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Othello, from Human to Beast
When writing Othello, Shakespeare performed a great act of emancipation, a shedding of the taboos and irrational supports of his times. The Bard went off the gold standard of conventional judgments, and gained a position where the audience must follow with its own judgment the natural pulses of sympathy.
Othello, the Moor, was supposed to embody the devil and in him an infidel parricide, the embodiment of evil.
However, all these characteristics seem to be embodied by Iago. Othello´s ancient abuses his master and develops his tragic flaw, deprives him of his high virtues and little by little transforms him into an irrational animal full of doubts and weaknesses.
Can you identify the moment in the play where Othello finally loses his human virtues and becomes a beast?
Comment on Iago´s techniques to achieve his aims and on his motives to do so.
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“Othello” is a play full of contrasts. On one side, we have the virtuous and brave general whose deeds have gained him a high reputation and the people’s respect, even though he is black. On the other side, we have a man in love whose doubts and insecurities finally destroy him in a way that neither weapon nor soldier could have done. We can also see a contrast in Iago, for when he is with Othello he plays the roll of a loyal and good friend, while in fact he is a betrayer. Another example could be the two marriages: Desdemona and Othello, who are truly in love and do respect each other —at least at the beginning—, are completely different from Iago and Emilia, who have a rather cold relationship because they’ve never been in love. Actually, Iago doesn’t appreciate any woman, as we can realize because of the terms he uses to refer to them all, even to his wife. There we have another contrast, this time with Cassio, who has a natural love for all women and threats them in a kind and delicate manner.
At the beginning of the play, Othello is shown as a hero in Venice. He has been in many battles and he has fought many wars, and many people in higher or lower rank appreciate him. However, when he makes Cassio his lieutenant, Iago becomes jealous and hates him so much that he decides to take revenge. As Othello falls in love with Desdemona, Iago realizes that she is the main weak point of the Moor, and he draws an evil but brilliant plan to destroy Othello. The culmination of his plan could be considered as a transformation of Othello into a beast, due to Iago’s lies. But it could also be considered as the transformation of the Moor into an evil and resentful human being, just like Iago.
I believe that the ancient’s lies cast doubts about Desdemona and Cassio upon the Moor, turning him slowly into a beast. In fact, although at the very beginning he refuses to believe it, Iago finally persuades him with false proofs. Othello begins to lose his mind and the doubts beat him. At the end, he becomes an irrational beast that only wants to kill his wife and his lieutenant.
However, he plans the murder of Desdemona and Cassio very carefully, waiting until they’re completely alone, and even after he has killed her he tries to hide he is guilty. That’s why some people may think that he turned into an evil man, but not absolutely irrational, otherwise he wouldn’t have planned everything so cautiously.
In any case, Othello regrets his murder even before knowing the truth, so in fact he was not behaving in a rational way. If he had really become a malevolent person, he wouldn’t have confessed it. Besides, as this is a play of contrasts, this change in his personality reflects the biggest contrast of all: the double nature of the human soul.
Nayla,
Congratulations for your comments,they are well thought and certaily very well written.
Silvia
``Othello`` is a great play excellently written by Shakespeare. Is marvelous the way Shakespeare describes the characters` feellings, it seems that he is inside each of them feeling the way they does as if he were a woman, a chauvinist, a general, etc.
I personally agree with Nayla because contrasts are in every single part of the play as she said, it is a very good resource he uses to emphasize the characters`s performance, for example Iago acts in a friendly way when he is with the Moor and in a completely different when he is not with him, that makes the public think and hardly believe Iago is a hypocritical man in which Othello cannot trust but he does and that is why he drives crazy, because of Iago`s influence making him think about the relationship he creates between Cassio(a real loyal man to Othello) and Desdemona, though it was all an enormous lie to makes Othello hates Cassio, so that Iago gain the Moor`s confidence.
Iago invent a perfect plan to destroy Othello, in which, from the beginning he went mad and became a beast thinking the worst thing about his loyal man Cassio and his loyal wife Desdemona. Despite the fact Iago was lying, Othello never try to talk face to face niether with Desdemona nor Cassio telling them if all Iago`s lies were true or false.
He became an irrational beast and the only thing he thought was a plan to kill his poor wife and his good lieutenant.
In conclusion this play shows how a man manipulated or influenced by others can betray his own thoughts, his believes, his loyal people and create his own hell as it is shown in ``Othello``.
Dear Rod,
I enjoyed your comment a lot,The layouy is perfect and your thoughts a very interesting.
Please check on verb form and verb-subject agreement.
Silvia
In this play, Shakespeare really proofs his talent of creating different personalities. This can be seen for example in Iago’s mind or in Othello’s acts and behaviour.
The transformation of The Moor is planed from the very beginning by Iago, who after Othello named Cassio his lieutenant, started felling jealous and he created a master plan to defeat the invincible, the most honoured general, the one who had a perfect armour and could never fall, The great Othello.
Iago sees his master’s weakness when Othello fall’s in love with Desdemona, he realises that the man who is in love with Desdemona is not the supreme general but a brittle man full of doubts. Iago begins to destroy this fragile man in act 3 scene 3.
From there on Othello is corrupted by the evil of his Ancient and is not only transformed into a wild animal which only aims to kill Desdemona’s pure soul, but also into Iago’s poppet, doing all that he wishes.
Iago uses very well planed strategies to convince the Moore about the fact that Desdemona is not loyal to him. One of his weapons is the handkerchief, which Emilia, with out knowing his husband’s true intentions, steals and then Iago leaves it in Cassio’s room. Another is when he tells the Moore to watch and listen how Cassio speaks about his wife, when he was really speaking about Bianca.
In the end Othello, completely transformed into a personification of hell and evil, and commanded by Iago kill’s her angelical wife, although she prays for another minute of life in this world, he kill’s her. After her deaths he denies having killed her, but then he repents of his acts and can not live with his deep anguish, knowing that not even god would forgive him for what he has done, he ends with his tortured soul and life, waiting for nothing, but hell.
In this play, Othello is showed as a hero, with many convictions an full of love for his angelical wife, Desdemona. But Iago views Othello as a beast from the beginning of the story. Iago repeteadly describes Othello in terms of animals, using differents adjetives or nouns in reference to him. Early in the play Iago realizes that Othello’s idea of honor is mixed with his concept of justice. Othello, more than any other character in the play, is obsessed with justice. Iago recognizes this and he realizes that to convert Othello into a beast he has to violate his sense of justice. With this realization, Iago creates his plan to have Othello murder Desdemona. He is convinced that murdering his wife, Othello as a man will be destroyed and the beast within will be exposed. He convinces Othello that strangulation rather than poison or death by some instrument other than the hands is the right move. To kill with a knife would be the crime of a man; to kill with the body would be the crime of an animal. Finally, Othello committed the murder by using his hands, just like an animal.
Iago is the villain in the play, his character is pure evil. He possess the revenge motive behind all his actions. Iago is extremely amoral and spends the majority of the play influencing people to suit him, for wich he has a huge ability. The reason to made that sort of persuasion is his injured merit, and uses it against all the characters. Being as smart as he is, Iago is quick to recognize the advantages of trust and uses it as a tool to forward his purposes. His ability to intertwine his plots, play the characters off each other, and take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself shows his skill as a manipulator.
Martin
I liked your essay very much.Your ability for reasoning is clear and convincing.
I advice your using shorter sentences so that some ideas are clearer to the reader.
Silvia
Sole
Nice point of view.Your argument is clear and interestingly put.
Please check your spelling and tenses.
Silvia
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