The major characters of Othello are depicted in an argument between Roderigo and Lago on a Venice street in the opening scene of the play. The lawsuit involved two distinct parties, a wealthy man named Roderigo and a person of lower social standing named Lago. The woman in question, in whom Roderigo seemed to have a romantic interest, is the main source of the argument. Lago was at the center of the debate because Roderigo believed that he upheld a double standard. Lago served as Othello's ensign while also serving as Roderigo's helper. (Shakespeare, 1968). Othello finds himself as part of the problem for marrying Desdemona, and this paves the way for the dramatic turn of events characterized by issues of trust, desire, love, obsession, and hatred. In the next unfolding of events in the story, we witness the extent of the plot between Roderigo, Lago, and Cassio to try everything within their power to destroy the marriage between Othello and his lover Desdemona.
Lago and Roderigo rush to Desdemona’s father Brabanzio and informs him of the wedding between his daughter and the potentially dangerous man Othello. After confirming his daughter unexplained disappearance, he launches a manhunt for his daughter and his lover. The father claims that Othello had stolen the girl using witchcraft. However, he is embarrassed in the Senate as he pressed the charges against Othello as Othello argued that he won the daughter’s love using his stories of adventures in travel and war (Hallett, & Hallett, 2015). Additionally, the daughter Desdemona confirms Othello’s claims that she loved him and declared her allegiance to her husband. Consequently, Othello is assigned a new task to head to Cyprus and defend his nation against the Turks. Desdemona insisted on accompanying her husband to the battle field, and the necessary arrangements for their departure are made.
On arriving in Cyprus, Othello and his army found that the enemy ship had been destroyed by the storm and they set a revealing the next night to celebrate Cyprus’s safety from the Turks. However, Lago and Roderigo continue with their plan to destroy Othello’s marriage by involving Cassio as the tool. Upon breaking up with Othello, the two anticipate that Desdemona will fall into the hands of Casio and thus they plan to evict Cassio on the way. To do so, Roderigo picked a stage managed fight with Cassio resulting to his demotion from his position by Othello. In the subsequent turn of events, Lago tries his best to frame an affair between Cassio and Desdemona (Shakespeare, 1968). He takes advantage of Othello’s jealous love for his wife, and in the end, he succeeds. He made the implore of Desdemona from his husband to reinstate Cassio as prove of the affair between the two and the presence of Desdemona’s handkerchief in Cassio’s room as a back-up of the affair. Notably, Othello receives a letter from Venis instructing him to return and to instate Cassio as his replacement. So as to prevent Desdemona from leaving with his husband, Lago and Roderigo planned to kill Cassio by having Roderigo attack Cassio and kill him on the spot. However, Cassio missed his attempt and instead he gets injured. Lago runs to defend his friend Roderigo. However, after Lodorico and Graziano intervened to seek the truth about the fight, Lago turned against his friend Roderigo and killed him in a fake attempt to protect Cassio. On the same night, Othello is consumed by his anger of the alleged affair between his wife and Cassio and ended up smoothing her to death (Hartmann, 2013). Montano, Graziano, and Lago came to check on Othello, and Lago tried to silence Emilia from telling the truth about the alleged affair. However, Othello realizes that his wife was innocent following a testimony of Emilia and consequently, Lago killed Emilia and fled. Othello is consumed by the guilt of killing his wife and ended up committing suicide as Lago is ordered to be executed.
In the story, the theme of love is conspicuous as love is expressed differently by the parties involved. Othello’s love towards Desdemona is genuine and pure, and he ended up giving her room in his heart but his brains. However, his great love is used as a weapon by his enemies to turn against his wife (McGee, 2016). Conspicuously, found the love in their marriage but he needed time to build trust for his wife. Notably, his enemies took advantage of the doubt he had over his wife and ruined their lives. Lago expressed fake love towards all his friends. He ended up betraying them. Notably, Desdemona’s love towards her husband is pure and is manifested by the passion and steadfast devotion she had towards her husband. Desdemona’s love for friendship with Cassio is right but is misinterpreted by Othello’s Jealousy as adulterous love. The real friendship was between Emilia and Desdemona. She stood up, to tell the truth about the actual state of affairs, but she is killed for it.
Additionally, appearance and reality are also common thematic issues in the story. Othello orders Lago to find him a solid prove of the looming of his wife. To him, seeing is believing and proof of the truth is visual. He believes that to prove meant to investigate an issue until its true nature reveals itself. However, so as to feed his jealousy, Lago gives him fantastic pictures of his wife with Cassio, and they ended up dominating his mind (Putnam, 2014). The symbolism of his wife as an adulterous woman kept on haunting him, and he continued believing the fallacy. Additionally, jealousy is a major theme in the story. Othello is occupied by the feeling of jealousy that ended up blinding his reasoning. Lago took advantage of the extreme jealousy to destroy Othello. The vice made Othello to unjustly execute his wife and the moment he came back to his normal senses and realized what he had done; he killed himself. Racial prejudice is also a key theme in the story as Lego takes advantage of it and makes Othello think that he does not deserve Desdemona’s love. Prejudice infiltrates down into Othello’s personality and thus undermining his character. As a result, Othello ended up being imperfect in his strength and self-knowledge, something that is not legitimate demand for everyone.
Notably, in the story, the difference emerges between heroism in the line of military duty and love. Othello and Roderigo are both soldiers who have shown interest in the same lady known as Desdemona. The military career life of Othello has significant impacts on the family life of Othello. Othello attempted to use his military success to make Desdemona happy, but on the contrary, the later was only pushed to depression. There is also a danger of isolation, and this manifests when Othello is sent to Cyprus. He moves with his wife alongside Lao, Roderigo, and Emilia. The other three military men have no battles to fight other than the fight against them. It was during this isolation that hatred and malice began to manifest among the soldiers. Their minds began to serve as devil's workshop responsible for brewing dirty thoughts. Othello lost his military fame since, in isolation; he was never involved in any battle. The issue made him lose confidence as well as his bragging rights in military success.
Therefore, based on the discussed plot, character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle of the story, it is fair to label Othello a “tragic hero” and to classify the play as an Aristotelian tragedy. Basing on Aristotle’s definition of tragedy, it is the limitation of a deed that is thoughtful and also having enormousness complete in itself; inappropriate and pleasurable language; in a dramatic rather chronicle form; with episodes arousing horror and disappointment and fear wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions (Pietzonka, 2013). Notably, the story is about serious issues in life such as gender, sex, marriage, racism, manipulation, jealousy, warfare, identity, and hate. Just like in a tragedy, the story ends with the death of the main characters and the turn of events in the story is a description of a true tragedy. Aristotle describes a tragedy as having a language that is easy to follow. The story of Othello contains a natural flow, and the audience can follow the actions of the play. Additionally, a tragedy can be dramatized, and the story has been exaggerated in many occasions bringing the drama into perspective. Remarkably, according to Aristotle, a tragedy must contain incidents of pity and fear. In the story of Othello, the events arouse fear and pity for the characters as they manipulate each other so as to get what each wants. Emotions of pity towards Othello and Desdemona are aroused in the audience, while that of anger and hatred are aroused towards Lago and his counterparts. Notably, the story involves a catharsis of emotions as the public explodes upon the death of Othello and his wife, Desdemona.
Remarkably, the story contains all the elements of Aristotle’s elements of tragedy. Each character in the story has a particular quality or nature as depicted in the plot. The moral purpose of each of the characters depicted in the plot of the story is clear to the audience. Additionally, the characters have the following primary qualities; they are good some way, they act appropriately to their gender and station in life and have believable personalities, and they perform consistently throughout the play. Additionally, there is unity in the plot as all the events in the story are necessary to the central issue and thus making one complete action. In the story, the element of peripety is seen as the characters change from the state of happiness to a state of misery typical of a tragedy. Notably, the characters, especially Othello goes through a state of discovery from ignorance to knowledge. Finally, Aristotelian tragedy is involved some horrible or evil deeds. In the story, characters reveal horrific actions that death ends up causing death. Lago killed his friend Roderigo and his lover, Emilia. Othello kills his wife and later commit suicide, and Lago was to undergo execution.
References
Hallett, C. A., & Hallett, E. S. (2015). Analyzing Shakespeare's Action: Scene Versus Sequence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hartmann, V. (2013). Affinity and Polarity in Shakespeare's "Othello" – Analyzing the 'Otherness' With Respect to Protestant England. Munchen: Grin Verlag.
McGee, S. J. (2016). Analyzing Literature: A Guide for Students. Retrieved March 7, 2017, from Kansas State University-Salina: http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/327/335558/AnalyzingLit.pdf
Pietzonka, W. (2013). Active Agents or Passive Instruments? Female Characters in William Shakespeare's “Othello”. Munchen: GRIN Verlag.
Putnam, J. (2014). Jelousy in Othello. Retrieved March 7, 2017, from https://www.lagrange.edu/resources/pdf/citations08/JEALOUSYINOTHELLO.pdf
Shakespeare, W. (1968). Othello. Nam.
