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
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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.
Othello's Insecurity and Iago's Manipulation
At the beginning of the tragedy, the Moorish general Othello has won fame for his many exploits and earned the respect of whites who might otherwise be 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 in which 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, which makes 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 deeply in love with Desdemona, and has recently appointed Cassio to the very position in the Venetian army that Iago coveted. Iago clearly perceives Othello's insecurity and self-hatred. Even after Othello has won the trust and approval of Venice's councilmen for his marriage, he attempts to downplay the sensuality in his relationship with 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 he fears Desdemona will naturally seek the affections of a younger man. Iago plays upon this, suggesting that Othello murder Desdemona even before the thought 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 she has every reason to pursue Cassio, he sublimates this fear, with Iago's prodding, into a conviction that she has already betrayed him.
Death Knocks: Comedy Through a Deflated Self-Image
Woody Allen's Death Knocks is a comedy rather than a tragedy, yet it retains a key characteristic of the tragic form: a main character whose flaw is blindness to his own 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 his grand entrance. Nat challenges Death to a game of gin rummy to buy himself a little extra time on earth — and wins easily. Death's self-image of confidence is thoroughly destroyed by Nat. Furthermore, Death's self-aggrandizement and his petulant arguments with Nat over trivial matters, such as his height, suggest that the persona of awesome terror Death has tried to cultivate is a shell concealing deep, vulnerable insecurities.
Nat offers to allow Death to win his money back the following night, and Death immediately turns whining and petulant, complaining that he has nowhere to stay overnight without funds. Nat dismisses him with an insult, saying that the way Death plays gin rummy, Nat probably has a couple of extra years before Death will ever beat him. "He's such a schlep," sighs Nat as he picks up the phone and calls his friend Moe, completely unfazed by the entire encounter. Allen's comic portrayal of Death draws on a long tradition of personified Death figures in Western literature and theater, but inverts the convention by stripping the figure of all dignity.
Works Cited
Allen, Woody. Death Knocks.
Shakespeare, William. Othello. MIT Shakespeare Homepage.
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