Character Analysis on "Othello"

Essay by chucky_me March 2007

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Envy is an emotion that can force people to cross many social boundaries as one threatens their own self esteem. This emotion is a major theme in William Shakespeare's play Othello. In this play, the characters' actions are determined by their feelings of jealousy towards each other; most remarkably affected is Othello, the brave war hero. Othello fell deeply in love with Desdemona and married her, causing a domino effect of events that would, in the end, ruin three lives. Throughout the play, the manipulating character, Iago, begrudgingly frames Cassio and Desdemona as lovers to make Othello jealous. This scheme causes Othello to become very outraged and inflamed with envy causing him to do disastrous things to the people that he loves most. Othello's envy shows the reader that he is a real person and not some emotionless robot that we associate with hardened war heroes. Judging by the actions and speech of Othello, it seems that he felt superior to everyone else.

Thus, Othello took extreme measures when he believed he had been betrayed by Desdemona. When Othello speaks in the play, he portrays himself to be quiet yet confident in the beginning and more insecure towards the end. There are particular speeches in the play that show Othello's intentions on dealing with the matter of Desdemona. Othello's jealousy towards Desdemona states the main theme of the play. Lastly, the theme of this play goes hand in hand with my own personal beliefs.

To begin, there has been much debate on the topic of the color and other physical characteristics of Othello. Mostly, the debate is on what particular characteristics Shakespeare would have attributed to a "Moor," (Swisher 129). The Elizabethans viewed a Moor as a swarthy man (129). Shakespeare was not concerned with race; he viewed a Moor...