Shakespeares Othello Essay Example for Free

Shakespe bes Othello EssayShakespe bes Othello, as a tragedy, offers a plot and theme which are so closely connected that one can except be interpreted in visit to the other. For example, Othellos pride is explored by means of the use of irony while, during the course of the forge, Iago manipulates Othello (along with the other characters) into progressively more damaging and unwarranted acts of self-destruction. Iago realizes, as the audience realizes, that Othellos prideful nature along with his professional and temperamental propensity for force willing probably end in blood-shed. This realization which the audience enjoys is not known to Othello himself and that is where Shakespeares use of irony is some(prenominal) brilliantly executed and highly expressive of the plays deepest theme that of self-knowledge. Although it may be somewhat of an oversimplification to imply that the entirety of Othello is based around the idea of self-knowledge, such a suggestion is, in fact, born forbidden by the play itself due to the aforementioned tight link between the plays plot and theme, which can be interpreted together as the expression of Othellos character development.In other words, Othellos internal state is mirror thorough the action of the play and both the plot nd dialogue give the alert audience member or reader many clues as to exactly how Othellos character development has contri provideded to the outward presentation of action in the play. For example, Othellos famous monologue in Act 5, Scene 2, where he addresses Gratiano, after(prenominal) murdering Desdemona demonstrates his (and by extension, a universally human) self-reflective capacity. The passage is both introspective and ironic.The impact of Othellos predominantly military orientation to the world hence, a primarily masculine perception of the world, has collided tragically with the more delicate, ambiguous and effeminate domestic sphere of love and sexual monogamy. For Othello, force is the most applicable tool for confronting crisis, or had endlessly been but through the rising tension of his monologue in Act 5, Scene 2, the once-great general realizes his flow rate enemy is himself and that enemy must be dispatched by force. So, the monologue is, in effect, a self-eulogy.By looking at deeply into the construction of this pivotal scene, including the prosody, imagery, and diction of the lines, a sort of microcosm of the plays them can be extracted. Othellos monologue opens Behold, I clear a weapon (256). in a smooth iambic penta meter and afterward broken by anapests, spondees, and dactyls, is a powerful blank verse, with admirable modulation in both meter and imagery. Behold, I have a weapon A better never did itself sustain Upon a soldiers thigh (256-58)A basal iambic meter is established with a markedly powerful use of alliteration the s grievous of itself sustain/ Upon a soldiers thigh creates a sense of onomatopoeia with the sword be move fr om its scabbard. Or slicing to the heart. The next phrase 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 concomitant 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 credit as a soldier has passed to his sword alone, or that his noble characteristics have devolved there. I have make my way through more impediments Than twenty times your stop but, O vain boast (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 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 no t afraid, though you do see me weapond/ Here is my journeys end, here is my butt,/ And the very sea-mark of my utmost piece of paper (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 mid stoppage. The extension beyond doom now creates dynamism in the use of extensive alliteration, build on the O vowel. Where should Othello go? / Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starred wench / disgusted 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, meatyly that of self-confrontation, or self-realization. One might readily observe the letter O itself as not only a sight-rhyme, but an almost concrete expression of this self-confrontation ro realization, as a symbol of wholeness, adept and perfection. This unity is appli ed in ironically in tragic consequence 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 blow me about in winds / roast me in sulphur / wash out 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 last released through Othellos murder of the innocent 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 long 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 merely 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.