Irregularities in Othello - 1716 Words

Irregularities in Othello The Shakespearean tragedy Othello contains various irregularities of time and occurrence which cause the audience to scratch their head in wonder and doubt. Let us analyze some of these shortcomings in this essay. In the Introduction to The Riverside Shakespeare Frank Kermode explains one of the difficulties in Othello: Othello murders his wife on the second night in Cyprus. The difficulty, of which Shakespeare was clearly aware, arises from the fact that this leaves no time for her to have had â€Å"stol’n hours of lust,† certainly not to have enjoyed them repeatedly, as Iago alleges. In such allusions to frequent adultery as III.iii.340-43 and V.ii.211-12, Shakespeare slides over†¦show more content†¦It presents the general as an inconsistent character, unable to control his feelings at this time even though he has a hundred previous times controlled his feelings in exemplary fashion, in the manner of a general. In her book, Everybody’s Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack comments on the impropriety of the general’s treatment: Here time present, in which Desdemona speaks and sings, and time future, in which we know she (like Barbary) is to die from an absolute fidelity to her intuition of what love is and means, recede even as we watch into a lost time past, when Desdemona had a mother and all love’s agonies and complexities could be comprehended in a song. A song moreover, bringing to her consciousness the sheltered world in which she grew up, now balanced beside the world she chose. In that other world, her husband might have been a Venetian gentleman, someone like Lodovico perhaps – â€Å"a proper man,† she confides to Emilia – such a man as surely would never strike his wife in public or humiliate her in private as a common prostitute? (132) Is it logical for the hero to switch from his initial attitude toward his wife (â€Å"As this that I have reachd: for know, Iago, / But that I love the gentle Desdemona†) to one of total distrust -- even after Emilia assures him that there has been no opportunity for the unfaithfulness of which she is accused? OTHELLO. You have seen nothing then? EMILIA. NorShow MoreRelated The Dual Nature of Characters in Othello Essay1074 Words   |  5 Pages The Dual Nature of Characters in Othellonbsp;nbsp; In Shakespeares tragedy, Othello, Iago is uncharacteristically honest when he says I am not what I am. However, he is not the only character whose appearance differs from the reality. Nonetheless, he is possibly the only person who intends this duplicity. Unfortunately everyone is under the impression that Iago is honest and just. Once alone, Iago reveals when devils will the blackest sins put on, they do suggest at first with heavenlyRead MoreHamlet, Prince Of Denmark1869 Words   |  8 Pagesin his essay. They are discussed below: The play Hamlet, core more on characters, not on action, using soliloquies. There is no strong sub-plot if we compare Hamlet with the other plays of Shakespeare like Macbeth or Othello. Play is full of seeing discontinuation and irregularities of action. The play lasts much more than usual plays at that time.(4 hours to 2 hours) According to Eliot that the failure of the drama lies not simply with the adaptation, plot construction and versification, but moreRead MoreShakespeare vs Dryden3975 Words   |  16 Pageswork between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying qualityRead MoreGp Essay Mainpoints24643 Words   |  99 Pagesenvironment really saved? †¢ Germany’s solar subsidies, perhaps the most wasteful green scheme on earth, produce a mere 0.25 percent of the country’s energy and cost consumers as much as $125 billion. †¢ November’s â€Å"climategate† affair over irregularities in the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body whose findings are the basis of all climate policy. Though a review panel has since cleared the researchers of most allegations, the lingering controversy