Tragedy That Come With Love

Gabriel Liuzzi

Instructor Name

Art 101

19 November 2018

Tragedy That Comes with Love

Tragedy treats a drama in serious and majestic style and sorrowful events encountered by the hero. Othello is a tragedy by William Shakespeare and it was written in 1603. There are five main characters in the play. Othello is a tragic character who suffers because of his hamartia. He loved his wife but he was jealous of every man who tries to talk to his wife and a simple talk between Desdemona his wife and Cassio causes the death of Desdemona and Othello. He was unfamiliar with the fact that a plan has already been made by Iago for him to meet his downfall. Every main character of Shakespeare’s plays has tragic flaws and those tragic flaws are responsible for their downfall. The need for love and desire in the play cause every character to choose the path which leads them towards a devastating end. Apart from tragic flaws, the character’s cynicism plays a huge role in creating a tragic story. The tragedy also calls for a mixture of personal choice and fate. To create a tragedy in the play, the hero must have personal choice and agency.

Shakespeare’s plays are known for their universal appeal. Every play contains themes and characters that evoke universal appeal among the audiences. Jealousy and manipulation are being the main theme of the play. Manipulation is part of every play of Shakespeare. It can be in the form of prophecy or the form of a man like Iago. He twisted information and created a false sense of reality that convinced Othello to believe that Desdemona is cheating on him. His manipulation led Othello to be prejudice about his wife. Every character has jealousy for certain reasons and each of them deals with their jealousy differently. Emilia in act 3, scene 4 talks about jealousy, “But jealous souls will not be answered so. They are not ever jealous for the cause, But jealous for they’re jealous” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"zf8gmoTX","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Shakespeare)","plainCitation":"(Shakespeare)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"6oMPv2B0/I3REFN7D","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WcSf8WB9/items/3BHV897J"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WcSf8WB9/items/3BHV897J"],"itemData":{"id":33,"type":"book","title":"Othello: The Moor of Venice","publisher":"Ginn & Company","number-of-pages":"254","source":"Google Books","note":"Google-Books-ID: Ki9XAAAAYAAJ","title-short":"Othello","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Shakespeare","given":"William"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1890"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Shakespeare). She indirectly comments on Othello that, those who are by nature jealous do not need a reason for their ill feelings of distrust. But Othello, on the other hand, believes that he is not an easy man to get jealous, “Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought, Perplexed in the extreme” The way he acted throughout the play after being manipulated by Lago shows how much jealous he is for his wife.

Shakespeare’s tragedies always create catharsis in the mind of audiences. Although Othello is in a fault of doubting his wife, still readers have great sympathy for him by the end of the play. Strong feelings and emotions are aroused in the minds of audiences because of the tragic death of Desdemona and the suffering of Othello. Burke explains Othello's stake in Desdemona as "ownership in the most profound sense of ownership, the property of human affections, as fetishistic ally localized in the object of possession, while the possessor is himself possessed by his very engrossment” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"0Eq9Z76y","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Snyder)","plainCitation":"(Snyder)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1142,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/DY5WC4U5"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/DY5WC4U5"],"itemData":{"id":1142,"type":"book","title":"Othello: critical essays","publisher":"Routledge","ISBN":"1-317-52561-2","author":[{"family":"Snyder","given":"Susan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Snyder, 129). People feel pity for Othello, even though he did wrong but the fact is that his character is universally appealing. Catharsis along with Hamartia is always been part of Shakespeare's tragedies. Othello’s unrealistic love, jealousy and trusting others easily create hamartia in the play ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"nLNQON7B","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Mincoff)","plainCitation":"(Mincoff)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1143,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/6LVHM4UW"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/6LVHM4UW"],"itemData":{"id":1143,"type":"article-journal","title":"Shakespeare and Hamartia","container-title":"English Studies","page":"130-136","volume":"45","issue":"2","author":[{"family":"Mincoff","given":"Marco"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1964"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Mincoff, 130). In Shakespeare’s plays, the hero is responsible for their downfall. They easily get manipulated and then they suffer in the end. Othello’s hamartia lies within the inner and external conflict. His blind trust in Lago and the element of jealousy in his nature caused his downfall. In act 4 scene 1 Lago manipulated Othello to strangle her wife on the bed instead of giving her poison. Othello appreciates him for his suggestion by saying, “Good, good. The justice of it pleases. Very good” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"FU79PXBf","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Shakespeare)","plainCitation":"(Shakespeare)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"6oMPv2B0/I3REFN7D","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WcSf8WB9/items/3BHV897J"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WcSf8WB9/items/3BHV897J"],"itemData":{"id":33,"type":"book","title":"Othello: The Moor of Venice","publisher":"Ginn & Company","number-of-pages":"254","source":"Google Books","note":"Google-Books-ID: Ki9XAAAAYAAJ","title-short":"Othello","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Shakespeare","given":"William"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1890"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Shakespeare, 152). It shows that Othello's mind has been completely warped and he is not ready to see the consequences he will face in the end.

Shakespeare’s plays are so gripping and suspenseful because of the dramatic device he uses in almost every play. His use of literary devices creates vivid, rich verses that have yet to be paralleled in writing since. The uniqueness of Shakespeare’s play lies in his writing style and the use of literary devices. It is important to use such devices in the right way to help create catharsis among the readers. He makes use of irony to create dramatic elements in the play. Othello believes that it is not easy to make him jealous which is very ironic because he easily gets jealous. In act 3 scene 3 he says that “I’ll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove; And on the proof, there is no more but this – Away at once with love or jealousy ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"36cSUl17","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Shakespeare)","plainCitation":"(Shakespeare)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"6oMPv2B0/I3REFN7D","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WcSf8WB9/items/3BHV897J"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/WcSf8WB9/items/3BHV897J"],"itemData":{"id":33,"type":"book","title":"Othello: The Moor of Venice","publisher":"Ginn & Company","number-of-pages":"254","source":"Google Books","note":"Google-Books-ID: Ki9XAAAAYAAJ","title-short":"Othello","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Shakespeare","given":"William"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1890"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Shakespeare, 152).” This is another ironic statement because as Othello later finds out, it is not easy to choose between love and jealousy. The tone of the play is cynical since that what Iago is and the story revolves around his revenge plot. Apart from that Iago’s narratives are the most remarkable ones created by Shakespeare as they productively develop the plot and show Iago to be the character who can spin narrative to achieve his purposes: manipulation and deceit.

Othello no doubt is one of the greatest tragedies ever written. Othello ends on a frightful note where the tragic hero Othello murders his beloved wife Desdemona after being manipulated by Iago and driven by his jealous rage. Iago kills his own wife Emilia in order to defend his innocence but he is taken prisoner for his misdoings. As Romantic poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge's comments on the play, “Othello depicts fundamental truths about human nature… Favoring a view of Othello "not as a negro, but a high and chivalrous Moorish chief." However, a farewell speech of Othello is primarily persuading Othello that everything is over for him.

Works Cited

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Mincoff, Marco. “Shakespeare and Hamartia.” English Studies, vol. 45, no. 2, 1964, pp. 130–36.

Shakespeare, William. Othello: The Moor of Venice. Ginn & Company, 1890.

Snyder, Susan. Othello: Critical Essays. Routledge, 2015.