Othello,
who is the protagonist of the drama, Othello written by William Shakespeare
(1564-1616), is a combination of greatness and weakness, in his own words
"an honorable murderer". He is a general in the Venetian defense
forces and although a foreigner from Africa, he has won this post by excellence
in the field of war. He has courage, intelligence and the skill of command and
the respect of his troops. When the colony of Cyprus is threatened by the
enemy, the Duke and Senate turn to "valiant" Othello to lead the
defense.
After many years on campaign, Othello has come to live in
Venice, among the sophisticated people of the city. Senator Brabantio has
invited him to his home and this is a revelation to the soldier. He is dazzled
by the comfortable life, the learned conversation, the civilization. He
appoints a student of military knowledge, Cassio, to be his lieutenant.
Suddenly, he sees possibilities for himself, to which he had never before
aspired.
Othello is an outsider, who is intelligent and confident in
military matters, but socially insecure. He leads an intense life, swinging
between triumph and dread. He is different from those around him, due to his
origins and his life history, but he shares their religion, values, and
patriotism to Venice. More importantly, he is visibly different due to the
color of his skin, so he lives constantly among, but separated from, other
people. Whenever they look at his black face, however brilliant a general he
is, he knows the others are thinking "Yes, but he is not really one of
us." Shakespeare presents this fact in the dialogue and also in the staging
of the play: Othello's is a black face among a sea of white faces, and he is
constantly referred to as "The Moor," a representative African, while
others go by their personal names and are seen as independent individuals. When
other characters call him "black," they refer to his face, but also
to the concept of color symbolism in Elizabethan morality: White is honor,
black is wickedness; white is innocence, black is guilt.
Othello tells his life story to Desdemona and she sees him
through his words. The life of early separation from home and family, followed
by danger and adventure, is perhaps the life story of thousands of men down the
ages, who become soldiers of fortune and who end up as corpses in ditches at an
early age, unwept, unpaid, and unrecorded. Othello's achievement is not so much
that he survived this unpromising life, but that he survived it in such a
spectacularly successful manner, ending up one of the most powerful men in the
Venetian defense forces.
On the field of battle Othello is skilled and triumphant; in
the drawing room he is reluctant until Desdemona takes the lead and encourages
him to tell his life story. It is Desdemona, as well as Othello, who turns the
secret marriage into a social success with her skillfully worded defense.
Othello feels that his marriage is at the pinnacle of his
life. He is triumphant in war and love, the hero at his greatest moment. Such
triumph, in a tragedy, cannot last. Othello is aware of the precarious
nature of success and happiness.
"But I do love
thee…”
These are the words
of a man, who knows chaos and believes himself to have been rescued from it by
love. Love for Othello puts order, peace, and happiness into his mental world,
which would otherwise lapse back into chaos. He has grown up in exile, slavery,
danger, and despair, now, as a professional soldier, he lives amongst chaos on
the battlefield, but he need no longer have it in his inner being, because he
has love. Chaos is the old concept of Hell, where everything is dreadful
anguish and Desdemona is the angel, who has rescued Othello with her love.
When faced with the prospect of managing love and marriage,
Othello's inexperience undermines his confidence. Iago finds it easy to drive
Othello to jealousy and think that Desdemona loves another man because he
already feels that her love for him is too good to be true. But, Othello trusts Iago:
“Iago is most honest.”
He never realizes that Iago is trying to destroy his
marriage institution. This is the biggest blunder committed by Othello.
Othello sees Cassio as the man most Venetian women in
Desdemona's position would like to marry and, therefore, as the man she would
turn to if she ceased to love her husband. In a way, he is waiting for the
dream to come to an end for Desdemona to decide that she has made a mistake in
marrying him.
Othello's insecurities are so close to the surface that a
few words of hint and innuendo from Iago can tear the confident exterior and
expose his fears, desires, and tendency to violence. Othello cannot stand
uncertainty; it drives him to destroy his sanity. However, once he makes a
decision, he is again the military man, decisive in action. Iago has only to
push Othello to the belief that he has been betrayed and Othello does the rest,
judging, condemning, and executing Desdemona.
Fate is cruel to Othello, like the cruel fate of ancient
Greek tragedies. Like the Greek heroes, Othello can confront this fate only
with the best of his humanity. In his final speeches, Othello brings again a
flash of his former greatness: his military glory, his loyalty to Venice, the
intensity of his love, and his terrible realization that, by killing Desdemona,
he has destroyed the best in himself. No man has full control over his life,
but a man can judge himself and perform the execution and die with his love.
“Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight.”
However, Othello does not listen to the request made by
Desdemona. He is so aggressive and violent. These words indicate that Desdemona
deeply loves Othello.
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