Othello

Once again we are analyzing the tragedies of love and Othello has been one of my most favorite Shakespeare’s plays. Unlike Medea, the protagonist of Othello is a man. However, we still see how love and revenge stands next to each other. One important aspect that I have noticed in both of the plays were the role of society in shaping the plot. Desdemona is a prominent white girl who is connected throughout a Venetian society that looks down upon Othello, making him feel like he does not deserve someone as good as her. In Othello, society has played a big role in the tragic hero’s downfall. His faults are those that have been experienced by many people, but society rather than himself largely causes his downfall. The state cannot do without him in time of war, and he embarrasses society in time of peace, a black outsider. It was similar to the idea of isolating the outsider as we saw in Medea, when Medea was ordered to be exiled from the society. Even though, Othello does not portray explicit violent behaviors as we have seen in the character of Medea, however he ends up taking revenge of his love through same act of murdering.

Unlike Medea who had concrete reasons to take revenge, I believe that Othello’s reasons were not strong enough as he was in an illusion created by vicious Iago. Othello pretty much made his decision based on other people’s orders as we saw him carrying out order from the army and also listening to other’s thoughts despite his own beliefs. It was interesting to consider how Othello being a famous warrior made his decisions by relying on others. As an audience, even though we knew the truth, I liked how Shakespeare was able to carry out the play in a simpler way to keep the audiences interested and aware of the inner feelings among the characters.