English Coursework - Othello

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Oishee Islam

English Coursework – Othello

How does Shakespeare conclude the dramatic performance of Othello in order to address the questions of blame and justice in the tragedy?

Introduction

Shakespeare’s play Othello, which was first performed in the early 17th century, depicts sexism, racism and status efficiently, as the play continues these forms of inequality change as a result of the chaos in ‘Order-Chaos-Order’; the structure which Shakespeare used in this play to convey the change that occurs between each order.

The consequence of the chaos leads to the modification of the relative status of the characters and causes an effect upon the way blame and justice are applied to the individuals.

 

One of the main characters of the play is Othello; his importance in the play is that he is a general of the powerful city Venice “The Duke does greet you, General…I.2 page 59. The introduction of him puts an impact on his reputation because it begins with racist comments, told by three characters: Iago “his Moorship’s Ancient.” I.1 page 53, Brabantio “It is too true and evil…with the MoorI.1 page 57 and Roderigo “…full fortune does the thick-lips oweI.1 page 53.  Though his reputation gets affected by these comments, his status shows him as a person worth respect. His true characteristics, that were described later on, interacted with his introduction “…my perfect soul…I.2 page 65, another showed that he was a truthful and non-civilised character “Rude am I in my speech…blessed with the soft praise of peaceI.3 page 65, this goes against the elements that are needed for a person to be a general.  Audience could understand that Othello is not really someone who can control, but someone who can be controlled because of these characteristics, which may lead to the tragedy.

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Iago does not have much of importance at the beginning because he is known to be the ensign of the army; despite this his role in the overall play makes him an important character. He was the only character who knew about everything that was going on amongst the other characters; this gave him the opportunity to control them. Also interpreted the appearance of the roman god Janus By Janus, I think noI.2 page 59, the key to begin the tragedy. His true identity is disguised therefore the trust of other characters are gained “…Honest IagoII.3 page ...

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