Later, when Othello hits Desdemona because he believes her support for Cassio is due to an affair, Desdemona simply responds by saying "I have not deserved this" before telling Othello that she "will not stay to offend" him (4.1.241, 247). Although Othello is in grips of his own ignorance and anger, his petulant, sarcastic criticisms of Desdemona actually help to demonstrate her own failure when he tells Lodovico that "she's obedient, as you say, obedient, / very obedient" (4.1.255-256). hen Othello later calls Desdemona a strumpet and a whore, she almost begins to see the error of her blind subservience, to the point that she even tells Emilia that she has no lord (4.2.102). Even then, however, she remains woefully ignorant and entirely too self-effacing, stating that "those that do teach young babes / do it with gentle means and easy tasks: / he might have chid me so; for,…...

mla

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Shakespeare Navigators. Shakespearenavigators.com, 2011.

Web. 25 Sep 2011. .

Othello continues to change the subject and make light of it, but Desdemona persists asking "Shall't be to-night at supper?" And "To-morrow dinner, then?" (I, ii). From Othello's responses, it is clear that he is becoming annoyed. However, Desdemona remains unaware of this and persists. This is a sign of how naive she is because it shows that she is not aware of Othello's feelings. She is not capable of observing that he is not interested and it is not the time to convince him. Instead, she just continues to repeat herself as she tries to get Othello to listen to her and agree with what she wants. This also shows that she is naive because she is more intent on what she promised Cassio than the promise she made to Othello when she married him. This shows that she is driven by her own goodness and by her…...

mla

Works Cited

Shakespeare, W. Othello. New York: Penguin, 1984.

(IV.i.45-7)
Iago is a sinner and loves every minute of it.

Othello commits a grievous sin in the play but when we look at the facts, it is easy to see why he did it. He was emotionally overwrought and had every reason to doubt his wife. If her were being defended in court today, he could no doubt get off by reason of temporary insanity. He was pushed to the edge by a very conniving man and simply lost control of his emotions. This is certainly seen at the end of the play when he realizes what he has done and decides to take his own life. Othello can only be responsible for loving too much. The sin committed against him does not excuse his actions but they help us understand Othello more clearly. He is not a calculating murderer. He is not Iago. He illustrates every man in the…...

mla

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Kenneth Muir, ed. New York: Penguin Books. 1968.

Looking for the Wise Fool who should have been present to keep these plays comic, Constance must have her interlude with Desdemona to set up the rest of the action of the play. Iago and his buckets of filth are integral to the Act because without him, Constance would not discover Desdemona's warrior side, she would not be able to show Othello that Iago is treacherous and not to be trusted, and she would not ultimately have to fight Desdemona and end up in the next play, "omeo and Juliet." Thus, Iago portrays the ultimate theme that the plays were comedies, and also portrays the "filth" that muddies much of the academic world. Dramatically he and his buckets serve a vital purpose, and thematically they serve a vital purpose, and without them, Act II, scene ii would not make as much sense or be as funny as it is.
eferences

MacDonald,…...

mla

References

MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). New York: Grove Press, 1998.

Led Right
Virtually anyone who reads Shakespeare's tragedy Othello readily notices that despite his noble nature and good intentions, the title character of this work, Othello, is plagued by numerous faults which eventually lead to not only his own downfall, but also to that of his wife. Shakespeare portrays Othello as a good hearted man who is prone to fits of both anger and illness. However, his primary fault is his overall credulousness which, when combined with his previously mentioned faults, leaves him highly susceptible to the machinations of Iago -- one whose evil intentions a more discerning leader would have detected. It is due to Iago's intricate planning that Othello eventually believes that Desdemona is unfaithful to him, and kills her for that perceived transgression. However, all of Iago's cunningness would have gone for naught had Othello endeavored to be less gullible and trusting. Ultimately, it was this credulousness…...

mla

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Othello, The Moore of Venice. MIT. 1993. Web.  http://shakespeare.mit.edu/

Moreover, when Desdemona's handkerchief goes missing, and Othello approaches her about it, clearly thinking that she has given it to Cassio, Desdemona does not suspect that Emilia has taken the handkerchief from her.
Unfortunately for Desdemona, her trusting nature ends up being her fatal flaw. Othello becomes increasingly cruel to Desdemona throughout the course of the play. Although the audience is not aware of their entire romantic history, it appears that they have been involved in a platonic friendship for a substantial period of time, but only involved in an intimate relationship for a short period of time. The audience is certain that the marriage has been of a relatively short duration. However, despite the fact that there cannot be a long history of Othello treating Desdemona appropriately, Desdemona plays the role of obedient wife. At the end of the play, Othello orders Desdemona to stay in her bed. In…...

mla

References

Bradley, a.C. (1904). Shakespeare: Othello- Bradley on Othello. Retrieved April 11, 2009

from the Bard

Room.

Web site: http://web.singnet.com.sg/~yisheng/notes/shakespeare/othello_b.htm

Jealousy in Othello
Othello, by William Shakespeare, is a play demonstrating that we all have strengths and weaknesses and that while the best of us will focus on people's strengths, the worst of us will not only not weaknesses but use them in destructive ways. Throughout the play, the weakness of jealousy, directly or indirectly, brings the destruction and downfall of all the major characters, including not only Othello and his bride Desdemona, but Iago, his wife Emilia, Roderigo and Cassio.

Othello is particularly vulnerable because, being a Moor, he is somewhat an outsider (Weller, PAGE). He is accepted as a leader in society and as a great military man, but he is aware of his differences. He used them to charm those around him, wooing and winning the beautiful Desdemona and then defending her marriage to others, but the villain of the play, Iago, knows that it can be easy to…...

mla

Bibliography

Carson, Ricks. 1997. "Shakespeare's Othello. Explicator:37.

Evans, Robert C. 2001. "Flattery in Shakespeare's Othello: The Relevance of Plutarch and Sir Thomas Elyot."

Comparative Drama:35.

Hassel, R. Chris, Jr. 2001. " Intercession, Detraction and Just Judgment in Othello. Comparative Drama:35.

Poetry of Othello
Emilia is the person speaking, and she is the wife of Iago. She is speaking to Desdemona, and she is discussing the faults of men, and how they tend to blame them on women. Desdemona replies that one must not counter bad with bad, thus reiterating the meaning of the play.

Emilia.

But I / do think / it is / their hus / bands' faults

If wives / do fall. / Say that / they slack / their duties

And pour / our trea / sures in / to for / eign laps;

Or else / break out / in pee / vish jeal / ou sies,

Throwing res / traint upon / us; or / say they / strike us,

Or scant / our form / er hav / ing in de / spite

Why, we / have galls; / and though / we have / some grace,

Yet have / we some /…...

Humanities 202 FINAL EXAM
Emilia: the wife of Iago. She provides the handkerchief for her husband, unwittingly facilitating Iago's orchestrated revenge upon Othello. However, she sympathizes with Desdemona, regarding all men as savages. She represents the ugly side of Iago's view of women, as there are hints Iago has abused her and he openly treats her cruelly when she irritates him -- eventually he kills her when she reveals his scheme.

Roderigo: a commoner who foolishly and hopelessly loves Desdemona, and stupidly trusts Iago. Like Othello, he also is desperate to advance in society and subject to the green-eyed monster of jealousy over a woman. Like Iago he is also jealous of those of more military advancement than himself.

Cassio: Michael Cassio is the man who Othello promotes to lieutenant rather than Iago at the beginning of the play. He is handsome and dashing, even though he is less experienced than Iago. He…...

This intellectual error thus prevents Othello from thinking clearly about his wife after Iago has planted the idea that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him. Furthermore, "The Fall of Othello," John Arthos notes, "Othello fell into chaos before the murder was done" (95). Othello's confusion is evident as he tells Iago, "I think my wife be honest and think she is not;/I think that thou art just and think thou art not (Shakespeare 3.3.385-386). Iago manipulates Othello into believing women cannot be trusted based on his own prejudices against them. Iago, in a conversation with his wife Emilia claims that women "are pictures out of doors,/Bells in your parlours, wild-cats in your kitchens,/Saints in your injuries, devils being offended,/Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds" (2.1.111-114).
Iago further exploits Othello's uncertainties about Desdemona to the point where he eventually convinces him that he must kill Desdemona for her…...

mla

Works Cited

Arthos, John. "The Fall of Othello." Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Spring, 1958), pp.

93-104. JSTOR. 30 May 2013.

Golden, Leon. "Othello, Hamlet, and Aristotelian Tragedy."

Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Summer, 1984), pp. 142-156. JSTOR. Accessed 30 May 2013.

ole of Women in Othello
The Conflicting Female ole in Shakespeare's Othello

In Shakespeare's Othello, women are in a state of turmoil. On the one hand, the women in the play have to remain obedient to the subservient standards of life as a female in the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe. Yet, on the other hand, there are signs of a new, strong and independent female emerging within Shakespeare's characters. In Othello, Shakespeare juxtaposes the characteristics of the traditional, obedient woman with a new, more independent one. Desdemona's willing death at the hand of her husband illustrates Shakespeare's suggestion that strictly following these outdated gender norms will only lead to individual destruction; while Emilia, and her more independent ways stands up against her husband's ill will.

To understand the role of women in the play, it is first important to see how they are viewed by the men in Othello. From…...

mla

References

Evans, Ed. "Gender and Race in Othello." University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 2011. Web.  http://www.unc.edu/~edevans/othello.html 

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Saddleback Educational Publishing. 2011.

Emilia, Wife of Iago
Do not learn of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband.[footnoteRef:1] [1: Othello, Act II, Scene i.]

More than once, I think to myself how life could have been differed between that of my previous past to that which I have now. A woman whose prospects boiled down to nothing as important as marriage could not have many to begin with. But a husband whose soul blackens the very environment, whose tongue twists morality, whose plots send shivers down my little spine? No, even this I had not asked for, not one bit.

If my good mother was still alive, I would wager that her argument would play out as follows:[footnoteRef:2] [2: Theme: The hardships of mother-daughter relationships (Lucy by Jamaica Kinkaid)]

How now, Emilia, where is your sense? Was it really so bad to leave Mantua[footnoteRef:3], to head face-front to the catastrophe that is your husband, Iago? [3:…...

Othello, by William Shakespeare. Specifically, it will contain a major and minor character analysis. Othello and Desdemona are intertwined in the play, and the tragic fall of Othello could not occur without Desdemona's ultimate betrayal.
Othello

The major character of Othello in the play "Othello" is a tragic hero who allows himself to be manipulated by those around him, especially Iago and Desdemona. Othello is an interesting character, in that he is a "moor," or a black man in a largely white world, who indeed marries a white woman. He is a strong leader, who is given command over Cyprus, and is generally accepted by those around him, as this passage shows, "And, noble signior, If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your son-in-law is far more fair than black" (Shakespeare Act I, scene iii).

Unfortunately, Othello trusts his "friends" too much, and they plan and plot against him, ultimately leading to his…...

mla

Bibliography

Bloom, Harold. William Shakespeare's Othello. New York: Chelsea House, 1987.

Shakespeare, William. Cohen, Walter, Howard, Jean E., and Greenblatt, Stephen (Editors). "Othello." The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton Company. March 1997.

Othello Analysis
Shakespeare's Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragic play that details Othello's rise as an experienced combat leader and his tragic fall from grace due to his ancient, Iago's, manipulations and strategies. During the course of the play, Iago attempts to sabotage Othello through various means including informing Brabantio that his daughter, Desdemona, had married Othello behind his back in addition to successfully convincing Othello that Desdemona had been unfaithful to his, which results in Othello killing her. In the play, it can be argued that Brabantio's objection to Othello and Desdemona's marriage hinges on several factors, which include religion and social standing and background. On the other hand, Iago's motivations are fueled by jealousy and rage, as he was not promoted to the position of lieutenant like he had hoped.

Brabantio's reaction to Othello and Desdemona's elopement is very negative. Brabantio contends, "She is abused, stol'n from me,…...

mla

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Othello, the Moor of Venice. Web. 31 August 2012.

Aeschylus - the Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides)
The Oresteia offers the reader a close and intensive immersion with a truly pained universe of suffering: each play still has at its core a sense of flush of promise and vibrancy of Athens that was pushing forth and evolving into greatness. Even so, the author Aeschylus is able to captures a sense of the undercurrents of the primal vengeance that still defined this society. Each of the plays has in a common a strong pillar of the humanity and the lack of humanity that needs to be held in balance as the events spin and unfold. One could argue that the notion of suffering into truth is something which defines each of the plays in the trilogy. For instance, the first play thrusts the reader into a world which has been largely defined by the suffering of the Trojan War and…...

It is impossible to overstate the role that race and cultural difference play in Othello.  Often framed as a story of obsessive love, domestic violence, jealousy, deceit, and tragedy, it is less a story of the conflict between two people and more the story of racism and the conflict between cultures. That is because Othello being both a beloved and respected war hero and a suspect outsider is central to the plot of the play. That only happens because Othello is an outsider.  Not only is he not a Venetian, but he....