Commentary on Othello Essay

William Shakespeares Othello is a play set in the streets of Venice. It mostly follows the story of Othello, frequently referred to as the Moor, a naive army general and Iago, a soldier who despises Othello as he did not give him a promotion. The play explores numerous themes including jealousy, manipulation, race, gender, death and suicide.

The most prominent theme in the play would have to be jealousy. As a play, Othello is highly based around the concept of the dangers of jealousy. Iago, the villain of the play, furious that he was passed up a promotion opportunity, tells Othello that his wife, Desdemona, is being unfaithful to him with Michael Cassio, the man who Othello gave the promotion to. Othello, completely ignorant to life outside of the army doesnt hesitate to believe every word Iago speaks. This is ultimately Othellos downfall, as this untrue piece of information is what causes him to kill Desdemona, and eventually himself.

In all honesty, I didnt really enjoy the jealousy theme of the play and the outcome. It seemed to lack depth and drama, and when the end of the play drew near, and Desdemona and Othello died because of something that might have happened instead of something with factual evidence, it just felt like a major anticlimax. To me, this jealousy theme was not intricate enough for me to appreciate it as such a major aspect of the play.

Following this, comes the manipulation theme of the play. Iago is obviously played as the villain, ready to manipulate and mentally torture every character in the play he possibly can. I really enjoyed this theme, and because of his evil personality and his ability to pick up on the characters weaknesses and take blatant advantage of them, Iago became my favourite character. I thought he added huge amounts of personality and drama to an otherwise average play, and I argue that the play couldve just been called Iago instead of Othello, considering Iago seems to be in the play a lot more than Othello does.

It has been discussed that Othello could be considered as a racist play, as Othello is frequently referred to as a Moor, has to be questioned when Desdemonas father finds out they are married and is basically accused of drugging Desdemona and using magic on her in order for her to marry him. However, in this play, it is fairly obvious that Othello, the black man, is portrayed as honest and heroic, and Iago, the white man, is dishonest, scheming and evil. Othello is in a high position in the army, marries a beautiful, young and pure white woman and is a generally accepted and active member of society.

An aspect of the play that I didnt like would be the gender roles and themes presented to us in the play. Othello has two main females in the play, both of whom could not differ more if they tried. Desdemona is lovely, quiet and faithful, and believes that men reign supreme over females. Emilia, on the other hand, represents a woman who is eager to be seen as a male equivalent in all aspects of life, more particularly in regards to sexual matters. Unfortunately, both end up dead at the end of the play anyway. The reason I didnt like this, or more why I didnt like Desdemonas character, is because every time Othello was rude to her when he was under the impression that she was cheating on him, she would keep her mouth shut and not try to defend herself. I thought this was just an undesirable quality to have depicted in the play, and I have no doubts that if Desdemona was presented as a strong, confident character, she would speak up about the truth and not have herself killed.

As for the ending of the play, and the death of Desdemona and Othello, I was not a fan. I found that the deaths were far too dramatic an outcome, as the play up until then wasnt one that I particularly thought a murder and a suicide would work fittingly in. Even though it isnt a textual element of tragedy, I would have been more content with the ending if Desdemona and Othello just talked their feelings out, or even if Iago had been killed so some closure could be felt and some justice had been served.

All in all I thought the play Othello was average in comparison to a lot of Shakespeares other plays.

The end.