First Impressions Of Othello Essay, Research Paper

From out first

introduction to him, to the point at which he strangles his wife, Othello

undergoes a remarkable change. How does this happen and how do you explain it?Our first impressions of

Othello in this play are of him as a noble a courageous man. He is portrayed as

a simple soldier. He also seems to have a very positive relationship with Iago.

Along side those positive images Shakespeare prepares us for the evil deeds

that Othello will commit later in the play. For example, if he were a more

moral man then he would have ignored Iago when he was trying to exploit the

deceit of Desdemona?s father:????????????? ?She

deceived me and may well you?Brabantio

said this to Othello when he found out Desdemona had picked Othello over her

father; Iago overheard this and decided to exploit it in his own plotting

manner. We see another example of the courageousness of

Othello when he is urged to hide from the outraged father, he refuses to run

away; he feels secure in the rightness of his position:????????????? ?My

parts, my title, and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly.?Love is

something new to Othello, and his reaction to Desdemona has a mature intensity

that is almost frightening in its richness. As he tells us his story to the

Duke we can, in the space of some forty lines, watch the development of this

mutual feeling from is earliest days, when a shy Desdemona hovered near her

father?s exiting guest, to its full flowering in the declaration. The meeting in Cyprus, when

Othello is re-united with Desdemona after a perilous voyage, has a sublime

happiness, which even Othello finds hard to describe: the bliss of heaven

cannot equal it. His love has embraced Desdemona, and the two seem to be

separate from the rest of the play’s characters, in their own world of

innocent, joyful loving. But even the Garden of Eden has its serpent, and we

can never forget the presence of Iago. Only we-the audience-can see his

machinations. Every one of the other characters is duped by this ‘honest’

exterior; and, like them, Othello too is deceived by the man whom he knows and

trusts. His belief in Iago is quite understandable: after all, he has worked

with him for many years, and must have shared the hardships of battle with him.

And although Othello has done the state some service, he is still a foreigner

in Venice who does not know the customs of the country, whereas Iago is a

Venetian, who seems to be wise in the ways of the world and tells his general:

‘I know our country disposition well’. Othello is ‘not easily provoked’ into

jealousy, but when Iago starts his subtle insinuations it is only too easy for

Othello to identify in himself the possible reasons that could cause

Desdemona’s love to waver. Chief of these is his colour: ‘Haply, for I am black’.The early scenes of the

play emphasized Othello’s colour when Iago and Roderigo abused the ‘thick

lips’, and when Brabantio was revolted at the thought of the ’sooty bosom’. But

Desdemona ’saw Othello’s visage in his mind’, and the Duke shared her

perception when he told the angry Brabantio that his ’son-in-law far more fair

than black’. But since then, the matter of colour has been largely forgotten as

Othello was called upon to demonstrate his public authority and his private

love. On stage, of course, the reminder is permanently present in the Moor’s

person: but it has seemed irrelevant. Now it matters intensely: it is Othello’s

first thought. But soon the fact of his

blackness is forgotten as Othello wrestles with himself, torn between his great

love for Desdemona and the doubts, inculcated by Iago, of her faithfulness.

Because his love is so great, surpassing all other cares and affections, the

thought of its betrayal is equally overwhelming: there is no longer purpose

anywhere-’Othello’s occupation’s gone?. His threats to Iago, promising not

physical pain but eternal damnation, have a heated violence which is

frightening to read-and contrast with the cold, measured lines in which he

declares his resolution, comparing himself to the sea ‘Whose icy current and

compulsive course Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on’. Yet this declaration,

however, is not final. Othello must experience more anguish, caused in the

first place by Iago’s calculated slander. The mental suffering is

expressed physically when he falls to the ground in passion: even his body is

no longer under his control, almost as though he were experiencing some kind of

diabolic possession. Iago dismisses the frenzy as a commonplace epileptic

seizure-’his second fit; he had one yesterday’. The excuse may satisfy

Cassio-or at least have the desired effect of sending him away from the

scene-but it is not an adequate explanation for Othello’s distress. There is

nothing usual about this episode: Othello’s sense of wrong, like his feeling

for Desdemona, is of heroic dimensions. His subsequent conduct

towards Desdemona, however, is less than heroic. Having been confronted with

Iago’s ‘ocular proof’ -the missing handkerchief-the Moor treats his wife as

though she were a loathed prostitute. The powerful love turns to almighty

hatred of the supposed deed of adultery rather than the woman herself, for it

is the deed, which has defeated his highest ideals. When, at the beginning of

the last scene, Othello approaches Desdemona’s bed, we see that his love is by

no means extinguished. He reacts with acute sensitivity to her warm, sleeping,

beauty which he experiences as physically as the scent of a rose-the most

potent of all English flowers. This speech and the death of Desdemona must

surely make the most beautiful of all literary murder scenes! But when his wife

lies at peace, Othello must experience the cruellest torture he has so far

endured. Emilia, Iago’s wife, reveals the truth of the situation, and Othello

is the most miserable of men. A deeply religious man, he looks at the murdered

body and foresees his own punishment-he will be condemned on the Day of

Judgement to eternal damnation:????????????? ?When shall we meet at

compt this look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven and friends will snatch

at it.?