Othello and Death Knocks

Othello and Death Knocks: Two Characters Who Do Not Know Themselves

The definition of a tragic hero is a great man who is brought low by a single, yet fatal flaw within his character. Shakespeare's Othello can be said to have many flaws as well as virtues -- he is a great general, but he is also a poor judge of character, extremely credulous, and jealous. But all of these flaws spring from a single, larger tragic flaw. Othello does not see himself clearly, and so he does not see the world clearly. Although many people esteem Othello, Othello instead focuses on the people who look down upon him, like Brabantio, his racist father-in-law who makes many disparaging statements about Othello's skin color, even though most of Venice has nothing but praise for Othello. "To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on!" Brabantio marvels of his daughter (I.3). Because Othello does not see himself as a true citizen, he is very sensitive to being dishonored, which makes him willing to believe Iago. Similarly, Death of Woody Allen's play Death Knocks does not see himself as the world sees him. Death believes himself to be terrifying and all-powerful, but he is really a rather short man who is clumsy as he shimmies up a drain pip to claim the soul of the human character in the play.

At the beginning of the tragedy of Othello, the Moorish general Othello has won fame for his many exploits and even won the respect of whites who are prejudiced against his skin color. However, Othello is extremely prideful and jealous. This is partially a function of being one of the few powerful black men in a white society where he must continually prove himself. Othello also knows little of domestic life, having been a soldier for much of his existence. He knows little of what it means to be a husband, making him easy prey for the jealous Iago. "Work on, / My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught; / And many worthy and chaste dames even thus, / All guiltless, meet reproach" (4.1).

Through a very short span of time, Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona has been unfaithful with Cassio, who is young and fair as Othello is dark. This is all the more remarkable given that Othello begins the play in love with Desdemona, and has recently appointed Cassio to the position in the Venetian army that Iago wanted. Iago clearly sees Othello's insecurity and self-hated. Even after Othello has won the trust of the councilmen of Venice during the first scenes of the play and their approval of his marriage, he attempts to downplay the sensuality in his relationship to Desdemona. "I therefore beg it not, / To please the palate of my appetite, / Nor to comply with heat -- the young affects / In me defunct -- and proper satisfaction" (I.3). Othello insists that he is too old for love, which is one reason why he is afraid that Desdemona will naturally seek out the affections of a younger man. Iago plays upon this, suggesting to Othello that Othello murder Desdemona even before it crosses Othello's own mind. Othello clearly believes he is not worthy of Desdemona -- because of his color and his age -- but rather than admit that he fears she has every reason to cheat on him with Cassio, he sublimates this (with Iago's prodding) into a conviction that she has already cheated him.

Iago is helped by the fact that Othello is a man who is more inclined to trust men than women, thanks to his military upbringing. Desdemona has forsaken her father and her family for his sake, yet Othello trusts Iago's words over hers. He has no reason to do so and has even promoted Michael Cassio over Iago to be his lieutenant. But despite his evident belief in Cassio's greater competency, because Iago gives voice to Othello's greatest fears, Othello believes the man who hates him. A combination of blindness to his own self-dislike and blindness to the goodness of women results in the tragic death of Desdemona at Othello's hands.

Woody Allen's play Death Knocks is a comedy rather than a tragedy. Yet it retains some of the characteristics of a tragedy in which the main character has a flaw of blindness to his true nature. Death regards himself as powerful and mighty. But in the eyes of Nat Ackerman, Death is a 5'7 man who has to climb up a drainpipe to make a grand entrance. Nat challenges Death to a game of gin rummy to buy him a little bit of extra time on earth, and Nat beats Death easily. Death's image of self-confidence is destroyed by Nat. Also, Death's self-aggrandizement and arguments with Nat about petty things about his height suggest that the persona of awesomeness and terror Death has tried to cultivate is a shell that hides vulnerable insecurities.