Humanity Revealed in Shakespeare's Othello Shakespeare Knew

Humanity Revealed in Shakespeare's Othello Shakespeare knew what he was doing when he creating characters full of good and bad qualities. We need only to look at his drama, Othello, to see a wide range of them. Othello, Iago, and Desdemona are colorful creations of human nature. What they reveal is the astonishing truth that regardless of how much we "progress" as a society, we do not change a whole lot.

We make find ourselves finding cures for certain diseases, playing with technological gadgets, and exploring space, but the truth remains that we are still the same kinds of human beings Shakespeare watched every day. Shakespeare highlights jealousy, trust, racism, and physiological drama in Othello and these themes are very much a part of our modern society. At the end of the day, we are still human and are driven by our basal desires, which can ultimately lead to our ruin if we allow them to do so.

Othello, Iago, and Desdemona are popular not so because they are extraordinary but because they are not. It does not take much to bring the confident Othello down. In fact, it takes very little to bring him down once the recipe for destruction is figured out, it is relatively easy to destroy this noble soldier. Even Iago, in a his intelligence, is nothing too extraordinary. He is simply driven by hatred and that keeps him moving throughout the play. Desdemona, too, is nothing too special.

What makes her character so popular is her pure love for the man that would just as soon kill her than listen to her side of the story. These are accepted because they just like us. One of the most significant themes in Othello is jealousy. One of the most fascinating aspects of Othello's jealousy is how Iago is able to provoke him so easily. This only leads us to conclude that Othello was jealous by nature and, as a result, Iago's job was much easier A.C.

Bradley writes Othello's weakness was the fact that "his whole nature was indisposed to jealousy, and yet was such that he was unusually open to deception, and, if once wrought to passion, likely to act with little reflection, with no delay, and in the most decisive manner conceivable" (Bradley). Paul Cantor agrees, noting Othello's impression of himself is too close to Desdemona's opinion of him.

Cantor states that during most of his life, Othello's: Self-possession came from the fact that he could derive his sense of worth from his own heroic deeds, something largely within his own control. But now that he has come to take pride in the fact that of all the men in Venice, Desdemona singled him out to be her husband, he has made his self-esteem dependent on another person's opinion and hence more insecure. His doubts about himself lead to his doubts about Desdemona.

(Cantor) In issues regarding matters of the heart or trust, Othello is not the strong man everyone thinks he is. He may be brave as a soldier and warrior but he is not so strong when it comes to personal matters. Iago is one of the first people to pick up on this and take complete advantage of it. Iago is just as strong, if not stronger than Othello, as he never gives up and he never falters.

Haim Omer says Iago is a "therapist from hell" (Omer) and we are inclined to believe him because he so skillfully plays Othello. Bradley says: Othello's mind, for all its poetry, is very simple. He is not observant. His nature tends outward. He is quite free from introspection, and is not given to reflection. Emotion excites his imagination, but it confuses and dulls his intellect. he has little experience of the corrupt products of civilised life, and is ignorant of European women.

(Bradley) From this assessment, we can see how simple Othello is in comparison to Iago. It is no wonder that Iago can provoke Othello at almost every turn because the man does not stop to ever consider the dark side of anyone but his wife, who turns out to be.