Ethical Conduct and Othello

Ethical Behavior, Habits and Customs In order to behave ethically, one must first understand ethics -- what the concept signifies and entails. Broadly, ethics is differentiating right from wrong, and ethical conduct is acting in keeping with ethics. According to Anderson, ethical conduct involves applying reflective intelligence for revising one's judgments, considering the ramifications of one's action. Habits, meanwhile, refer to socially-influenced inclinations towards specific ways of reacting to the context or specific kinds of activity.

Habits direct impulses along specified pathways, towards particular goals, by engraining application of specific means and prescribing particular behavior in particular situations. Although we all have our own unique habits, customs or habits we share as a community or population are most salient. These customs are transmitted from one generation to the next via socialization. Customs result from activity. Although habits encompass socially-significant notions and purposes, they work beneath an individual's consciousness.

Habits recede from our awareness, thereby conserving our reflective resources, rendering fluidity to our actions and allowing us to dependably generate particular anticipated outcomes (provided the context doesn't change). Hence, our habits symbolize our character, and are typically self-preserving and hard to alter, as we get attached to them. When habits are disrupted, people express annoyance, apprehension, unhappiness, and even rage. Prevalent ideologies depict existing customs as correct and unbreakable. This poses a barrier to intended transformations to the society (Anderson).

When Should Ethical Behavior Defer to Habits or Customs? A Study of Othello According to Mohamad, Shakespeare's "Othello" represents a tragic hero's tale. Othello is a character attempting to fit into a racist European society. The author has endeavored to reveal the importance given to color, and the associated racial discussion, by dealing with several sensitive concerns. Europeans' suspicion of what they labeled "alien cultures" wasn't a new thing in 1604.

Their attitude is portrayed using the following words: "alien, barbaric, and demonic" Turk, who was "in contrast to the Christian's civil and moral rightness." This Eastern Other sparked fear and hatred, common themes which haunted the Western Christian world. The reaction of the Venetian society to the "turbaned Turk's" elopement with the fair Desdemona is a telling example of racism in those days.

The hero of the tale is introduced using the usual stereotypical and racial remarks from Iago who refers to him as a "Barbary horse" and "old black ram." The tale ends with more racial slurs (Emilia's cry of "ignorant and dirt"). Throughout the tale, the dominant theme is the abnormality of a marriage between a black Moor and white Venetian lady. Shakespeare depicts Othello in a way that corresponds to Elizabethans' racial, stereotypical views concerning Moors.

The start of the tale abounds in racist attitudes and prejudices -- Roderigo calls Othello "thick-lips," while Iago's words to Brabantio emphasize the link between bestial sexuality and blackness. Although nearly all of Venice commends Othello for his courage and nobility, Desdemona is considered out of his league, given their unequal social statuses (Mohamad). Furthermore, the story illustrates a case of a person acting wrongly out of an erroneous moral belief.

Othello ruins his own life, killing his wife under the misguided belief, purposefully drilled into him by the antagonist -- Iago -- that Desdemona cheated on him with Cassio, his faithful lieutenant. Othello's suicidal penitence upon realizing his error, although understandable, itself seems to be another mistaken belief on his part -- that his wife's murder is no cruel misfortune, but also a crime he perpetrated, which demands expiation (Porter).

The main character of the tale is also depicted as more prone to trusting men (especially men of a particular disposition) than women. His distrust for the fairer sex is apparent in his remarks that reflect the widespread Elizabethan view of women as cunning, devious and naturally lustful creatures, who cannot hold on to their chastity unless constantly supervised.

Numerous remarks, combined with his overall conduct towards Iago, indicate his highly disparate beliefs about, in this instance, frank and hearty men like Iago, whom Othello perceives to be trustworthy and honest. Hence, Othello believing Iago's claims of Desdemona's adultery springs, at least partly, from an element of his own character, entrenched partly in an earlier-established set of general views with regard to the trustworthiness of others.

Othello's mistake is his trust based on as well as qualified by certain beliefs regarding women's characteristics and that of, at least, men of.