She pities his past. Othello , in turn, loves the fact that she admires him. From his point of view, he has a loving , obedient wife who admires his ability to endure dangers.
One moment they are so in love with one another that they elope , and Desdemona choses to side with Othello rather than her father Brabantio. The next moment, Othello suspects Desdemona of cheating, thanks to trickery by Iago. This leads Othello to plot Desdemona's murder, and he winds up killing her in her bed. Some say that Othello's tragic flaw was jealousy which flared at suspicion and rushed into action unchecked by calm common sense. A more modern interpretation would say that Othello's tragic flaw was that he had internalized, that is taken into himself, the prejudices of those who surrounded him.
That he told her many stories of his hard but exciting life and that she did pity him for his adventures. He probably thinks this because Othello is a moor, and during the Renaissance, Africa had the stigma of being a land of witchcraft see Caliban's mother Sycorax from The Tempest. To make a long story short, Brabantio sucks. Othello is a trusting, honest person who expects that his own good character, if embodied clearly and earnestly, will save him from others' prejudice.
He demonstrates this belief in the first act; presenting himself so nakedly in the name of justice and common sense will be his great misstep. Iago mocks Roderigo for threatening to drown himself , and Roderigo protests that he can't help being tormented by love.
He lays out his plan to cheat Roderigo out of his money, to convince Othello that Cassio has slept with Desdemona, and to use Othello's honest and unsuspecting nature to bring him to his demise. Iago hates Othello and devises a plan to destroy him by making him believe that his wife is having an affair with his lieutenant, Michael Cassio. Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello , a Moorish man several years her senior.
When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the Republic of Venice, Desdemona accompanies him. Duke of Venice - The official authority in Venice, the duke has great respect for Othello as a public and military servant.
Chaming guy. Like many Shakespearean fathers think Baptista Minola from The Taming of the Shrew or Portia's dad, who arranges his daughter's marriage from his grave in The Merchant of Venice , Brabantio tends to see his daughter as his property, which means that he sees marriage as a potential business transaction. Brabantio's irrational fears about his daughter's interracial marriage make him a central figure in the play's examination of race and sex which you can read more about in our " Themes " section.
Check out this quote:. She has deceived her father, and may thee. Wow: here Brabantio is equating "eloping to get married to a black man" to "cheating on her husband. However, Cassio survives and becomes the leader of Cypress.
Some readers have suggested that Iago's true, underlying motive for persecuting Othello is his homosexual love for the general. He certainly seems to take great pleasure in preventing Othello from enjoying marital happiness, and he expresses his love for Othello frequently and effusively.
Who was Branantio, and why did Iago and Roderigo awaken him in the middle of the night? Brabano is a senator; Iago and Roderigo awoke Brabantio in the middle of the night because they said his daughter was being robbed. Brabantio thinks Desdemona was basically forced to marry Othello, and was very angry! In the fight that ensues, Iago goes undetected and wounds Cassio.
He then enters again as himself to accuse and kill Roderigo for the act of wounding Cassio. Iago, reacting to his wife's accusations, stabs and kills her. Iago is arrested and sent to trial after Othello wounds him he doesn't even die. Answer and Explanation: No exact age for Othello is given in the play, but we have some clues. Iago, whom we know to be 28 years old , refers to Othello as ''an old black.
Desdemona was both impressed by his stories and sympathetic to all Othello had suffered in his younger days, and this is given as the reason for her attraction to him. Othello has lived the violent life of a warrior and seems to react strongly to Desdemona's gentle nature. What message does Cassio deliver? To get Othello, because the Duke wants him to fight the war.
Answer and Explanation: Brabantio does not want Othello as a son-in law because Othello is black. Iago encourages this perspective in Brabantio by mocking him for letting Desdemona marry a black man. While Othello pretends not to care about such prejudices, he is nevertheless worried that Desdemona will leave him.
Of course he wants his wife with him, and for the same reasons, and he supports her request, expressing it in a more socially acceptable manner: ". But to be free and bounteous of her mind" The Duke tells Othello that he can make what arrangements he likes.
The important thing is that he must leave this very night because "th' affair calls [for] haste" Desdemona is somewhat taken aback by this order. But notice the Moor's reply: He loves her "with all [his] heart" Truly, as the Duke notes to Brabantio, Othello "is far more fair than black" Immediately, there remains only for the Moor to leave some trusted officer behind, one who will see that Desdemona is brought to Cyprus safely.
Tragically, Othello chooses the very man whom he can trust least in all the world — "honest Iago" Brabantio is crushed; he is a defeated man who realizes that the Moor neither stole nor bewitched his daughter. However, he will never understand how his "jewel" renounced all his paternal guidance and secretly married a man of a different race and nation. These last words to Othello in this scene are important. They are packed with irony and provide, in part, an example of dramatic presaging.
Desdemona does not deceive Othello, but before long Othello will be so convinced that she has deceived him that he will murder her. Othello's reply to Brabantio is likewise ironic: He vows, "my life upon her faith! Shortly, he will take his own life because of his lack of faith in her faith — in her innocent, chaste fidelity. In a soliloquy that ends the act, Iago introduces a second motive for his hatred of Othello; he says that it is common gossip that the Moor "'twixt my sheets.
It need hardly be pointed out here that we are listening to a man whose mind is poisoned. There is not the slightest bit of evidence anywhere in this play to indicate that Othello has had an affair with Emilia. Iago also reveals his next malicious plan of action. Aware that Othello trusts him, he will convince the Moor that Cassio is "too familiar" with Desdemona.
Othello, he says, "is of a free and open nature" ; precisely, in Iago's words, Othello is an "ass" — naive, in other words, and we recall that Othello himself has already admitted that he knows "little of this great world. In the final couplet, which contains the reference to "hell and night" and to "monstrous birth" , we sense Iago rubbing his hands in glee; we see all too clearly the unnaturalness and the diabolical elements of his plans to destroy the union of Othello and Desdemona.
The witchcraft accusation raises the question, What constitutes evidence and proof of wrongdoing and what does not? Othello survived an accusation made by a man who believed the facts supported his accusation, simply because his inflamed prejudices allowed him no other possible explanation. Brabantio made the accusation of witchcraft against Othello with no solid evidence, and on the basis of Desdemona's testimony the charge was dismissed.
Later in the play, Othello will commit the same error incited much for the same reasons by making a baseless accusation with equal conviction that he is right. Othello defends himself against Brabantio's accusation by personal statement and by calling Desdemona to testify.
This strategy saves him from the false condemnation. Yet later in the play, as he accuses Desdemona without specifying the accusation until too late, he will deny her the opportunity to speak to defend herself or to call on Cassio to testify.
Othello, blinded by emotion, has not learned from his own experience, and the consequences will be disastrous. Act I, Scene 3 is the first of the very long scenes, where much detailed development happens.
0コメント