Othello; Hero, Villian or just Missunderstood?

Othello is a very interesting character. Sure he is a general in the army and a good high ranked guy, but what is the real truth of him?

Iago may have manipulated his concience but Othello was gulible to belive it. I don't think Othello has heard of the phrase 'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.' Iago did have a big part in this but Othello should have; A) Ignored it or B) Ask Desdemona Nicely, she's your wife for godness sake. You don't kill your wife if you suspect something is going on. (Maybe today you would but not back then)



Or is he just a sweet inocent man? It wasn't his hands strangling Desdemona it was Iago. (Metophorically Obviously) Sure he is black in a white orientated culture but he dosen't harm anyone until Iago stepps in. He may be an army general but thats a bit different to killing your wife.

Happy Halloween

From Your kind devil

Ashley (MMMWWWWAAAAHHHHHH!!!)

The relevence of the characters cultures

Hey people its Munieb!


I wanted to bring up a thought thats been on my mind for a while. How different would the play be if it was set in somewhere like Nigeria and Othello was a white tribe leader and all the other characters were black and part of Othello's tribe (with the exception of Brabantio and Desdemona who could be from another tribe which is could be why Brabantio would be upset with his daughter) . I personally think that the play would be different in so many ways because the personalities of each of the characters would be extreamly different. I would imagine that Othello would been someone from the USA or UK that went to Nigeria to capture slaves but was seperated from the rest of his group and was forced to live with the tribe that he's in. Thats my opinion but I want to know what other people think so I'll be off now.

Bye

Munieb

Othello and O.J. Simpson

I was reading some info on Othello and saw a comparison to the O.J. Simpson case, so I thought I'd look into it...
O.J. Simpson was a black American man of quite high status. A major NFL star and a lead protagonist in a popular American soap, O.J. became one of the most famous criminal defendants, on trial for the murder of his ex-wife and her male friend. OK so he was found to be innocent and Othello definately did kill his wife but in both cases there is a racial issue.
At the start of the play Othello is a popular man but discriminated against when he marries Desdemona. The end of the play sees Othello realising he shouldn't have killed Desdemona and he then commits suicide. The whole series of events is due to mastermind Iago's cunning plan to take over Cassio's job and when people finally realised Iago was the villain, many people are dead and the only option is to send him to torture and execution.
Simpson was popular with pretty much the entire American population but when his wife was brutally murdered there was a divide between the black and white population. Could a black man find justice in a legal system designed and mainly run by whites? His case became less about the murders of two innocent victims and more about racism and bigotry. The lawyers employed were willing to do anything to achieve their objective; turning their client, an accused double murderer, into some kind of political prisoner.
One major difference to be noted between the two is that Othello took responsibility for killing his wife. In real life O. J. Simpson took a plane to Chicago at a time where it would have been possible for him to commit the murders then leave the state.

Hope you've been enlightened

adiós

Scarlett xx

"O, blood, blood, blood!"

Shakespeare's storyline for 'Othello' is a developed version of the 'Hecatommithi', from Cinthio's collection. The character of 'Disdemona' (meaning 'unfortunate') is the only named role, the others are described as 'the Moor', 'the captain' and 'the standard-bearer'. In this original version, the standard-bearer is besotted with Disdemona and thus, when Disdemona rejects him, he seeks vengeance.

Throughout the play, there is a significance of race, and William Shakespeare has incorporated the issues of racism within this play. Black and white - with symbolism of good and evil - white being pure, untainted, and black being dark and sinister has been overturned. 'Othello' brings to the audience a black general, who is not the barbaric foreigner that one might stereotype him to be; he is in fact noble, eloquent and with a heart of decency. On the contrary, the white standard-bearer Iago is a malovent, ruthless man whose intentions are anything but good.

The play is indeed a tragedy. Why? Well, practically everyone dies; cause of death being either homicide or suicide. Iago has a searing hate for the Moor, Othello. He seeks for a way to bring great destruction to Othello's life. Roderigo is killed while trying to murder the captain, another scheme of Iago's. Iago then plants Desdemona's hankerchief on Cassio (Othello's Florentine Lieutenant), which implies adultery. (A hankerchief? The death of at least four people...because of a hankerchief?) Despite Desdemona's pleas, Othello is certain that his wife has been unfaithful (duh!). He murders his wife before Emilia (Iago's wife) can reveal the truth - that Desdemona was indeed innocent (oops) - and once she has done so, she is in turn killed by her husband (of course). Othello then commits suicide from grief, and it is assumed that Iago is taken away to be tortured and executed for his deeds. How delightful!

Othello has been adapted into several films and operas. The opera, 'Otello', written in 1887 by Giuseppe Verdi was then also adapted into a film by the same title in 1986, directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Plácido Domingo. It also won the BAFTA award for foreign language film. And and and! 'Othello' filmed in 1965 with none other than Laurence Olivier (squee!) as Othello! And of course the 1990 tv adaptation with Sir Ian McKellen (*applause*) as Iago, no one, no one can be any better than McKellen when it comes to Shakespeare. There was also a BBC adaptation of the play in 1980 that was directed by Jonathan Miller and starring Anthony Hopkins as Othello (he's not Moorish, but hey! He's flipping fantastic!), Bob Hoskins as Iago and Penelope Wilton as Desdemona. I'm very interested in watching the 1995 'Othello' motion picture with Laurence Fishburne (yes, the dude from 'The Matrix') as Othello.

All in all, this play signifies good and evil, racism, sexism (on Desdemona's part) prejudice and discrimination, love, hate, vengeance, greed, envy, and above all: destruction.

Anywho, that's me wee post for ye all. Hope it gave you an interesting insight from my part! I might have waffled on a bit, but when it comes to Shakespeare...I simply can't resist!

Fair winds!

~~*Cap'n Buffy Bloom*~~

a.k.a.

~~*Gamze*~~

PS: Romeo and Juliet - school play. Je suis Benvolio! Whoop whoop!

Brabantio and his rhyme

In the scene when Brabantio is having his (one of many) eppy's he cleverly says it in ryming couplets. i think this is a good idea of Bill's as it adds intrest to the play and gives a stronger understanding of his character and what is going on. However i do think that his words do get a bit sidetracked such as in line 217 but he then gets back to the point. If I was in a production of othello and i was Brabantio i would be increasing the volume of my voice all the time and by the end i would be shouting and turning blue due to lack of oxygen (LOL)

hope this gives you a better insight to this character

hugs and kisses all around (Except Stacy LOL)

Ashley

xxxxx

Envy is the ulcer of the soul....

"A line of human corruption"

Personally, I think Shakespeare has created a very clever mood within "Othello" that challenges the way a person sees his or her self and the world. Subjects like racism, sexism, love, hate, jealousy, pride, and trickery are thoroughly developed in the play to enable the audience to view the characters and also themselves. Shakespeare began the masterpiece of Othello, a drama about a noble black general, Othello, who falls in love with and marries, Desdemona, a young white daughter of a senator.
From the above knowledge, my view is that Shakespeare wrote Othello to express that all people, of all ethnicity, are basically the same in human nature.

In the tragedy not only is Othello susceptible to weakness but so is every major character. The tragedy reminds humans that even one's good nature can be taken advantage of for the worst.
The drama Othello expresses, through relationships and emotional attitudes, a theme that all humans are vulnerable to destruction even if they are in positions of power and glory.....

MWAHAHAHAHAAAA......

"It is better to be
hated for who you are, then to be loved for something you're not"

Also, i would like to take this chance to talk about the new Hindi film "Omkara"; eventhough I myself haven't watched the film, I can tell you now, even without watching it that the play Othello will be mocked in such a way that the whole concept will be lost, the actual meaning of the play and the points that Shakespeare tried to express will be corrupted and misinterpreted. All the Indian film industry will do is over exaggerate the play and mix a couple of filmie love songs that have no meaning; the actual beauty and feeling that has gone into "Othello" will be destroyed.
Trust me - I've had many bad experiences in this area...

"Life is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you."

From yours truly

私は日本の

~Deathgod Captain~

人を愛する

死の神 ~ Seema~ の大尉

Othello So Far.

Hiya Everyone,
------Ok so in on of our lessons we were given the task to act out Act 1 Scene 2 and 3.... but unfortunatly we're not a class that can do a task like acting together.....hehe. So first off I'd like to say sorry to Miss T because she set us a task and we failed. But i'd also like to say that i think she was wrong when she said that it was a waste of time. I for one found that when going through the play and attempting to act it out and interpret it it made me discover some more facts about Othello which i shall share.
-----First off, going through this scene it showed that Othello is a nobel man and can keep calm in an abrupt situation. In this case when Brabantio (Desdomona's Dad) is yelling at him. Secondly, the scene with the duke shows how respected Othello is for the duke doesn't jump in to agree with Brabantio but allows Othello to say his piece and the thirdly that goes to show that Othello is a convincing person as he convinces the room that he has done nothing more tha fallen in love with someone that returns that love.
------These scenes also show Othello as a confident man for when Brabantio approches, he waits for him instead of hiding and when in the meeting with the duke he is so sure that he is a good nobel man for he doesn't hide Desdomona away but allows her to come out and tell everyone the truth form her point of view.

Ok so i haven't rounded up everything but this is as much as i could explain about what we read. So don't worry Miss T because the lesson wasn't completely wasted.

From Member Of Class,
Jodie x