First Impressions Of Othello Essay, Research Paper
From out first
introduction to him, to the point at which he strangles his wife, Othello
undergoes a remarkable change. How does this happen and how do you explain it?Our first impressions of
Othello in this play are of him as a noble a courageous man. He is portrayed as
a simple soldier. He also seems to have a very positive relationship with Iago.
Along side those positive images Shakespeare prepares us for the evil deeds
that Othello will commit later in the play. For example, if he were a more
moral man then he would have ignored Iago when he was trying to exploit the
deceit of Desdemona?s father:????????????? ?She
deceived me and may well you?Brabantio
said this to Othello when he found out Desdemona had picked Othello over her
father; Iago overheard this and decided to exploit it in his own plotting
manner. We see another example of the courageousness of
Othello when he is urged to hide from the outraged father, he refuses to run
away; he feels secure in the rightness of his position:????????????? ?My
parts, my title, and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly.?Love is
something new to Othello, and his reaction to Desdemona has a mature intensity
that is almost frightening in its richness. As he tells us his story to the
Duke we can, in the space of some forty lines, watch the development of this
mutual feeling from is earliest days, when a shy Desdemona hovered near her
father?s exiting guest, to its full flowering in the declaration. The meeting in Cyprus, when
Othello is re-united with Desdemona after a perilous voyage, has a sublime
happiness, which even Othello finds hard to describe: the bliss of heaven
cannot equal it. His love has embraced Desdemona, and the two seem to be
separate from the rest of the play’s characters, in their own world of
innocent, joyful loving. But even the Garden of Eden has its serpent, and we
can never forget the presence of Iago. Only we-the audience-can see his
machinations. Every one of the other characters is duped by this ‘honest’
exterior; and, like them, Othello too is deceived by the man whom he knows and
trusts. His belief in Iago is quite understandable: after all, he has worked
with him for many years, and must have shared the hardships of battle with him.
And although Othello has done the state some service, he is still a foreigner
in Venice who does not know the customs of the country, whereas Iago is a
Venetian, who seems to be wise in the ways of the world and tells his general:
‘I know our country disposition well’. Othello is ‘not easily provoked’ into
jealousy, but when Iago starts his subtle insinuations it is only too easy for
Othello to identify in himself the possible reasons that could cause
Desdemona’s love to waver. Chief of these is his colour: ‘Haply, for I am black’.The early scenes of the
play emphasized Othello’s colour when Iago and Roderigo abused the ‘thick
lips’, and when Brabantio was revolted at the thought of the ’sooty bosom’. But
Desdemona ’saw Othello’s visage in his mind’, and the Duke shared her
perception when he told the angry Brabantio that his ’son-in-law far more fair
than black’. But since then, the matter of colour has been largely forgotten as
Othello was called upon to demonstrate his public authority and his private
love. On stage, of course, the reminder is permanently present in the Moor’s
person: but it has seemed irrelevant. Now it matters intensely: it is Othello’s
first thought. But soon the fact of his
blackness is forgotten as Othello wrestles with himself, torn between his great
love for Desdemona and the doubts, inculcated by Iago, of her faithfulness.
Because his love is so great, surpassing all other cares and affections, the
thought of its betrayal is equally overwhelming: there is no longer purpose
anywhere-’Othello’s occupation’s gone?. His threats to Iago, promising not
physical pain but eternal damnation, have a heated violence which is
frightening to read-and contrast with the cold, measured lines in which he
declares his resolution, comparing himself to the sea ‘Whose icy current and
compulsive course Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on’. Yet this declaration,
however, is not final. Othello must experience more anguish, caused in the
first place by Iago’s calculated slander. The mental suffering is
expressed physically when he falls to the ground in passion: even his body is
no longer under his control, almost as though he were experiencing some kind of
diabolic possession. Iago dismisses the frenzy as a commonplace epileptic
seizure-’his second fit; he had one yesterday’. The excuse may satisfy
Cassio-or at least have the desired effect of sending him away from the
scene-but it is not an adequate explanation for Othello’s distress. There is
nothing usual about this episode: Othello’s sense of wrong, like his feeling
for Desdemona, is of heroic dimensions. His subsequent conduct
towards Desdemona, however, is less than heroic. Having been confronted with
Iago’s ‘ocular proof’ -the missing handkerchief-the Moor treats his wife as
though she were a loathed prostitute. The powerful love turns to almighty
hatred of the supposed deed of adultery rather than the woman herself, for it
is the deed, which has defeated his highest ideals. When, at the beginning of
the last scene, Othello approaches Desdemona’s bed, we see that his love is by
no means extinguished. He reacts with acute sensitivity to her warm, sleeping,
beauty which he experiences as physically as the scent of a rose-the most
potent of all English flowers. This speech and the death of Desdemona must
surely make the most beautiful of all literary murder scenes! But when his wife
lies at peace, Othello must experience the cruellest torture he has so far
endured. Emilia, Iago’s wife, reveals the truth of the situation, and Othello
is the most miserable of men. A deeply religious man, he looks at the murdered
body and foresees his own punishment-he will be condemned on the Day of
Judgement to eternal damnation:????????????? ?When shall we meet at
compt this look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven and friends will snatch
at it.?