OTHELLO
Flaws are things that everyone has. Whether you admit it or not, you are somehow, someway, flawed. There’s no way around it. Nobody is perfect, no matter how much they believe that they are. Othello is the same way.
Because of his prestigious past and bright future, Othello is considered by many to be “perfect.” Sure, he’s a moor, and moors weren’t necessarily accepted back then, but he’s honest, trustworthy, and intelligent. Othello has lived up to these expectations throughout his whole career. As far as we know, he’s never really had a mishap. Always is cool, calm, and collected. That’s the Othello we know. But is it the real Othello? Not one person is completely capable of living up to everyone’s expectations for them. We’re humans, humans aren’t perfect. This is a major flaw of Othello. He strives for perfection. He has to have the perfect job, the perfect lieutenant, and the perfect wife. As these things begin to fall apart, we see Othello fall apart along with them. Being a perfectionist is not always good, and in this case it’s the complete opposite of good. Striving for perfection ultimately ended up with Othello in his own self-created dystopia. Kindness is another major flaw in Othello’s personality. Of course it’s great to be kind to people, but you cannot expect every person to be as kind as you. It’s just not going to happen. Othello forces himself to believe that every person he encounters is going to be as kind as he is. Most of them are kind, however the one person who he puts all of his trust into, Iago, is the polar opposite of “kind.” He’s evil. Because of Othello’s hope that everyone is as kind as he, he fails to recognize Iago’s flaws and overlooks anything negative about the man. Jealousy is a trait that all people have. Everyone gets jealous of something whether it’s the girl who wears a different pair designer shoes everyday, or an arch rival in athletics, everyone is jealous of something. Jealousy runs in our blood. Othello is extremely jealous when Iago tells him about Desdemona’s affair with Cassio. He becomes so overcome with jealousy that he transforms from a well respected and put-together person to an enraged psychopath that only revenge can cure. Othello is extremely gullible. This ties into the whole “be kind to others and they’ll be kind to you” theory. Othello is not a liar. He never has been, so why would he expect Iago to lie to him? He wouldn’t. This is a major flaw. When you’re someone of such a high position like Othello, you have to be wary of people that could be out to get you. You have to look more in depth to things and not just take their word for everything. Othello’s gullibility causes for a tremendously disheartening tragedy to unfold. In the beginning of the play, we read about how respected and calm Othello was, but because of his flaws, he transformed into a completely different person that no one had seen before. This proves that no matter what kind of reputation someone has, they can always be broken if you push the right buttons. No one is invincible.
1 Comment
Reading the class agenda and what will be expected of you during that course is something students usually do when signing up for an English class. They know for the most part what to expect--reading, writing, a little more reading, and a lot more writing. That’s English. What they don’t expect, however, is to re-learn how to understand the language that most of them have spoken since their very first word. What do you mean? I’m talking about reading and fully understanding one of the most important writers in history, William Shakespeare.
When most students my age hear the word “Shakespeare,” they groan loudly and their hearts sink into their stomachs. Why do we have to read something that isn’t even understood by half of the population? Why do Shakespeare’s plays even exist anymore? Well, it turns out that Shakespeare is very important. He helps us understand old English and extend our vocabulary beyond what we ever imagined. Shakespeare makes us think. He makes us learn. He makes us appreciate our language. Practice makes perfect when reading Shakespeare’s plays. There is no possible way that you can read Shakespeare one time and completely and fully understand everything he was saying. You must re-read the play over and over again to completely understand. Re-reading helped my A.P. Literature and Composition class tremendously. When we were assigned an act to read out of one of his plays, we would go home and attempt to uncover the brilliant thought lying deep in the intense wording and vocabulary. The next morning, we would come to class and literally have no idea what we spent an hour and a half reading the night before. It seemed like nothing was going to get through to us. Then, we started to re-read the sections we were assigned as homework during class together as a group. We formed a discussion circle where we could share our ideas and eventually all of us began to understand little by little what Shakespeare was saying. Another tip for reading Shakespeare is to use your resources. The internet was created for a reason and is a great place to learn more about a subject. What was beneficial to me was to go online and visit spark notes before and after I read a section of the play. It really helps to visit spark notes before reading because then you know a little bit of what to expect and can sometimes connect what you’re reading with an idea from spark notes. By re-reading spark notes after finishing the assigned section, it really helped cement the main ideas into my brain. When reading Shakespeare, the main thing you have to focus on is slowing down. Most of us have been reading for ten to twelve years by now. We know how to read. What we don’t know is how to read Shakespeare. It’s a whole different world. By slowing down and breaking the play apart line-by-line, you get so much more knowledge and clarification than if you just skimmed over top of the words hoping to grasp any little piece of information that you could. Fake. Deceiving. Scammer. Fool. We’ve all known or had a friend like this. We’ve all dealt with someone who fits perfectly into those four words. Ironically, when you first meet and get to know the person, you fail to see their true self. You fail to see all of their bad qualities because you are so focused on the good. This is what happened in William Shakespeare’s play, Othello. Othello befriended a man who he called “honest, honest Iago” (IV.ii.189). Backstabbing is a major part of the play. As it goes on you see people that you would never expect to turn on someone, turn on them in a heartbeat.
Othello is the main character impacted by his backstabbing friend, Iago. Iago causes Othello to lose himself both morally and emotionally. Othello loses everything he stands for--his cool, calm, and collected personality, his good name, his trust, and his sanity. All of this went down the drain because he messed with the wrong guy’s promotion. Iago was enraged Othello chose Cassio to be his lieutenant instead of him, so he plotted his revenge. The entire play is a series of devious plans from an even more devious Iago. He starts by just simply wanting Cassio out. He wants to take over the career of Othello’s lieutenant. Cassio must go. Instead of just targeting Cassio for taking his job, Iago must target virtually every character in the play to feel a sliver of satisfaction. He targets Desdemona to make her out to be a “impudent strumpet” (IV.ii.92). He targets Cassio by making him look like a sloppy drunk who is not capable nor deserving to hold a position such as a lieutenant. He targets Othello by driving him to insanity and losing his good name. He targets his wife, Emilia, by forcing her to turn on her best friend and look like an attention seeking puppy who cannot stand up for herself. But most of all he targets the person who means the most to him, himself. He knew that his plan was bound to go up in flames. It simply involved too many people that had to keep their mouths shut in order for everything to turn out how he wanted. Sure, Emilia could have been a good friend to Desdemona and not fall into Iago’s trap to steal her handkerchief, but any wife would do that for their husband if he neglected her attention. It seems harmless. Othello could have confronted Desdemona about sleeping with Cassio, but he was more than likely too scared to hear what he thought was the “truth.” Desdemona could have come out and asked Othello why he was acting insane, but it made sense that he would be stressed out from work. She suspected that the whole thing would blow over. Who would think that if they didn’t ask their husband what was bothering them, he would kill them? No one, its not logical. Without Iago, we wouldn’t have a play. We wouldn’t have and estranged villain who thought the world revolved around his happiness, we wouldn’t have a tragedy, and we wouldn’t have Othello. This proves that Iago is to blame. The other characters do play a role in the tragedies that occur because they fell into his plan, but without Iago, there wouldn’t be a plan. None of this would have happened. |
AuthorHeather McDaniels |