Othello - Themes

Othello - Themes

1. Jealousy

   • Jealousy drives most of the action in 'Othello" - Iago's jealousy prompts him to ruin Cassio's career and Othello's happiness, and Othello's jealousy causes him to destroy his marriage, kill his wife and eventually kill himself
     • Iago experiences professional jealousy
     • Sexual jealousy springs from love to insecurity
     • Shakespeare presents jealousy as consuming and unnatural - Characters become consumed and cannot think rationally: Iago describes Othello "eaten up with passion"
     • Its debatable whether Othello becomes jealous to easily - 1. he doesn't give into the jealousy immediately. 2. It only takes seeing the handkerchief (memorable object) with cassio for jim to believe his story

2. Gender/Sexuality

   • Gender played an important role in Elizabethan Society
     • Men: Society was patriarchal - men had more power. - Honour and reputation were very important and men were expected to act rather than talk.
       • Women: It was an accepted idea women were responsible for humanity's fall into 'evil'
   • Men in 'Othello' try to control women
     • Women are often referred to as property - Othello starts as treating Des as an equal but later try's to gain control.
     • Cassio expects Bianca to obey him, using orders - "take it"
       • Iago controls Emilia's behaviour, giving her instructions
   • Female Character break society's conventions
     • Des breaks convention by marrying a black man
     • When Emilia sees iago's scheming, she goes against him, when iago realises he cant control emilia anymore he kills her.
       • Bianca is seen promiscuous and dishonest because she's a courtesan

3. Love and War

   • The male characters define themselves as soldiers - Othello has been a solider since the age of 7 - Othello trust Iago as soldiers becuase they were normally loyal and honest. - even though cassio hasnt experienced battle he puts great importance on military honour. - Men shared military background strengthens their friendship
   • Love is a Powerful Force: Othello is a domestic tragedy focusses on personal relationships rather than politics of war - love motivates the characters - Othello positively affected "it stops me here, it is too much of joy" (2.1.191)
   • Love and War seem compatible at first..... Combined by Othello and Desdemona - however their are early hints the love will be disrupted by war, in Cyprus othello describes des as "FAIR WARRIOR" admiring her strength and beauty
   • Othello's speech in Act 1, scene 3: places love before war.
   • When war ends conflicts shift in othello's marriage: Othellos elf-esteem is based on his military honour.
   • Love and War are NOT compatible
     • When Othello murders Des its shows him acting as a soldier not a husband, Othello recognises his falure as a lover becuase he didnt love 'wisely' and was 'perplexed' by jealousy and realises he "threw a pearl away"

4. Race

   • Elizabethan society had negative views of black people - Othello is described as the 'moor' - Racial prejudices existed in Elizabethan england, Moors were generally viewed as savages and treated as slaves.
   • Othello is victim of racism - Racist characters: Iago, Brabantio and Roderigo
   • Some Characters look past othello's race - uses his race as a 'positive quality', othello is well respected in the military - Des overlooks his skin colour, Des fell in love with is exotic history which could make his race a weakness.

5. Honesty and Deception

   • Truth and Honour in 'Othello' -
     • 'Honest' has many meanings in Shakespeare's time, Honourable and to integrity, for women meant chastity.
       • Honest, is used frequently mainly by Iago which is ironic but shows how deceiving he is.
   • Appearances can be deceptive - Iago lets the other characters see what he wants them to see, B'cause of Iago Othello goes from seeing Des' beauty and "sweet" smell which disguises corruption and evil.