Othello Essay, Research Paper

OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE

Othello is a Moorish nobleman and soldier of fortune, inclined into the vale of years. Now in the service of the Venetian State as a general against the Turks. Othello is said to be ? great of heart,? ?honorable and valiant,? ?of a free open nature, that thinks men honest that but seem to be so,? and ? thus easy victim to the ?green eyed monster??JEALOUSY.? At the beginning of the play, Othello appears as a noble, generous, composed man. He is also glamorously happy, both as a general and as a husband to Desdemona. But as we follow the play along we see there is a crack in his personality. Albert Gerard puts it, ?[Othello] is the happiness of a spoilt child, not of a mature mind; it is the brittle wholeness of innocence; it is pre-conscious, pre-rational, pre-moral.? In this quote Albert Gerard tries to get across that Othello has not had any major obstacles to overcome in his lifetime.?

Although he was in the army of the Venetian State Othello was still misled by many. One mentioned in the play was Iago, the man whose wife was the mistress of Othello?s wife, the fair Desdemona. The real question I think in the play is why Othello would trust Iago over Desdemona? Some critics say it because Iago is a man and back when this play take place it is likely that a man would trust a man before he would trust a woman. But others say it is because Iago just kept nagging at Othello about the matter and he had never cared for a woman so much as he cared for her, and that?s what drove Othello over the deep end. What if Iago had mentioned only once that Desdemona had cheated, do you think that Othello might have went and asked his wife or do you think that he would have done the same thing? That?s a hard question to anwser because Othello had never had any obstacles like I mentioned before, until know.

This obstacle faced by Othello took him by surprise and he didn?t have any clue what to do. So as many people would do in a crisis like that, he asked a friend. The friend just happened to be the man that told him, ?honest? Iago. Iago, the psychopath that he is, hints to him that he should kill his wife, which is the wrong thing to do, of course. Othello seeking advice takes Iago. By this time Othello has had a lot of time to contemplate and he kills her. The he kills himself and tries to kill Iago, but fails.

Are there similar traits between Othello and Iago? Sure there are. Some of which are they both like to be in constant conflict and the are both noble men in the royal court. The two of them had many different traits as well. For one Othello was and honest and caring man. But Iago on the other had been a lying and deceitful man, who only wanted what was best for himself and no one else. By the end of the play Othello had become the complete opposite that he was at the beginning of the play. He was just like Iago. He had murdered his wife and killed himself.

Othello as a whole is a well rounded person but as you talk to him and get him riled up you realize that he was many different sides to his personality. The one seen most in this play was his anger/jealousy attitude. This was brought out by Iago, his ?friend.? Evern though he was so may sides Othello is still a naturally kind person therefore he was brought up by good parents and family. So in conclusion Othello should have just asked Desdemona and all would have ended good.

Hamlet