The Variety of Themes in Othello Essay -- Othello essays

The Variety of Themes in Othello In the Shakespearian tragedy Othello the number and description of themes is open to discussion. With the help of literary critics, we squeeze out analyze this subject in detail. In the essay Wit and witchcraft an Approach to Othello Robert B. Heilman discusses the ancients instinctive reaction to the love-theme of the bet forrader coming directly to the act uponing of the love-theme that differentiates Othello from other Shakespeare plays that utilize the same theme, I call on arbitrarily to Iago to inspect a distinguishing mark of his of which the relevance to thematic form in the play will appear a little later. When Iago with unremarked scoffing reminds Roderigo, who is drawn with merciless attraction to the unreachable Desdemona, that love effectuate an unwonted nary(prenominal)ility 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 s uppose it with bitterness and to try to undermine it. (333-34) The theme of hate is the theme on which the play opens. Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeares Tragic Heroes indicates this hate in the inception scene It is then on a theme of hate that the play opens. It is a hate of inveterate anger. It is a hate that is bound up with envy. Othello has preferred to be his lieutenant a military theorist, one Michael Cassio, oer the experienced soldier Iago, to whom has fallen instead the post of his Moorships ancient. Roderigo questions Iago Thou toldst me thou didst hold him in thy hate. And the reply is a violent stream of proof of the hatred for Othello that has almost exceeded the envy of Cassio because he possesses the ... ...Gardner, Helen. Othello A calamity of Beauty and Fortune. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from The Noble Moor. British Academy Lectures, no. 9, 1955. Heilman, Robert B. Wit and Witchcraft an Approa ch to Othello. Shakespeare Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. Rev. Ed. Rpt. from The Sewanee Review, LXIV, 1 (Winter 1956), 1-4, 8-10 and azimuth Quarterly (Spring 1956), pp.5-16. Jorgensen, Paul A. William Shakespeare The Tragedies. Boston Twayne Publishers, 1985. Mack, Maynard. Everybodys Shakespeare Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. Lincoln, NB University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http//www.eiu.edu/multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.