...11/02/2015 Research Paper Othello Othello is a famous tragedy written by William Shakespeare as a Tragic Hero. The Moor is arguably one of the finest, if not the finest, tragedies in the literary history of the Western Civilization. In this paper I will discuss Othello as a tragic hero and compare his to Aristotle’s concept of what a tragic hero is actually is. The characteristic of a tragic hero is defined by the Greek critic, is determined by three characteristics. According to Aristotle a tragic hero must be 1) Be a nobleman, prince, or person of high estate; 2) Have a tragic flaw, and a weakness of in judgment; and 3) Fall from high to low estate Using the criteria’s above which was established by Aristotle, we can effortlessly classify Othello, the Moor, as a tragic hero. At the time, it was common for the practice for the Italian city-sates that have a foreigner, with proven military capabilities, serving as the head of their army. Othello, an African Moor of noble birth, is just such a character and held the highest-ranking position in the military as a Governor –General of Cyprus. The city of Cyprus was a city-state in the Venice. Othello’s title alone, Governor-General, emanates an air of nobility, confidence, and strength. It defines someone who is held in remarkably high esteem by the people of Venice. During Act 1, Scene 3, the Duke and a few Senators are discussing issues around a table when Othello enters the room. It is clear that Othello is held in high esteem...
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...Parents are stupid and do not know what it best for their children or themselves . . . [Romeo and Juliet] begins with the materials for a comedy - the stupid parental generation, the instant attraction of the young lovers, the quick surface life of street fights, masked balls and comic servants" (Wain, p. 107). Indeed, one could view Romeo and Juliet as a transitional play in which Shakespeare merges the comedic elements perfected in his earlier work with tragic elements he would later perfect in the great tragedies -- Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. This mixture of styles ultimately hurts Romeo and Juliet, exposing the immaturity of the playwright. The heroes of the play must contend with external forces that impede their relationship, but, unlike the great tragic heroes, they are devoid of the inner struggle that makes for great tragedy. The influential Shakespearean scholar, A.C. Bradley, went so far as to neglect the play entirely in his well-known collection of lectures on the great tragedies, Shakespearean Tragedy. While no one can deny the merits of Shakespeare's powerful, inspired verse, the themes Shakespeare stresses in Romeo and Julietalso seem to reflect his immaturity as a writer. To understand properly who this is so, we must examine each pervasive motif in the play. Climax the climax is reached in Act lll and it is twofold. The banisment of...
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...Othello Coursework Question 1: 'I took you for that cunning whore of Venice/ that married with Othello'. Looking again at Act 4 Scene 2 and Act 5 Scene 2 consider to what extent the presentation of Desdemona is that of a sufficiently convincing tragic heroine? William Shakespeare's ''Othello'' is a complex tragedy, with many conflicting desires, jealousy and memorable characters. As the audience, we are able to see the changes the characters face throughout the play. These differences can turn the entire play from romantic to a disastrous ending. The main female protagonist Desdemona lives through these changes in Shakespeare's ''Othello'', we as the audience are able to acknowledge her feelings and how she goes from a confident, brave young woman who doesn't think twice on what other's think about her and has the audacity to go against her father's wishes and marries the husband of her choice, Othello, to a broken betrayed and murdered girl. Throughout the play we are able to notice that Desdemona's character slowly breaks, her confidence begins to shatter as her husband begins to lose his trust towards her and slowly the audience is able to see their relationship disintegrate. Furthermore, the confidence she had from the beginning of the play is gone and replaced by the feelings of betrayal and lose of trust. Throughout the play she has been targeted by jealousy and tragic forces. I think Desdemona in some sense is a tragic heroine, looking at Shakespeare’s and Aristotle's...
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...Othello as a Tragic Hero William Shakespeare's famous tragedy Othello, the Moor of is arguably one of the finest, if not the finest, tragedies in the literary history of Western civilization. This paper discusses Othello as a tragic hero and compares him to Aristotle's concept of what a tragic hero actually is. First, we need to understand the characteristics of a so-called tragic hero as defined by the Greek critic, Aristotle. He indicates that a tragic hero must have these characteristics: (1) Be a nobleman, prince, or person of high estate; (2) Have a tragic flaw, and a weakness in judgment; and (3) Fall from high to low estate. Using Aristotle’s criteria, we can easily classify Othello, the Moor, as a tragic hero. At the time, it was common practice for the Italian city-states to have a foreigner, with proven military capabilities, serving as the head of their Army. Othello, an African Moor of noble birth, is just such a character and held the highest ranking military position as Governor-General of Cyprus. The city of Cyprus was a city-state in the great state of Venice. His title alone, Governor-General, exudes an air of nobility, confidence, and strength. It defines someone who is held in tremendously high esteem by the people of Venice. During Act 1, Scene 3, the Duke and a few Senators are discussing issues around a table when Othello enters the room. It's clear that Othello is held in high esteem when, as he enters, one of the senators states “Here comes Barbantio...
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...wrote tragedies from the beginning of his career. One of his earliest plays was the Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus, which he followed a few years later with Romeo and Juliet. However, his most admired tragedies were written in a seven-year period between 1601 and 1608. These include his four major tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, along withAntony & Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Julius Caesar and the lesser-known Timon of Athens and Troilus and Cressida. ------------------------------------------------- Tragedies[edit] Many have linked these plays to Aristotle's precept about tragedy: that the protagonist must be an admirable but flawed character, with the audience able to understand and sympathize with the character. Certainly, all of Shakespeare's tragic protagonists are capable of both good and evil. As one of the most influential Shakespearean critics of the 19th century, A. C. Bradley argues, "the playwright always insists on the operation of the doctrine of free will; the (anti) hero is always able to back out, to redeem himself. But, the author dictates, they must move unheedingly to their doom." Some, including drama historian Brian Arkins in his "Heavy Seneca: his Influence on Shakespeare's Tragedies," have also pointed out their Senecan nature, as differentiated from Aristotle's principles and Greek tragedy. In one of a few exceptions to the rule that Black Roman literature was essentially superficial imitation of Greek works, the Roman Stoic philosopher...
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...Who was William Shakespeare? Shakespeare is William Shakespeare, one of the English-speaking world's greatest playwrights and poets, who possessed a great knowledge of human nature and transformed the English theatre. Yet many facts of his life remain a mystery. Some have been acquired from painstaking looks at the records of the time, so that this summary is based on generally agreed facts. It has been said that we only know three things about Shakespeare: that he was born, married and died. He was baptised on April 26, 1564; we do not know his birth date, but many scholars believe it was April 23, 1564. His father was John Shakespeare (who was a glover and leather merchant) and his mother Mary Arden (who was a landed local heiress). John had a remarkable run of success as a merchant, alderman, and high bailiff of Stratford, during William's early childhood. His fortunes declined, however, in the late 1570s. William lived for most of his early life in Stratford-upon-Avon. We do not know exactly when he went to London but he is said to have arrived in 1592. There is great conjecture about Shakespeare's childhood years, especially regarding his education. It is surmised by scholars that Shakespeare attended the free grammar school in Stratford, which at the time had a reputation to rival that of Eton. While there are no records extant to prove this claim, Shakespeare's knowledge of Latin and Classical Greek would tend to support this theory. In addition, Shakespeare's...
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...Early European Theater • The writings of this period were primarily hymns, sermons and similar theologically oriented works. • Latin became a literary medium. • Major preserves of learning are the monasteries. • 8th century Europe returned to greater stability under the Carolingian kings. ➢ Charles Martel – defeated the Moslems at Tours in 732 AD, through his innovative use of armored horsemen as the principal military force, initiating the development of knighthood. ➢ Charlemagne – extended his realm into the Slavic territories and converting non- Christians on the way. Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope and pronounced him as the successor to Constantine. The scenario was the first attempt to establish the Holy Roman Empire. • Charlemagne’s death caused Europe to break into small units isolated from each other and from the world. • Moslem controlled the Mediterranean and the Vikings, still pagans, conquered the northern seas. Early Middle Ages • Life was relatively simple. • Feudalistic patterns were fully established. ➢ Manor (large estate)- headed by a noble man, assumed absolute authority over the peasants who worked his land collectively. ➢ Vassals – supplies the lords a specified number of knights upon demand and the lords in return were bound to protect their vassals. The Theater (500- 900 AD) • The theater revived during the early Middle Ages. • After the Western Roman...
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...Hamartia in Oedipus the King According to the Aristotelian characteristics of good tragedy, the tragic character should not fall due to either excessive virtue or excessive wickedness, but due to what Aristotle called hamartia. Hamartia may be interpreted as either a flaw in character or an error in judgement. Oedipus, the tragic character in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, certainly makes several such mistakes; however, the pervasive pattern of his judgemental errors seems to indicate a basic character flaw that precipitates them. Oedipus’ character flaw is ego. This is made evident in the opening lines of the prologue when he states "Here I am myself--you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus." (ll. 7-9) His conceit is the root cause of a number of related problems. Among these are recklessness, disrespect, and stubbornness. Oedipus displays an attitude of recklessness and disrespect throughout the play. When he makes his proclamation and no one confesses to the murder of Laius, Oedipus loses patience immediately and rushes into his curse. Later, he displays a short temper to Tiresias: "You, you scum of the earth . . . out with it, once and for all!," (ll. 381, 383) and "Enough! Such filth from him? Insufferable--what, still alive? Get out--faster, back where you came from--vanish!" (ll. 490-492) If an unwillingness to listen may be considered stubbornness, certainly Oedipus would take advice from no one who would tell him to drop the matter of his...
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...History of English Literature Overview Anglo-Saxon Literature (500-1100) The Angles and Saxon conquered what is now called England in the 5th and 6th centuries. Christian missionaries taught the English to write. Northumbria soon produced Caedmon and Bede. Heroic poetry of a Christian kind is the chief legacy of Old English literature, notably Beowulf and the Elegies. A considerable prose literature grew up after King Alfred. Middle English Literature (1100-1500) Literature in England in this period was not just in English and Latin but in French as well and developed in directions set largely in France. Epic and Elegy gave way to romance and Lyric. English writing revived fully in English after 1360 and flowered in the reign of Richard II (1372-99). It gained a literary standard in London English after 1425 and developed modern forms of verse, prose and of Drama. The conquest of England in 1066 by William of Normandy displaced English as medium of literature. The language of new rulers was French. Saxons dealing with the King had to learn French and French was the language of court and the law for three centuries. Four genres of Middle English are: i. 1. Fabliau 2. Lyric 3. Dream Allegory 4. Ballad Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer is the best story teller and the narrative poet. Chaucer tells his stories in a most effective way. He has the knack of transforming an old tale into a new one in such a manner that its appeal increases manifold and its human...
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...Aristotle's Ideal Tragic Hero. Oedipus follows all of the rules, with a hamartia, an anagnorisis, and a peripeteia. The audience is introduced to the hamartia, or tragic flaw, of Oedipus early in the play. Oedipus believes he can dodge the oracle given to him at Delphi that he will kill his father and marry his mother. By leaving the city of Corinth and heading to Thebes, Oedipus thinks that he can outsmart the will that the gods have for him. However, the audience knows that one cannot run away from an oracle. The oracle will come true no matter what is done. Therefore, the hamartia of Oedipus is his belief that he can evade his oracle. Oedipus' anagnorisis, recognition, later comes when he is told that it was he who killed the former King Lauis and that he is, in fact, now married to his own mother. The city of Thebes had been searching for King Lauis' murderer in order to drive him out of Thebes to save the city from the plague. With this anagnorisis Oedipus is finally led to his peripeteia, or downfall. First of all, Oedipus is put to shame in front of his entire city because of his incestuous act of marrying his mother. But, more importantly, he realizes that he had not successfully avoided the oracle. In order to try to save himself he blinds himself. If he is not able to see the truth with his own eyes, he should not be able to enjoy the gift of sight. http://personal.monm.edu/ysample/aristotle.htm Oedipus follows ten of the points of Lord Raglan's Hero Pattern: Sophocles'...
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...Redeeming Comedy William Shakespeare is one of the first people we think of when theater comes to mind. He made a name for himself in the world by becoming a playwright and writing comedies as well as tragedies for people’s entertainment that are still used today. However, Shakespeare is not one of the names that immediately come to mind when we consider the world of theology and religion. Yet the basic themes of Christianity play a foundational role in many of the classic scenes found in Shakespeare’s most famous works. We can examine this through the Shakespearian element of redemption, a view of taking kindness on humanity that academics believe was his own. Shakespeare’s plays still have relevance today because of his redemptive view of the world and of human experiences, particularly in the comedies The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, and All’s Well That Ends Well. Much has been made of Shakespeare’s religious and theological grounding. The issues have been centered primarily on whether Shakespeare was Protestant or Catholic. Many prominent Roman Catholic scholars, including the Rev. David Beauregard, have gone to great lengths to assert that Shakespeare was in fact Roman Catholic. Beauregard says a now-lost eighteenth-century document suggested that Shakespeare’s father, John, was a devout Catholics and his mother, Mary, was a member of the staunchly Catholic Arden family of Park Hall. Beauregard points to very Catholic theological concepts found in Shakespeare’s...
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..."DIMITRIE CANTEMIR" Christian University FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LOVE AND TIME IN SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS GRADUATE: SCIENTIFIC COORDINATOR: -2016- Important aspects about William Shakespeare William Shakespeare, English dramatist and poet He is considered the greatest writer of the English language literature of all time The first one (until approximately 1598) belongs to a series of pieces in which youth girded Shakespeare’s current fashions, adapting issues to public taste In the second Shakespearean stage, which runs from 1598-1604, are located the pieces often called "middle works", characterized by a higher stage virtuosity Dramas Julius Caesar, Hamlet and Othello announce the next period, known as the great tragedies (1604-1608), in which Shakespeare delves into the deepest feelings of the human being The final phase (1608-1611) shines his latest masterpiece, The Tempest, in which fantasy and reality intermingle offering a testimony of wisdom and acceptance of death. •Human vision (caught in the passion play); •Relationship with the company and provided genius; •Nature, love and art - universal ways of saving time and evil attack. Sonnets give the feeling and eventually even convince the reader to visit a temple and understands that the priest officiating the ritual union between text and reading is a creature with a special expertise whereof modern poetry can not even have the feeble idea ANALYSIS OF WILLIAM...
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...Sophocles and the Shakespearean tragedy “Othello” written by William Shakespeare, the themes that’s being portrayed are honour and gender, through the play the audience if captivated by the characters choices and motives through the play. With the characters choices they help to make the play more understandable as the audience can recognise the tragic hero in both the plays. The relationships between men and women in Othello are remarked as lesser then men. Iago often refers to his wife as a prostitute - "A house wife that by selling her desires, Buys herself bread and clothes (iv.i.95)” showing what type of relationship women and men had during the late 16th century. Women were generally considered obedient, respectful, kind and warm. They were never outspoken nor were they meant to, for it could be seen as a lack of loyalty. When Othello accused Desdemona of cheating on him, he found himself in a position that he didn't want to face with. Othello was emasculated with the thought of a woman disobeying him. Men were easily manipulated into thinking the worst of woman because they were certain it would never happen. However, when the slightest things start to be pointed out the characters start to over analyse. Woman were not on the same level as men; men talked down to woman, they didn’t see them as equals nor think that they should be treated like one. This relates to Othello and Desdemona’s relationship – she “betrayed” their marriage by cheating so when Othello found out he reacted...
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...Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 2 INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is an excellent introduction to Shakespearean drama; teenagers can relate to its plot, characters, and themes. The play’s action is easily understood, the character’s motives are clear, and many of the themes are as current today as they were in Shakespeare’s time. Therefore, it can be read on a variety of levels, allowing all students to enjoy it. Less able readers can experience the swash-buckling action and investigate the themes of parent-child conflict, sexuality, friendship, and suicide. Because of the play’s accessibility to teenagers, able readers can view the play from a more literary perspective, examining the themes of hostility ad its effect on the innocent, the use of deception and its consequences, and the effects of faulty decision making. They can study how the characters function within the drama and how Shakespeare uses language to develop plot, characters, and themes. The most able students can develop skills involved in literary criticism by delving into the play’s comic and tragic elements and its classically tragic themes: the role of fate and fortune, the inevitable nature of tragedy, and the isolation of the tragic hero. This teacher’s guide will be divided into several parts: (1) a brief literary overview, including a synopsis and commentary on the play; (2) suggestions for teaching the play, including...
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...ALLEGOR AND IRONY IN 'OTHELLO' Y ANTOINETT B. DAUBER E Othello is Shakespeare's Spenserian tragedy, in which the theme of slandere d chastity becomes a vehicle for exploring the problems of an allegorica l art . Allegory is the mode of selfconscious faith, and Spenser's corpus may be rea d as a portrai t of the artis t as allegorist , wrestling first with the burdens of selfconsciousness and then with the burdens of faith.l In Othello, Shakespeare compresses and objectifies this struggle. Unlike Spenser, he is not committed to the maintenance of allegory, and so he freely dramatizes the interna l weaknesses and external onslaughts that lead to its destruction. What I am calling the 'Spenserian ' quality begins with the chivalric elements in the tragedy. Truly, Othello is a kind of Savage Knight, Desdemona, the absolutely, almost miraculously, worthy lady, and Iago, something of a manipulator like Archimago.2 But more particularl y I would call attention to a specific engagement with Spenserian rhetoric . Consider Cassio' s words of welcome to the disembarking Desdemona: Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds, The gutter'd rocks and congregated sands, Traitors ensteep'd to enclog the guiltless keel, As having sense of beauty, do omit Their mortal natures, letting go safely by The divine Desdemona. (2.1.68-73)3 He sets her in the line of Spenser's heavenly allegories . As a parallel , we may recal l Una , slandere d by the arch-magician , abandone d by 123 her...
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