Course work theme: Visibility and essence in the tragedy Othello

Roderigo is a soldier in the army who is fond of Desdemona. The young woman rejected his feelings towards her and that’s why Roderigo hates Othello thinking of him as his rival. He believed that Iago could help him get Desdemona back, but Iago uses Roderigo to instill Othello’s jealousy towards Cassio and tries to get Roderigo to kill Cassio. In the end, Roderigo manages to tell Cassio about Iago’s deeds which in turn help everybody see the reality clearly. 
Duke of Venice is the ruler of the town. He is the one who grants Othello a lot of power and credibility when he asks him to gather the army and protect Venice’s lands (Cyprus) from the Turkish attack. He is also the one who approves Othello’s marriage to Desdemona, thus validating their feelings. 
Senators are people of high positions in Venice. The reader first meets them during the council presided by the Duke of Venice. They approve the marriage of Desdemona and Othello, and they also send Othello to the war with the Turks over Cyprus. They represent the final authority of the state. 
Montano is the Governor of Cyprus. He greets Othello, Iago, and others when they arrive on the island. He tries to dissolve the fight between Cassio and Roderigo and gets stabbed as a result. Othello then blames Cassio for Montano’s injury and strips him of his promotion. Montano recovers towards the end of the play and helps catch Iago. 
Emilia is the wife of Iago. Unknowingly, she plays an important part in inflaming Othello’s jealousy – she takes the gift Othello gave Desdemona for their wedding and hands it over to Iago, who in his turn makes sure Cassio finds it. The irony of the play is in the fact that Desdemona confides in Emilia, and she tells Emilia about her worries regarding losing Othello’s trust and love. When Othello asks Emilia about the situation, she says that there are no signs of Desdemona’s involvement with Cassio: n the end, Emilia denounces her husband’s plan.
Lodovico and Gratiano arrive in Cyprus in the middle of the play to bring news from the Duke of Venice. Othello behaves rudely towards Desdemona in Lodovico’s presence, even though he is one of Desdemona’s cousins. When Emilia cries for help, the ambassadors come to find Desdemona dead, they then catch Iago and appoint Cassio the governor of Cyprus. 
Bianca is the beloved woman of Cassio. She doesn’t have a big role in the play and the reader meets her when Cassio gives her Desdemona’s handkerchief that he found earlier. Iago sets-up for Othello to overhear parts of Cassio’s conversations with Bianca. Iago also makes sure that Othello misinterprets the meaning of those conversations to confirm his jealousy further. 
1.2. Othello’s Thought Pattern
He broad problem of all Othello-criticism is to reconcile a naturalistic, psychological reading with a symbolic interpreta- tion. This is no doubt true of all the major Shakespearian dramas, but it is particularly true of Othello. We have, or appear to have, a fairly clear-cut pattern of good and evil that can be closely identified with the three main personages: that is, of evil, personified in lago, struggling in the soul of Othello for possession of the good, Desdemona. This pattern, allied to the play's images of heaven and hell, has of recent years stimulated a tendency to read Othello as a symbolic drama of good overthrown by evil. Thus, we have G. Wilson Knight's interpre- tation of Othello in terms of Christian symbolism', while Irving Ribner has stressed the stock Renaissance figures (the gull, Vice, and so on) out of which the symbolic drama grew. Bernard Spivack, again, in his researches into the ancestral past of lago, has emphasized the allegorical aspect of the play. This tendency has gone far to modify the older attempts at reading Othello in terms of the naturalistic drama. The difficulty is that the symbolic approach may over- simplify the issues of the play. Carried over into actual production, the identifi- cation of lago with Evil, Desdemona with Good, and Othello with Good Overthrown can rob Othello of its vitality and plausibility. The difficulties of performance have been confirmed by Wilson Knight, from his experience as a producer: "The symbolic effects are all in the poetry.... But the moment any of this is allowed to interfere with the expressly domestic and human qualities of the drama, you get disaster."
The allegory is certainly there. I do not dispute the Christian symbolism of
the play: of temptation, by evil and jealousy, and regeneration through love. But the crux is the identification of the symbolic issues with the main actors. I think that Othello is indeed about good and evil, but not in the simple sense that tends to equate Othello with good and lago, especially, with evil. The concepts of good and evil are explored by Shakespeare in and through human terms. In other words, I believe that we must analyze the play primarily in psychological terms, from which we may then abstract Shakespeare's concepts of good and evil. I think it more helpful to assume that conceptualization follows rather than precedes his observation of the empirical data of human behavior. I propose in this paper to re-open the question of the psychological drama of Othello, and through it arrive at a re-assessment of the play's theme and mean
Othello is a combination of greatness and weakness, in his own words "an honourable 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, the skill of command, and the respect of his troops. Under pressure, he makes an inspiring speech. 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.
I will argue that Shakespeare presents Othello as a strong, impressive, yet not a thoughtful man. He is not intellectually equipped to fully understand the intensity of the tragedy or the events that happened to him as an individual. With this apparently nonintellectual 24 character in play, ironically, the words “think” or “thought” have been used frequently through the play. According to Paul A Jorgensen, different forms of the word think appear 84 times in the play, with the temptation scene having the most emphasis on this word (Jorgensen 265). On the other hand, the word “know” has been used 25 times in scene 1 in the act three and mainly by Othello. Thereafter, this word is not being used at all and is indeed replaced by “think” or “thought.” I may argue that this fact portrays the intellectual progress of Othello, moving from knowing to distorted thinking and then going back to a painful hardened type of knowing. Most of the time, in addition, the thinking that occurs in the play is painful, sinister, bloody, or obscene. I believe that Othello’s original state of mind, which gives him a “tranquil mind" is intuitive knowing rather than thinking. From the beginning, where he often uses “knowing,” one can see his firm perception of the world as he comes to know it: “'Tis yet to know, - Which when I know that boasting is an honor, I shall promulgate-I fetch my life and being From men of royal siege, and my demerits May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune As this that I have reach'd” . He, in another incidence, claims to have a strong mind by stating, “Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it Without a prompter” . He knows himself as highly competent in mind, yet the opposite of his belief will turn up to be the actual truth. He believes that love can never make him doubtful because of his intellect:”No, when light-wing'd toys Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dullness My speculative and oflic'd instruments That my disports corrupt and 25 taint my business, Let housewives make a skillet of my helm...” . Indeed, he uses his intellectual quality to prove that he is a man not easily jealous. Moreover, when speaking of his knowing, I notice that Othello’s dictions include emotional rather than intellectual apprehension. For example, in the first scene of act two, in a very short speech, Othello uses the following terms to describe his mindset: "fear" and "wonder" , "soul's joy" , "this content" , and "too much of joy" . For this reason, I may assert that Othello is not a thoughtful man, and he does not live by thought. The audience may also come to realize the susceptibility of Othello’s mind, for he easily allows Iago to govern his mind with his incredible muddle of his thought. To Othello, Iago is an honest, intellectual being: "O, thou art wise; 'tis certain". "This honest creature doubtless / Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds". However, in reality, Iago is an irresponsible thinker, who has emphasis upon suspicion rather than logical thinking. As I further illustrate, Othello later begins thinking like Iago and starts relying upon his doubts rather than his logical thinking. Additionally, I may note that the word “think” is used 31 times in the temptation scene, which accounts for more than a third of its appearances in this play (Jorgensen 272). This is the scene where Othello is set on “bloody thoughts” and is further made to think the worst. This is the scene where Othello also joins with Iago in thoughts and drowns himself in Iago’s doubtful world, a realm which is full of hate, slander, and disgust. After engaging in thoughts and mind with his supposed honest friend, Othello is no longer capable of sustaining indecision and thought: “I think my wife be honest and think she is not. I think that thou art honest and think thou art not”. Though, at first, Othello asks for a proof, or a return to his way of thinking and knowing, he quickly and wrongly accepts Iago’s flimsy evidence (his dream) as a proof of his 26 wife’s infidelity. He declares, "I'll tear her to pieces." In this state of mind, Othello sees no place for showing mercy to his wife, for his “bloody thoughts, with violent pace, Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love, Till that a capable and wide revenge Swallow them up.” During this scene, I believe that Othello is emotionally broken by a rack of thinking, and consequently he is incapable of listening to his wife’s or Emilia’s reasoning with any thoughtful attention, for he has come to reflect Iago’s despicable mind. Like Iago, Othello comes to distrust his wife’s chastity without having any means of proving his accusation; he, like Iago, longs to understands the truth as he wants it, and not as how it truly is: “Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, Be sure of it, give me the ocular proof, .... Make me to see't, or at the least prove it That the probation bear no hinge, nor loop To hang a doubt on: or woe upon thy life!” . Othello thus seeks for certainty, yet he lets his world-order to be overturn by distrust. He trusts Iago’s words as an absolute truth and accepts his words as satisfying evidences. From now on, Othello and Iago are psychologically bound together, and Iago represents the dark side within Othello. For this reason, Othello is easily convinced of Desdemona’s infidelity since the doubts that Iago whispers in his ears are his own. In other words, I may assert that the main cause of Iago’s success is not his intellect, but Othello’s readiness to response. In one scene, when Iago is absorbing the encounter of Cassio and Desdemona, he repeats the question that Othello asked of him, causing Othello to declare, “By heaven, he echoes me, As if there were some monster in his thought too hideous to be shown.” (III, iii). However, there is no monster in Iago’s thought; the monster is in Othello’s own mind. 27 Joined with Iago in mind, Othello also comes to show his distrust and hatred toward women. He eventually comes to see all women as sexual saints and sinners who show infidelity toward their husband. Othello’s new perception reflects Iago’s view toward women, a view that is absolutely denigrating and debasing: you are pictures out[a' doors], Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens, in your injuries, devils being offended, Players in your huswifery, and huswives in your beds. Des. O, fie upon thee, slanderer! . Similar to Iago, Othello comes to besmirch women, especially his own wife, for infidelity. For this reason, both Othello and Iago end up murdering their wives. Othello begins looking at himself with Iago’s eyes, instead of Desdemona’s; he comes to accept Iago‘s thoughts as his own. This is exactly what Iago originally intends for him too. As Kirsch writes, “everything Iago says 'is designed to bring to Othello's consciousness what he has already guessed is there'; but a further and crucial point should be made, which is that what is 'there' exists as part of the unconscious life of all men” . For example, Iago refers to Desdemona’s way of thinking about Othello as “unnatural” , and later, Othello also admits to unnaturalness of Desdemona’s thoughts and love for him, seeing his age and skin color as the main cause of this abnormality: Haply, for I am black, 28 And have not those soft parts of conversation That chamberers have, or for I am declin'd Into the vale of years (yet that's not much), She's gone. I am abus'd, and my relief Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage! That we can call these delicate creatures ours, And not their appetites! (IV. 3. 263-70). Othello’s union with Iago’s thoughts and mind brings upon him his immediate loss. He cannot accept that Desdemona’s love is true since he, himself, believes that he is unlovable and is also not worthy of Desdemona’s love for him. This allusion also negatively influences Othello’s notion of self and identity and further leads to the destruction of his idyllic life.

Conclusion on chapter I

Othello is a Moorish military commander who was serving as a general of the Venetian army in defence of Cyprus against invasion by Ottoman Turks. He has recently married Desdemona, a beautiful and wealthy Venetian lady much younger than himself, against the wishes of her father. Iago is Othello's malevolent ensign, who maliciously stokes his master's jealousy until the usually stoic Moor kills his beloved wife in a fit of blind rage. Due to its enduring themes of passion, jealousy, and race, Othello is still topical and popular and is widely performed, with numerous adaptations.
HE broad problem of all Othello-criticism is to reconcile a naturalistic, psychological reading with a symbolic interpreta- tion. This is no doubt true of all the major Shakespearian dramas, but it is particularly true of Othello. We have, or appear to have, a fairly clear-cut pattern of good and evil that can be closely identified with the three main personages: that is, of evil, personified in lago, struggling in the soul of Othello for possession of the good, Desdemona. This pattern, allied to the play's images of heaven and hell, has of recent years stimulated a tendency to read Othello as a symbolic drama of good overthrown by evil. Thus, we have G. Wilson Knight's interpre- tation of Othello in terms of Christian symbolism', while Irving Ribner has stressed the stock Renaissance figures (the gull, Vice, and so on) out of which the symbolic drama grew. Bernard Spivack, again, in his researches into the ancestral past of lago, has emphasized the allegorical aspect of the play. This tendency has gone far to modify the older attempts at reading Othello in terms of the naturalistic drama. The difficulty is that the symbolic approach may over- simplify the issues of the play. Carried over into actual production, the identifi- cation of lago with Evil, Desdemona with Good, and Othello with Good Overthrown can rob Othello of its vitality and plausibility.