Othello and Death Knocks: Characters Who Misread Themselves
This essay examines the theme of self-ignorance in Shakespeare's Othello and Woody Allen's comedic play Death Knocks, arguing that both central characters are undone by their inability to see themselves clearly. Othello's insecurities about his race and age make him vulnerable to Iago's manipulation, ultimately leading to the tragic death of Desdemona. Death, in Allen's play, mistakes himself for an all-powerful figure, only to be humiliated by an ordinary man in a game of gin rummy. Despite the vast tonal difference between the two works, both rely on a discrepancy between a character's self-image and reality to generate their central dramatic tension.
- Introduction: The Flaw of Self-Ignorance: Both characters share a fatal blindness to themselves
- Othello's Insecurity and Iago's Manipulation: Othello's pride and self-doubt enable Iago's scheme
- Blindness to Others as an Extension of Self-Blindness: Othello trusts Iago over Desdemona fatally
- Death Knocks: Comedy Through a Deflated Self-Image: Death's grandiose self-image collapses before Nat
- Comparing Drama and Comedy Through Self-Delusion: Both works dramatize the gap between self-image and reality
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The thesis is focused and comparative, identifying a single unifying theme — self-ignorance — that bridges two very different texts and tones.
- The paper uses direct quotations from both primary texts to support its claims, grounding interpretive statements in textual evidence.
- The conclusion draws the two works together effectively, showing how the same dramatic mechanism (gap between self-image and reality) produces tragedy in one work and comedy in the other.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates comparative literary analysis: it places two thematically related but tonally opposite texts alongside each other to illuminate a shared structural device. Rather than treating the works separately, it builds toward a synthesis in the final paragraph, showing how genre difference does not preclude thematic similarity.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a joint thesis introducing both characters. It then develops the Othello analysis across two paragraphs, examining Othello's pride, his susceptibility to Iago, and his misplaced trust. Two shorter paragraphs follow on Death Knocks, tracing Death's comic deflation. The conclusion brings both works together under the unifying theme of the gap between self-perception and reality.
Introduction: The Flaw of Self-Ignorance
A tragic hero is traditionally defined as a great man brought low by a single, 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. All of these flaws, however, spring from a single, larger tragic deficiency: Othello does not see himself clearly, and so he does not see the world clearly. Although many people esteem Othello, he instead focuses on those who look down upon him — such as Brabantio, his racist father-in-law, who makes many disparaging statements about Othello's skin color, even though most of Venice holds nothing but praise for the Moorish general. "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 highly sensitive to dishonor, which makes him willing to believe Iago.
Similarly, the character of Death in Woody Allen's play Death Knocks does not see himself as the world sees him. Death believes himself to be terrifying and all-powerful, yet he is really a rather short man who clumsily shimmies up a drainpipe to claim the soul of the human character in the play. Both works, despite their radically different tones, are united by this theme: their central characters are undone by an inability to know themselves.
Works Cited
Allen, Woody. Death Knocks.
Shakespeare, William. Othello. MIT Shakespeare Homepage.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.