Othello And Antigone Essay, Research Paper

Othello and Antigone

Othello, takes place in Venice during an attack of the island of Cyprus . The

protagonist is Othello and The antagonist of the story is Iago, who wants

Othello to give him the rank of head luitenant but the position was given to

Cassio. Desdemona is Othello’s wife who is having an affair with Cassio.

Roderigo, is a character madley in love with Desdemona; and Emilia , who

is iago’s wife. The heart of this story is trajic. Although Othello is a noble

warrior, he is a jealous person . with this, most of the play portreys the factor

on jealousy which causes corruption. Many conflicts are found in Othello,

man vs. man is one . also, when Iago seeks revenge against Othello and

Cassio because of his hatred and jealousy for them. Person vs. himself is also

found when Othello has a problem with whether or not he should believe

that Desdemona is cheating on him. . one lesson , in which, readers can

learn from the play is that “jealousy causes corruption in many ways such as

dishonesty which was portrayed by Iago”.At the end of the play, Desdemona

dies, iago has no guilt ; even when iago was dieing , he doesn’t have any

remorse for anyone. However, Iago was not fully to blame for desdemona’s

death, Othello also caused Desdemona to die, his jealousy and his and

overzealous attidude cause it. Even in the end of the play , Othello doesn’t

know what his drive and motivation for killing the woman of his life.

Shakespeare uses Othello’s diction to diplay his untrusted perception of his

wife.Another asset used by Shakespeare to contribute to the “depiction” of

Othello’s devastation is “Biblical allusions” which Othello draws to the

reader. There is a scripture in the Bible about Job, who God decides to test

by taking his riches, losing his loved ones and leaving him without anything.

Othello assumes and says that he would “rather have this man’s fortune than

the jealousy and pain that is inflicted upon his mind by Desdemona’s

supposed infidelity”. This is another great style Shakespeare uses to display

how tormented Othello is, which makes puts him in a state of rage which

makes the play more exciting .

A similar play which has the same view is the story Antigone. Antigone

displays many qualities that make it a great tragedy. Fear and pity was

achieved in this play when polynices was left without the proper burial after

his fathers death.Antigone , later has a plan to bury here brother Polynices

and also wants Isme to help her. but Isme is afraid to help her cause she

would most likely be put to death if done, because of the Kings orders.

Because the King was stubborn, He then looses his wife, son, and neice

Antigone in the end of this trajic result; This brings the 2 emotions of the

ending together, pity for the King and fear of not wanting it to happen to the

reader. The lesson learned show that “stubborness can sometimes blind you

to the affect of your actions.

Similarite within antigone and othello arise in the fact of how trajic they

end and in both stories the reader can feel a sence of pity and fear. The fact

that Othello is wavering between believing Iago and trusting his wife is

reflected in the imagery Shakespeare . The same went along in Antigone

when she was thinking about not burying her brother and live, or burying her

brother and be sentanced to death.

Shakespeare’s Othello, is famous for its depiction of “human nature”.

Perhaps because it has identified with Othello’s rage and feelings toward

Desdamona, also, all can notice and relate with the jealousy Othello feels at

one point in the readers life. Mainly, to me, the book is enjoyable because of

Othello’s transformation from trust to raging jealousy. This has shown the

you can not trust everyone, because the end result could be disastrous, as

they were for Othello in the play.

I believe that Antigone is similar to the way of life in todays society.

Even the highest official in the United State, may have the same problem,

take for instance Mr. Bill Clinton, President of the United States. Bill

Clinton has to please his society, though is faced with a problem when he

had to pardon his wife with the involvment with the Whitwater scandal, if

convicted. He is punishing his wife hilary in an “indirect way” if Clinton

does not pardon her. In Antigone, The King also was put with great stress

with punishing his neice, the king though was put on with more stress cause

Antigone was talking to him with a great tone, which back then it was

considered unheard of talking to a king or man in such a way. Creon was so

upset at her that he didn’t even think death was the answer. I believe that

these two conflicts with Antigone and the world today cope together and

show that life back then and life today still have the same problems in society.