Noble Othello Essay

Submitted By Gaines28
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Othello is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around the time 1603. The story tells about powerful general in the Venetian Army. Othello is a black man from North Africa, who travels the world, been sold into slavery, escaped, and ended up as the military commander of the Venetian military a powerful Italian city-state. This play has many major themes to it. The three main themes in my opinion are race, jealousy, and hate. Race was a huge theme in this poem, Othello is considered one of the first black heroes in English literature. As a military general, he has risen to position of influence and power. At the same time, however, but his status as dark-skinned foreigner in Venice marks him as an outsider and exposes him to some pretty extreme racism. Especially by his father in law, who believes his daughter's interracial marriage can only be only the result of Othello's trickery. Because the play portrays fears of miscegenation. It's basically impossible to talk about race in Othello without also discussing gender and sexuality. Jealousy is the 2nd major theme in the story. Othello is considered the most famous literary work that focuses on the dangers of jealousy. The play studies on how jealousy can be fueled by little evidence and destroy lives. Othello, the hero succumbs to jealousy when Iago tells him his wife has been unfaithful. As a result of this Othello kills his wife and then kills himself. It is interesting because Iago uses jealousy against Othello, yet jealousy is most likely the source of Iago's hatred in the first place. In Othello, jealousy takes many forms, from professional competition to sexual suspicion, but it is, in all cases, destructive. Hate is another important theme. Hatred usually has a cause, some concrete event that causes lasting rage. However, in Othello, the play's villain is fueled by a hatred that seems to elude any reasonable definition. Iago's determination and hatred to destroy his boss, Othello, seems out of proportion with the reasons he gives for it. Reasons being Othello wouldn't promote him or jealousy Othello might have slept with his wife. Iago's loathing has been famously referred to as “motiveless malignancy” that redefines my understanding of hatred. Redefines it in a way as making it seem a
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