Essay Eng 1011

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Title: Drama

Part A (on Goodnight Desdemona)

2. In Act II, scene ii, MacDonald’s Iago enters carrying two buckets of filth. Discuss the

Dramatic and thematic purposes of this device.

Answer: The scene of Goodnight Desdemona, in which Iago enters carrying two buckets containing filth manifests that Iago had started feeling jealousy from Desdemona. In the very next scene, Desdemona starts believing in the words of Iago. Iago conspires against Constance that she is an evil woman and is pursuing the heart of her husband. After this conspiracy of Iago, Desdemona felts betrayed and decides to kill Constance. This plotting by Iago has developed the story to some extent. The carrying of filth by Iago depicts that the evil things have brought in to the story by Iago. As according to Fiedler, this part is consequential in the story, as it has developed another sense ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"dBWmj6Iz","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Fiedler)","plainCitation":"(Fiedler)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":519,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/WTFMERXD"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/WTFMERXD"],"itemData":{"id":519,"type":"article-journal","title":"The stranger in Shakespeare","container-title":"New York","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Fiedler","given":"Leslie"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1972"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Fiedler). As the word ‘filth' is associated with something creepy or anything that has no value in the eyes of others, therefore the word ‘filth' in the play symbolizes the dirty convictions of Iago. Iago shares the worst feelings to those people he hates, therefore he has planned to malign them in every way possible. On another side Desdemona, who starts believing on the words of Iago decides to kill Constance. Constance has also been treated in the same manner by her husband Othello in another Shakespeare play. In this play, Iago has been playing the thematic role. McDonald who is the author of the play has used the tactic of parody to construct the plot. McDonald has done the same thing with her character, which has been done in Othello. In this play after the plot settings by Iago, the female character has become of the primary importance. Since the story starts to revolve around the female character, Constance, it has taken a form of reflection of feminism by the author. The author has tried to lead the search of truth from such devices (filth) in the story.

Part B (relates to Othello and/ or Good Night Desdemona)

3. In both Othello and in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses the device of fateful mistakes to develop the tragic action. Can similar kinds of mistakes be said to happen in Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), but to comic ends instead? Compare MacDonald’s use of this device with one of the “mistakes” in Othello.

Answer: In the play Othello, Shakespeare has used the plotting of fateful mistakes to create a sense of tragic action. It leads to the tragic ending of the characters in this play. In such a story setting, one character decides the fate of his or her own character. Therefore, one can argue that if the same setting has been employed in Desdemona, it will not move towards the comic end. There are mistakes in Desdemona that appear fateful, as it leads to the eventual death of the characters.

In Othello by Shakespeare, there are some important mistakes which appear fateful. One of these major fateful flaws in Othello is the conflicting personality of Othello himself. In the protagonists' approach, he has a conflicting personality. One side of his character is daring who receives huge respect from the people around him. Whereas, on another side, he feels insecurity. This insecurity makes him the easy prey, just as like Iago of Desdemona. Desdemona just does not like to go close to his wife and hates her, because he has been influenced by other characters in the story. Similarly, Othello lover his wife and treats like another part of his body, but his relationship with his wife is too weak, as he lacks confidence over her. In the whole play any small words about her ruins the trust and the love of Othello for her wife. This is the major fateful mistake drawn over by Shakespeare in Othello’s construction.

The comparative analysis of both plays shows that the tragic personality in Othello's character does not exist individually. In Othello, the readers can find this aspect for the other two characters also. As like Desdemona is majorly influenced by the patriarchy. She has been portrayed by Shakespeare as very normative women who follow the traditions. She has been portrayed as an obedient wife by Shakespeare. She also believes her husband and trusts him a lot. But as for the character of Iago is a concern, he is the worst of all characters. Iago has been the turning point for this play, as he leads the story towards the tragic end. Iago is portrayed as a hypocritical and a selfish person. All such turns in the play have resulted in the tragic ending of the story.

Secondly, in the play Goodnight Desdemona, there are the very same fateful mistakes as like Othello. But it is important to note that however if the main characters have remained the same as like they were in the staring, the end would also be the same, as it has been, but not the comic one. In the Goodnight Desdemona's story, there are two parts: the first one ‘Othello's part' and the second is the ‘Romeo and Juliet' part. Kolin mentions that as the good night Desdemona is an exciting parody of Shakespeare’s two original plays, therefore the original plot construction is based in the true stories ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"U8V1rHOU","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Kolin)","plainCitation":"(Kolin)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":521,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/VGRTQG7G"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/VGRTQG7G"],"itemData":{"id":521,"type":"book","title":"Othello: New critical essays","publisher":"Routledge","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Othello","author":[{"family":"Kolin","given":"Philip C."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2013"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Kolin). Analyzing the fateful mistake in the Goodnight Desdemona, Othello's part, with the real Othello character, one can easily notice that that there is a transfer of character's attributes. Othello is the easy prey to his insecurities, whereas Desdemona's weakness is her husband, as she is obedient to her. In the new version of Desdemona after the author McDonald has presented this story, the new Desdemona character introduced, is a very upright and straight forward person. At the same time he is narrow-minded and a kind of biased also. She in her new role advocates violence and is not shy anymore. The characters of original Othello has just been transformed to Desdemona. It is for this reason that the fateful ending cannot be changed. It’s just Othello which believed in Iago and resulted in what tragic happened and this time it’s Desdemona, which is the only difference.

Works Cited:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Fiedler, Leslie. “The Stranger in Shakespeare.” New York, 1972.

Kolin, Philip C. Othello: New Critical Essays. Routledge, 2013.