Custom Written Term Papers: The Numerous Themes in Othello :: Othello essays

The many Themes in Othello The Shakespearean tragedy Othello contains a number of base of operationss their relative grandeur and priority is debated by literary critics. In this assay let us examine the various themes and determine which are dominant and which subordinate. A. C. Bradley, in his withstand of literary criticism, Shakespearean Tragedy, describes the theme of cozy jealousy in Othello In the second place, there is no subject more exciting than sexual jealousy rising to the pitch of passion and there can hardly be any spectacle at once so engrossing and so painful as that of a great reputation suffering the curse word of this passion, and driven by it to a crime which is also a unconscionable blunder. . . . But jealousy, and especially sexual jealousy, brings with it a sense of shame and humiliation. For this undercoat it is generally hidden if we perceive it we ourselves are ashamed and turn our eyeball away and when it is not hidden it commonly stirs co ntempt as salubrious as pity. Nor is this all. Such jealousy as Othellos converts human nature into chaos, and liberates the beast in man and it does this in relation to one of the virtually intense and also the most ideal of human feelings. (169) In the essay Wit and Witchcraft an Approach to Othello Robert B. Heilman discusses the ancients instinctive reception to the love-theme of the play Before coming directly to the forming of the love-theme that differentiates Othello from other Shakespeare plays that utilize the very(prenominal) theme, I turn arbitrarily to Iago to inspect a distinguishing mark of his of which the relevancy to thematic form in the play will appear a little later. When Iago with unperceived scoffing reminds Roderigo, who is drawn with merciless attraction to the unreachable Desdemona, that love effects an unwonted nobility in men, he states a doctrine which he knows is true but in which he may not believe. Ennoblement by love is a real possibility in men, but Iago has to view it with bitterness and to try to undermine it. (333-34) The theme of nauseate is the theme on which the play opens. Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeares Tragic Heroes indicates this abominate in the opening scene It is then on a theme of hate that the play opens. It is a hate of inveterate anger.