To What Extent Could it be said that the death of Othello Represents on Stage the Death of an Age?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Ruth Messenger March 2002

To What Extent Could it be said that the death of Othello

Represents on Stage the Death of an Age?

Shakespeare wrote the play 'Othello' round about the year 1602 and it is still revered as one of his great works today, 400 years later. It is the story of a great man, a tragic hero whose only flaw was exploited and manipulated by his 'best friend' to Othello's grievous demise. Othello perished by his own hand following the murder by him of his beautiful wife Desdemona. Iago had fooled him into believing she had been having an affair, and when Othello discovered it was pure fabrication it was too late and Desdemona was dead. Having murdered the woman he loved, Othello stabbed himself because he couldn't bear to live: "I kissed thee ere I killed thee: no way but this, Killing myself, to die upon a kiss." To find what extent it could be said that the death of Othello on stage represents the death of an age, we must look at the play in different contexts - did Othello's death represent a change in attitude or ideas? A change in