Othello's human nature comes through in a number of ways in Shakespeare's play of the same name. Othello is presented in a heroic light but at the same time his faults and failings are more than apparent and become increasingly pronounced as the drama unfolds. First, his willfulness is on display when he elopes with Desdemona, the daughter of a senator without the consent of her father, who he knows would not approve. Second, his jealousy is piqued by Iago, who looks to bring down the Moor and ruin his life. Third, his murderous actions indicate the full extent of his fall from grace and show just how far human nature can go wrong once the slippery slide from reason and the righteous path is deviated from. This paper will examine how Othello's human nature is represented in the play and how Shakespeare's treatment of Othello expresses the author's own sense of the frailty of human nature and how easily it can succumb to wicked temptations -- or, more precisely, how human nature consists of both good and bad elements competing for control of the soul.When the play begins, Othello has already secretly married Desdemona, which is a fact that Iago looks to exploit: it raises contention among the senators -- they approve of Othello's valor and his wartime deeds in defense of the State but they disapprove of the sneaking around with Desdemona. However, both Othello and Desdemona give accounts of their actions...
Indeed, Iago echoes this warning two Acts later when he tells Othello, "She did deceive her father, marrying you," (3.3.209). While Desdemona's virtues in terms of faithfulness are never suspected by the audience, they are by Othello -- precisely because this warning has been fired into his ear by two different persons and it plays upon his psyche, hammering his human nature down from the place of nobility that it has occupied as a soldier to a place wherein it is wholly unfamiliar with its role -- that of domesticity. In fact, as a domestic partner, Othello is very weak and has no experience, learning or training. This warning is like a stark foreshadowing of the doubts that will come to plague Othello and drive him towards murder later in the play. The point of this early episode in Act 1 is given by Shakespeare to show that Othello is not without his human weaknesses: instead of confronting Desdemona's father man to man and seeking his approval (and accepting the response even if negative), Othello shows that he is willing to call into question his own nobility when another presses him to do so (in this case, it is Desdemona who pushes for the elopement).
There is a continuing debate within scholarly circle about the "motiveless malignity" of Iago. (Kolin 214) In other words, a close reading of the play raises the question as to whether evil is spurred by ulterior motives and feelings such as jealously or whether evil is a purely senseless act that is its own motive. The poet Coleridge was of the view that Iago represents senseless evil in human nature
Othello: A Dramatic Study in Venetian Alienation According to Shakesperean scholar Maurice Hunt, "Shakespeare's Venice" in the play "Othello" strives to activate "a disturbing paradigm dependent upon the city's multicultural reputation." (Hunt, 2003, p.1) In other words, in Shakespeare's Venice, diversity creates a disturbing and tumultous environment, an environment where only alienation rather than harmony between different races and different people can be sustained. At the beginning of Shakespeare's drama, Othello
They will go to far to hire a mercenary like Iago to pursue their goal for them. There are Othellos today as there was a shining one in Shakespeare's fiction or time. Military heroes like him have secret vulnerabilities, which reveal themselves in unguarded or trying moments. As a self-claimed victim of a foreign culture, Othello's cry of discrimination resounds in contemporary society despite his accomplishments. Contentment in life is
John Draper holds a different perspective regarding Iago, which aligns him very closely with Othello in terns of honor. He contends that "a careful survey of the plot as it unfolds shows Iago as an opportunist who cleverly grasps occasion" (Draper 726). He believes that Iago and Othello are similar in that they are both noble soldiers. He goes on to defend Iago, noting that he is "less culpable than
In the context of Othello, this is not such a reassuring notion because Othello and Iago represent the worst that man can be. The reality of this fact allows us to look upon Othello is disgust and with caution. These two men are known by their first names worldwide not because they are nice but because they are the farthest from it. They are human and they are evil
Othello Is a Tragic Hero Othello is an Aristotelian tragedy This paper will show that Othello can be correctly labeled a "tragic hero" and that the play fits the form and function of the Aristotelian tragedy according to the model as it is understood and interpreted by critical scholars. Defining the tragic hero and the Aristotelian tragedy The tragic hero is good, valorous, true to life and consistent The Aristotelian tragedy is complete, an imitation
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