Othello: the General and His Fall Essays -- Othello essays

Othello the General and His Fall The noble Othello in the Shakespearean play of that name has no one to blame but himself his suicide results. Is his downfall resulting from his naivete and gullibility? Let us study and expose this famous character in this essay. Francis Ferguson in dickens Worldviews Echo Each Other describes how Othello carries out Iagos plan of destruction Othello moves to kill Desdemona (Act V, scene 2) with that icy current and compulsive course which he had felt at the end of Act III, scene 3. We hear once more the music and the cold, magnificent images that express his perfect soul Yet Ill not shed her blood, Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster. He tells himself that he is sacrificing Desdemona to justice but we see how clumsily (like a bang-up baby) he fumbles to get Desdemona smothered at the second try how he roars and blubbers when its over. When Emilia yells at him, O gull O dolt she nevertheless puts a name to what we have seen, even while the great Othello music was in our ears. (137) The most radical change during the course of the drama is undergone by the protagonist, the Moor. Robert Di Yanni in Character Revealed Through Dialogue states that the deteriorated transformation which Othello undergoes is noticeable in his speech Othellos language, like Iagos, reveals his character and his decline from a courageous and confident leader to a jealous lover distracted to madness by Iagos insinuations about his wifes infidelity. The elegance and control, even the exaltation of his early speeches, wee way to the crude degradation of his later remarks. (123) ... ...t Plays Sophocles to Brecht. New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1965. Coles, Blanche. Shakespeares Four Giants. Rindge, New Hampshire Richard Smith Publisher, 1957. Di Yanni, Robert. Character Revealed Through Dialogue. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Literature. N. p. Random House, 1986. Ferguson, Francis. Two Worldviews Echo Each Other. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare The Pattern in His Carpet. N.p. n.p., 1970. Jorgensen, Paul A. William Shakespeare The Tragedies. Boston Twayne Publishers, 1985. Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http//www.eiu.edu/multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.