Similarly in The Duchess of Malfi, when the Duchess’ attempt to deceive her brothers and conceal her marriage leads to her death. However self-deception is also a recurrent theme in both of the plays, in Othello, it can be argued that Othello’s self- deception proves just as destructive as Iago’s, as by deceiving himself of his true nature and labelling himself as “one not easily jealous,” he continually supresses his feelings of inner turmoil until he breaks under the influence of Iago. F R Leavis agreed with this stating, “The mind that undoes [Othello] is not Iago’s but his own.” The role of deception would be nowhere near as essential to the play without the influence of Iago; described by AC Bradley as the “artist of evil” his ruthless manipulation of the other characters in the play ensures not only the destruction of Othello, but his own. Self- deception plays a crucial role within Othello and The Duchess of Malfi; it allows the audience to see further into the characters personality and gain a deeper understanding of them as a character. Othello himself is the most palpable example of self- deception within the plays as from when the audience is first introduced to him in Act One Scene Two, he believes
Revenge is often seen as a person’s way to “get even” after he or she has suffered, in attempt to harm the wrongdoer in retaliation. The only purpose of revenge is to gain satisfaction in seeing the wrongdoer suffer. Through ethical, religious and legal perspectives, revenge is not ever justified. The act upon taking revenge is unethical. For instance in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the feud between the Montagues and Capulets caused pain and suffering towards the innocent characters such as Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Tybalt.
Shakespeare's Presentation of Othello as Responsible for his Own Downfall Shakespeare’s Othello consists of the themes betrayal, love and dishonesty. At the centre of this play is the tragic downfall of Othello at the hands of his so called friend Iago. In this essay I will be discussing the reasons for and against Othello being responsible for his downfall through looking at critical interpretations of his character and actions. In some ways you could say that Othello was highly responsible for his own downfall as he was easily manipulated by Iago showing him to be gullible and naïve. Iago manipulates Othello by making him suspicious through inference, “Ha I like not that”.
One of the reasons being is that he pretends to be nice and loyal to Othello and yet he only wanted to take him down. That was his main motive, your honour. The fact is, Iago is a resentful man. He had studied Othello well to
Iago, who is known as the Machiavellian villain perpetuates the tragedy by bringing forward a hamartia or a fatal flaw from Othello. As soon as the play begins, Shakespeare used dramatic irony to illustrate Othello’s view of Iago as an honest and trustworthy man through his repeated description of “honest Iago” and “a man of exceeding honesty” to the audience. Of course that is not the case, the audience views Iago to be “Janus-faced” and deceptive through his constant declaration of “I am not what I am” and how he “hates the moor”. This juxtaposition is created so that the audience can empathise with Othello. I know I can definitely empathise with him.
April 15, 2013 OTHELLO Extra Credit Response According to Aristotle’s six elements of drama, Othello was the tragic hero whose weakness for having faith in those who he thinks tell the truth (Iago) allows him to be manipulated and blinded his jealousy that Iago created as an illusion. This downfall of his led to the death of Desdemona. Othello’s lack for evidence, such as proof of the handkerchief, allowed tragedy to occur in the play. Seeing the play Othello live rather than reading it from a book allowed me to understand the writing and meaning of Shakespeare. Watching Othello, I already knew the underlined themes and symbolism, etc.
This is supported by the Othello by William Shakespeare and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. Both literary works show theme of deception and characterization that convey the critical lens. If a person does a wrong thing he/she should try to fix it before it’s too late. If they will not take any steps to fix it, it will eventually affect them in a bad way. Both literary works showed how a person did a wrong thing and it has caught up to him/her.
Deadly sins The seven deadly sins are renowned for a reason, which is that just one of them can drive a person insane. Greed and envy together can lead a person into doing immoral and unjustified deeds. In the play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare, Claudius is the villain who contradicts Knight's The Embassy of Death because Claudius's actions and behavior result from his innate greed for wealth and envy of true love that his brother King Hamlet had; on the other hand, Knight views that his actions were forced upon him due to Hamlet's unstable mentality. (wrap up the thesis statement, condense to the main point. You don't need to make a comparison, but pick which view you agree with, Knight or Shakespeare's, or make it into 2 separate sentences.
Other Characters in the play greatly influenced Macbeth. They influenced him especially when decisions were to be made. Lady Macbeth and the witches both contributed to his bad decisions. In the play, Lady Macbeth basically told Macbeth how he should act and what he needed to do, for example, when she told him “look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.” If there had been less negative influence in his life, Macbeth most likely would not have made nearly as many mistakes that lead him to his downfall. The third, unfavorable trait of Macbeths came in the form of ignorance.
The downfall of Othello – The dramatic play Othello by William Shakespeare epitomises a tragedy, which is defined as “a literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with un-favourable circumstances”. Throughout the play it becomes evident that the ultimate downfall of Othello is caused by his own weaknesses in his personality and his vulnerability to those who have identified these weaknesses and prey upon them. Othello’s weakness is his trusting nature and his willingness to believe whatever he is told without question. The second character flaw is that he can be overcome by his uncontrollable jealousy. Desdemona is Othello’s wife who he is madly in love with and Iago preys upon Othello’s jealous personality and trusting nature to convince Othello of his wife’s infidelity resulting in the ultimate downfall of Othello – death.