that will leave Othello on his knees. For example, Iago begins by compromising Othello into thinking that his wife Desdemona has an affair with Cassio. This serves as a great move and which sees Othello develop trances and seizures from mental torture. His form of jealously is critical and one that makes him engage in a killing mission. The once favorite character to the audience is now turning into an evil one because of jealousy (Mukhtar, p.3). Shakespeare is able to identify one of the most significant flaws of men, and this surrounds the aspect of love. Through Iago, Othello falls into a cheap plan of jealousy and does not question his abilities as he pursues Cassio, who has all through been a faithful servant to him (Nahvi, p.6).

The racial aspect is also a big reason for the downfall of Othello. Othello is a black character and one who is holding a high office in Venice. Shakespeare has used other blacks in his plays, but Othello is one of them that has the most prominent role. However, this comes to showcase the prejudice and the hatred of the black's characters across the Elizabethan era (Speaks, p.2). Othello is a hard worker, and though he comes from poor backgrounds, he is able to rise to the leading role in Venice. He is a courageous young man and one who is able to fight and win all wars. Being black is an issue in the play as other white Characters such as Iago, Roderigo, and Brabantio seem to hate him for his complexion. However, Othello is proud due to his race and believes that other characters are taking him for granted due to his race. Due to this, he is proud and never wants to show any sign of weakness. This is the reason he goes ahead to marry the daughter of a wealthy man behind his back and wins her support even before the senators (Speaks, p.2). For example, when confronted about his marriage with Desdemona, Othello proudly brags that she married him due to his stories he told her regarding the wars. Iago convinces Othello that there are racist utterances against him from close allies and makes him believe Cassio is determined to snatch Desdemona from him because he is black. Besides, at one-point, Othello is very clear that they were never enemies with Brabantio before. He cites moments Brabantio would invite him to his place and loved him. However, things have now turned bad as Brabantio believers that Othello is a witch and that he used witchcraft to marry his daughter (Panter, p.2). This is a crucial way that Brabantio uses to indirectly depict Othello as black as, in most instances' witchcraft was associated with Africans, hence the name 'black magic.' The woes of Othello and Brabantio becomes extensive when Iago comes and convinces Brabantio about this ploy. Also, when Brabantio faces the Duke to report the misdoings of Othello, Desdemona comes in and refutes claims of being forcefully married. At this, the Duke assures Brabantio not to look at the skin color of Othello but his nature and virtue deeds. This is an indication that Othello was experiencing a lot of opposition and segregation due to his race. This was becoming a source of his anger and pride towards others. Iago gradually leads Othello into believing that he is weak or hated due to his being black. It is these radical beliefs filed into him by his ensign that finally leads to his self-destruction and tragic ending (Nahvi, p.2).

Othello fall is a result of his straightforward nature of being tricked and deceived. Deception is an essential aspect through the tragedy as we see the likes of Iago, Roderigo, and Brabantio trying to deceive Othello into their well-orchestrated gimmicks. In what seems to be unwitty of Othello, he easily falls prey to the deceit of these characters. For example, on several occasions, he terms Iago and an honest man, which indicates that he is utterly blind to his tricks. He undergoes imminent manipulations from Iago, whom he believes cannot lie. The treachery buys Iago is so immense that Othello turns against his wife Desdemona, whom he sees as evil (Speaks, p.2). He never trusts the wife amid her plain truth concerning every situation. His proud nature is seen through the constant assurance by Desdemona, she is honest towards him, and instead of seeing the inner truth and trusting in his wife, he instead believes the lies from Iago. The pride in Othello is critical and prevents him from seeing all the good times that Desdemona has stood by him. For example, the wife even violated the wishes of his father and openly dismissed their lies that she was married by witchcraft. In later scenes, the attempts by Desdemona to convince Othello that she meant well for him only brought about more rage and hatred (Schapiro, p.6). The naive nature of a man under deception is evident in Othello, who only listens to the deceits and makes him resort to violence (Shakespeare, p.11).

Justice Denied: The Search for Justice in Othello and Its Impact on the Tragedy

The search for justice dominates the tragedy of Othello. Justice seems to be denied every aspect and is the final cause of the fall of Othello. For example, at the beginning of the play, the father of Desdemona, Brabantio is seen seeking justice through all means to seek justice for his diapered daughter (Shakespeare, p.1). Rodrigo informs him that his daughter has been married to Othello, which seems not to auger well with him. Together, with Rodrigo and Iago, they confirming Othello into knowing the truth and finally to the Duke, who Judges in favor of Othello (Speaks, p.1). This scene makes the beginning of the conflict, as Rodrigo states paying Iago to bring him, Desdemona. Besides, the character of Iago is seen seeking justice for being denied a chance by Othello to become a lieutenant. The position was given to Cassio, and it is evident that Iago is dedicated to travel all the way into ruining the character of Cassio and Othello. This is the play within a play, where at one-point Roderigo tings that he is paying Iago to accomplish his mission of getting him Desdemona (Alqaryouti, p.5). However, Iago is on a mission to seek justice from being denied a chance to a better position in the military. This endeavor by Iago emerges as one of the most dangerous plots in the play and which weakens every other character into helping him in his mission. Additionally, Othello learns about the infidelity of his wife and embarks on a mission to seek justice. He collects enough evidence as directed by tricky Iago into listening to the conversation with Cassio. At this point, Iago makes Casio talk about Bianca and makes Othello believe it is his wife. In addition, the handkerchief Othello gave to Desdemona is found in Cassio's place, which convinces Othello to no doubt that his wife has slept with Casio (Speaks, p.2). Othello is a proud man and does not want his reputation to be demeaned and, in this respect, refuses to seek moral justice and instead wants to kill his wife personally. Even at this point, Iago seems to given Othello the best way of killing his wife. On the one hand, Othello wanted to poison her, but Iago advises him to strangle her, which he feels is the right way of getting justice. Besides, Othello is such a proud man that he feels he owns Desdemona and that he is the final decision about his life. This seems to be the norm in Venice, where women are vulnerable to men, and they can be used and abused through all violent means (Alqaryouti, p.5).

The pride of Othello as a prominent soldier makes him a lousy lover. He was made famous by his prowess in war, and being in love with Desdemona is something that comes to confuse him. In the beginning, he seems to like Desdemona as his wife and likes being with her all the time. However, as time goes on and the wars diminish, Othello seems to divert from the initial love (Panter, p.2). This is because he married her for the sheer purpose of being a great soldier, and failing to go to wars makes him feel incomplete. In the beginning, he even told the Duke and Desdemona's father that she loved him for telling her stories about the war. Now that the battles are not upcoming makes him feel that his identity as a soldier is disappearing and has to prove to her, he is still a soldier (Roy, p.7). At one point, Othello even strikes Desdemona in front of his accomplices. This shows that the man is gradually trying to show her that he is indeed a tough soldier. In scene three, he even remembers the good moments in war and seems to miss the encounters and the victories that come with war. Othello compares his life as a soldier with its success with his love life. He takes Desdemona from tough men like Roderigo, which confirms that he is a real fighter and gets what he wanted. In the later, scenes Othello is a proud man living in the memories as a soldier but on with no way of showing his loved ones about this professionalism (Shakespeare, p.10). His manhood is severely challenged, and Iago comes in handy to challenge this same...