Tragedy in Othello

Tragedy in Othello

1. Hamartia - Othello's love for Desdemona Hubris - overwhelming pride

2. a sense of inevitability when he arrives at Cyrus and feels 'too much joy'.

3. Negative impulses: envy, hatred, lust and personal ambition.

4. The conflict we see is within Othello's mind. He becomes divided against himself, conflicted about whether he loves or hates Desdemona.

   • It causes him great suffering and anguish, which intensifies as the play moves towards the tragic outcome.

5. Iago's dominance in this tragedy is unusual; the villain and the hero have equivalent sage time and are equally powerful speakers.

6. Act 1: Couple with deep mutual love makes them appealing to the audience. Act 2: Admiration is turned to pity as Iago destroys the relationship. Act 3: Love is undermined by mistrust, uncertainty and jealousy.

7. The play is extremely painful to watch because the audience can see how untrustworthy the villain is from the very first scene, and can see how expert Iago is an exercising his power.

8. Shakespeare uses comedy to influence his play.

9. Venice:

   • Dramatists used Italy as a suitable location for revenge tragedies.
   • It was a location that suggested power, order and wealth.
   • Venice had a reputation as a place of liberty; young men were raised with very loose morals.
   • Cyprus
     • Shakespeare's use of a war with the Turks and the uneasy atmosphere of the garrison town in Cyprus - a 'halfway house' between civilisation and the heathen world - is dramatically significant.
     • Desdemona is isolated from everyone shre knows and Othello feels the difference and isolation where he is 'perplexed to the extreme' (V.2.)
     • Conflict and danger are mirrored in the tragic events that unfold there.
     • Othello is sent to Cyprus to govern and restore peace yet instead destroys himself.
   • Foreign courts were stereotyped as being full of villainy and sexual perversion. By using this setting, Shakespeare establishes Othello as an outsider, unlike Iago who is Italian and has traits of an Italian villain: scheming, selfish and amoral.