othello final essay

A Short Analysis of Othello’s Dying ‘I Kiss’d Thee Ere I Kill’d Thee’ Speech

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Soft you, a word or two before you go’: so begins Othello’s last major speech before he stabs himself. His last words, famously, are ‘I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee’. But between these two lines are a number of other noteworthy moments which call out for closer textual analysis. Let’s go through Othello’s speech, which can be found in Act 5 Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Othello , and offer a summary and analysis of his language and meaning as we go.

OTHELLO Soft you, a word or two before you go. I have done the state some service, and they know’t.

Lodovico has just come to arrest Othello for the murder of Desdemona. But once Lodovico has commanded Othello to accompany him to prison, Othello tells him to wait a moment (‘Soft you’).

The speech that follows is marked by understatement: Othello only wants ‘a word or two’, and he has done Venice ‘some service’, downplaying his important military role.

No more of that. I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely but too well;

Othello continues his modest understatement of his achievements (‘No more of that’), instead requesting of Lodovico that, when he records this sad business in his letters, he ‘tells it like it is’. That is, he wants Lodovico not to ‘extenuate’ or tone down anything or let Othello off the hook where he deserves criticism, but at the same time, he doesn’t want Lodovico to exaggerate anything Othello has done out of malice or dislike of him. In short, be fair and true to the events.

If Lodovico does this, he will show that Othello was someone who didn’t love wisely, but loved too much, too intensely. As E. A. J. Honigmann observes in his notes to the excellent Arden edition, Othello: Revised Edition (The Arden Shakespeare Third Series) , Othello is attempting a subtle form of displacement with that ‘one’ here: he is not speaking of his crimes using the more personal ‘I’ and ‘me’.

Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought Perplex’d in the extreme; of one whose hand, Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe;

Othello maintains that he was not someone who was easily made jealous, but when he was worked (‘wrought’, i.e., by Iago) into a state of jealousy, he became bewildered and distracted to an extreme degree (‘perplex’d’ here means not just ‘puzzled’, the modern sense, but also ‘distracted’: Othello became fixated on Desdemona’s possible infidelity).

Othello says he was like a lowly Indian who, not realising that pearls are precious, threw it away as worthless. This is how Othello treated Desdemona.

However – and this isn’t as well-known as it should be – there is some debate among Shakespeare scholars as to whether Othello talks of Indians or Judeans . The First Folio printing of Othello in 1623 has ‘Iudean’, i.e., Judean, which may be a misprint for ‘Indean’, i.e., Indian.

Alternatively, Shakespeare may really have written ‘Judean’, to refer to Judas, the traitor who threw away Jesus’ life by betraying him to the Romans. Indeed, ‘Judean’ would make sense in light of ‘base’, which suggests craven, cowardly, or immoral: all words which are applicable to Judas.

We would favour Judean over Indian , for these reasons, but also because of ‘Richer than all his tribe’: ‘the tribe of Judea’ is a well-known Biblical phrase, whereas Indian tribe here is far less precise or persuasive.

of one whose subdued eyes, Albeit unused to the melting mood, Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees Their medicinal gum.

Othello describes his eyes as ‘subdued’: not prone to crying or ‘melting’ in tears. But after he had thrown away Desdemona, his ‘pearl’ (and note the colour connotations of whiteness here), he cried as quickly as the trees of Arabia drip their gum. (Honigmann suggests that Shakespeare, or Othello, has myrrh trees in mind here, given the use of ‘Arabian’ and ‘medicinal’.)

Set you down this; And say besides, that in Aleppo once, Where a malignant and a turban’d Turk Beat a Venetian and traduced the state, I took by the throat the circumcised dog, And smote him, thus.

Stabs himself

Othello tells Lodovico to write down everything Othello has just told him. And then to add that, in Aleppo once, Othello once grabbed a Turk by the throat (a Turk who had beaten a Venetian) and hit him, much like this – and then Othello stabs himself.

Note how, in this scenario, he is both himself (the man doing the smiting, as he was back in Aleppo) and the Turk (the man who was smitten or struck). The intention is to contrast Othello’s former noble behaviour (when he vanquished the enemies of Christian Europe) with his descent into self-destruction.

LODOVICO O bloody period!

GRATIANO All that’s spoke is marr’d.

Lodovico and Gratiano react in shock to what they have seen and heard: Othello’s death (‘period’ means ‘end’ here, i.e., the conclusion or end of a journey) and everything Othello has said to them (‘marr’d’ is ‘bad’ or ‘awful’).

OTHELLO I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee: no way but this; Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.

Falls on the bed, and dies

In his dying words, Othello addresses the dead Desdemona. In other words: ‘I kissed you before I killed you, just like this. And now I kill myself, dying as I kiss you again.’ (Although it isn’t included in the stage directions, the implication is that Othello kisses Desdemona right before he dies.)

‘I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee’: the line is memorable for a number of reasons. First, it contrasts what Freud would call Eros with Thanatos , love with murder, life with death, sex and the creative urge with killing and the destructive urge. Second, of course, although kissing and killing are so markedly different as to be almost opposites, their sounds sync up here, thanks to the alliteration of kiss’d and kill’d .

But finally, if indeed Shakespeare meant ‘Judean’ rather than ‘Indian’ in that earlier speech (‘of one whose hand, / Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away / Richer than all his tribe’), the idea of kissing Desdemona before killing her mirrors Judas’ kiss, whereby Judas betrayed Jesus to the Romans by identifying him in public by kissing him, leading to Jesus’ arrest and execution.

Othello’s ‘I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee’ speech is one of his most famous, and one of the most celebrated dying speeches in all of Shakespeare.

In his 1927 essay ‘ Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca ’, T. S. Eliot identified Othello’s flair for self-dramatisation in this speech: he is trying to ‘escape reality’, as Eliot puts it, by taking refuge in his glorious past and tearing his mind from his horrendous crime (the killing of his innocent wife). One of the most tragic things about Othello’s last speech is his desperate desire to shore up something of his military reputation, even though he knows, in truth, that it is now in tatters.

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Type your email…

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Othello

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Othello

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 0 )

Of all Shakespeare’s tragedies . . . Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. From the moment when the temptation of the hero begins, the reader’s heart and mind are held in a vice, experiencing the extremes of pity and fear, sympathy and repulsion, sickening hope and dreadful expectation. Evil is displayed before him, not indeed with the profusion found in King Lear, but forming, as it were, the soul of a single character, and united with an intellectual superiority so great that he watches its advance fascinated and appalled. He sees it, in itself almost irresistible, aided at every step by fortunate accidents and the innocent mistakes of its victims. He seems to breathe an atmosphere as fateful as that of King Lear , but more confined and oppressive, the darkness not of night but of a close-shut murderous room. His imagination is excited to intense activity, but it is the activity of concentration rather than dilation.

—A. C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy

Between William Shakespeare’s most expansive and philosophical tragedies— Hamlet and King Lear —is Othello, his most constricted and heart-breaking play. Othello is a train wreck that the audience horrifyingly witnesses, helpless to prevent or look away. If Hamlet is a tragedy about youth, and Lear concerns old age, Othello is a family or domestic tragedy of a middle-aged man in which the fate of kingdoms and the cosmos that hangs in the balance in Hamlet and Lear contracts to the private world of a marriage’s destruction. Following his anatomizing of the painfully introspective intellectual Hamlet, Shakespeare, at the height of his ability to probe human nature and to dramatize it in action and language, treats Hamlet’s temperamental opposite—the man of action. Othello is decisive, confident, and secure in his identity, duty, and place in the world. By the end of the play, he has brought down his world around him with the relentless force that made him a great general turned inward, destroying both what he loved best in another and in himself. That such a man should fall so far and so fast gives the play an almost unbearable momentum. That such a man should unravel so completely, ushered by jealousy and hatred into a bestial worldview that cancels any claims of human virtue and self-less devotion, shocks and horrifies. Othello is generally regarded as Shakespeare’s greatest stage play, the closest he would ever come to conforming to the constrained rules of Aristotelian tragedy. The intensity and focus of Othello is unalleviated by subplots, comic relief, or any mitigation or consolation for the deterioration of the “noble Moor” and his collapse into murder and suicide. At the center of the play’s intrigue is Shakespeare’s most sinister and formidable conceptions of evil in Iago, whose motives and the wellspring of his villainy continue to haunt audiences and critics alike. Indeed, the psychological resonances of the drama, along with its provocative racial and gender themes, have caused Othello, perhaps more than any other of Shakespeare’s plays, to reverberate the loudest with current audiences and commentators. As scholar Edward Pechter has argued, “During the past twenty-five years or so, Othello has become the Shakespearean tragedy of choice, replacing King Lear in the way Lear had earlier replaced Hamlet as the play that speaks most directly and powerfully to current interests.”

Shakespeare derived his plot from Giraldi Cinthio’s “Tale of the Moor,” in the story collection Hecatommithi (1565), reshaping Cinthio’s sensational tale of jealousy, intrigue, and murder in several key ways. In Cinthio’s story, Alfiero, the scheming ensign, lusts after the Moor’s wife, named Disdemona, and after she spurns his advances, Alfiero seeks vengeance by accusing her of adultery with Cassio, the Moor’s lieutenant. Alfiero, like Iago, similarly arouses the Moor’s suspicions by stealing Disdemona’s handkerchief and planting it in Cassio’s bed-room. However, the Moor and Alfiero join forces to kill Disdemona, beating her to death with a stocking filled with sand before pulling down the ceiling on her dead body to conceal the crime as an accident. The Moor is eventually captured, tortured, and slain by Disdemona’s relatives, while the ensign dies during torture for another crime. What is striking about Shakespeare’s alteration of Cinthio’s grisly tale of murder and villainy is the shift of emphasis to the provocation for the murder, the ennobling of Othello as a figure of great stature and dignity to underscore his self-destruction, and the complication of motive for the ensign’s actions. Cinthio’s version of Iago is conventionally driven by jealousy of a superior and lust for his wife. Iago’s motivation is anything but explainable in conventional terms. Dramatically, Shakespeare turns the focus of the play from the shocking crime to its causes and psychic significance, trans-forming Cinthio’s intrigue story of vile murder into one of the greatest dramatic meditations on the nature of love and its destruction.

What makes Othello so unique structurally (and painful to witness) is that it is a tragedy built on a comic foundation. The first two acts of the play enact the standard pattern of Shakespeare’s romantic comedies. The young Venetian noblewoman, Desdemona, has eloped with the middle-aged Othello, the military commander of the armed forces of Venice. Their union is opposed by Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, and by a rival for Desdemona, Roderigo, who in the play’s opening scenes are both provoked against Othello by Iago. Desdemona and Othello, therefore, face the usual challenges of the lovers in a Shakespearean comedy who must contend with the forces of authority, custom, and circumstances allied against their union. The romantic climax comes in the trial scene of act 1, in which Othello success-fully defends himself before the Venetian senate against Brabantio’s charge that Othello has beguiled his daughter, “stol’n from me, and corrupted / By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks.” Calmly and courteously Othello recounts how, despite the differences of age, race, and background, he won Desdemona’s heart by recounting the stories of his exotic life and adventures: “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, / And I loved her that she did pity them.” Wonder at Othello’s heroic adventures and compassion for her sympathy have brought the two opposites together—the young, inexperienced Venetian woman and the brave, experienced outsider. Desdemona finally, dramatically appears before the senate to support Othello’s account of their courtship and to balance her obligation to her father and now to her husband based on the claims of love:

My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty: To you I am bound for life and education; My life and education both do learn me How to respect you; you are the lord of duty; I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband; And so much duty as my mother show’d To you, preferring you before her father, So much I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor, my lord.

Both Desdemona and Othello defy by their words and gestures the calumnies heaped upon them by Roderigo and Brabantio and vindicate the imperatives of the heart over parental authority and custom. As in a typical Shakespearean comedy, love, tested, triumphs over all opposition.

Vindicated by the duke of Venice and the senate, Othello, accompanied by Desdemona, takes up his military duties in the face of a threatened Turkish invasion, and the lovers are given a triumphal wedding-like procession and marriage ceremony when they disembark on Cyprus. The storm that divides the Venetian fleet also disperses the Turkish threat and clears the way for the lovers’ happy reunion and peaceful enjoyment of their married state. First Cassio lands to deliver the news of Othello’s marriage and, like the best man, supplies glowing praise for the groom and his bride; next Desdemona, accompanied by Iago and his wife, Emilia, enters but must await news of the fate of Othello’s ship. Finally, Othello arrives giving him the opportunity to renew his marriage vows to Desdemona:

It gives me wonder great as my content To see you here before me. O my soul’s joy, If after every tempest come such calms, May the wind blow till they have wakened death, And let the labouring barque climb hills of seas Olympus-high, and duck again as low As hell’s from heaven. If it were now to die ’Twere now to be most happy, for I fear My soul hath content so absolute That not another comfort like to this Succeeds in unknown fate.

The scene crowns love triumphant. The formerly self-sufficient Othello has now staked his life to his faith in Desdemona and their union, and she has done the same. The fulfillment of the wedding night that should come at the climax of the comedy is relocated to act 2, with the aftermath of the courtship and the wedding now taking center stage. Having triumphantly bested the social and natural forces aligned against them, having staked all to the devotion of the other, Desdemona and Othello will not be left to live happily ever after, and the tragedy will grow out of the conditions that made the comedy. Othello, unlike the other Shakespearean comedies, adds three more acts to the romantic drama, shifting from comic affirmation to tragic negation.

Iago reviews Othello’s performance as a lover by stating, “O, you are well tuned now, / But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music.” Iago will now orchestrate discord and disharmony based on a life philosophy totally opposed to the ennobling and selfless concept of love demonstrated by the newlyweds. As Iago asserts to Roderigo, “Virtue? A fig!” Self-interest is all that matters, and love is “merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will.” Othello and Desdemona cannot possibly remain devoted to each other, and, as Iago concludes, “If sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt an err-ing barbarian and a super-subtle Venetian be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her.” The problem of Iago’s motivation to destroy Othello and Desdemona is not that he has too few motives but too many. He offers throughout the play multiple justifi cations for his intrigue: He has been passed over in favor of Cassio; he suspects the Moor and Cassio with his wife, Emilia; he is envious of Cassio’s open nature; and he is desirous of Desdemona himself. No single motive is relied on for long, and the gap between cause and effect, between the pettiness of Iago’s grudges and the monstrousness of his behavior, prompted Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a memorable phrase to characterize Iago’s “motiveless malignity.” There is in Iago a zest for villainy and a delight in destruction, driven more by his hatred and contempt for any who oppose his conception of jungle law than by a conventional naturalistic explanation based on jealousy or envy. Moreover, Shakespeare, by deliberately clouding the issue of Iago’s motive, finds ever more sinister threats in such a character’s apparently bottomless and unmerited hatred and capacity for evil.

Iago will direct the remainder of the play, constructing Othello’s down-fall out of the flimsiest evidence and playing on the strengths and weaknesses of Othello’s nature and the doubts that erode Othello’s faith in Desdemona. Act 3, one of the wonders of the stage, anatomizes Othello’s psychic descent from perfect contentment in his new wife to complete loathing, from a worldview in which everything is as it appears to one in which nothing is as it seems. Iago leads Othello to suspect that love and devotion are shams disguising the basest of animalistic instincts. Misled by the handkerchief, his love token to Desdemona, that Iago has planted in Cassio’s room and by a partially overheard conversation between Iago and Cassio, Othello, by the end of act 3, forsakes his wife and engages himself in a perverse version of the marriage ceremony of act 2 to Iago. As the pair kneels together, they exchange vows:

Iago: Witness you ever-burning lights above, You elements that clip us round about, Witness that here Iago doth give up The execution of his wit, hands, heart To wronged Othello’s service. Let him command, And to obey shall be in me remorse, What bloody business ever.

Othello: I greet thy love, Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous, And will upon the instant put thee to’t. Within these three days let me hear thee say That Cassio’s not alive.

Iago: My friend is dead. ’Tis done at your request; but let her live.

Othello: Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her, damn her! Come, go with me apart. I will withdraw To furnish me with some swift means of death For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.

Iago: I am your own for ever.

This scene has suggested to some critics that Iago’s true motivation for destroying the marriage of Desdemona and Othello is a repressed homosexual love for Othello. An equal case can be made that Iago here completes his role as Vice, borrowed from the medieval morality plays, sealing the Faustian bargain for Othello’s soul in this mock or black marriage scene.

The play moves relentlessly from here to catastrophe as Othello delivers justice to those he is convinced have wronged him. As he attempts to carry out his execution of Desdemona, she for the first time realizes his charges against her and his utter delusion. Ignoring her appeals for mercy and avowals of innocence, Othello smothers her moments before Emilia arrives with the proof of Desdemona’s innocence and Iago’s villainy. Othello must now face the realization of what he has done. He turns to Iago, who has been brought before him to know the reason for his actions. Iago replies: “Demand me nothing; what you know, you know: / From this time forth I never will speak word.” By Iago’s exiting the stage, closing access to his motives, the focus remains firmly on Othello, not as Iago’s victim, but as his own. His final speech mixes together the acknowledgment of what he was and what he has become, who he is and how he would like to be remembered:

I have done the state some service, and they know’t. No more of that. I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely but too well, Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought, Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand, Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe.

Consistent with his role as guardian of order in the state, Othello carries out his own execution, by analogy judging his act as a violation reflected by Venice’s savage enemy:

And say besides, that in Aleppo once, Where a malignant and a turban’d Turk Beat a Venetian and tradu’d the state, I took by th’ throat the circumcisèd dog, And smote him—thus.

Othello, likewise, has “tradu’d the state” and has changed from noble and valiant Othello to a beast, with the passion that ennobled him shown as corrosive and demeaning. He carries out his own execution for a violation that threatens social and psychic order. For the onlookers on stage, the final tableau of the dead Desdemona and Othello “poisons sight” and provokes the command to “Let it be hid.” The witnesses on stage cannot compute rationally what has occurred nor why, but the audience has been given a privileged view of the battle between good and evil worked out in the private recesses of a bedroom and a human soul.

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

Othello Oxford Lecture by Emma Smith

Dive into the world of Othello as you explore the timeless themes of love, jealousy, betrayal and the destructive power of manipulation.

Othello: Plot Summary

Immerse yourself in the tragic story of Othello, a Shakespearean masterpiece that describes the consequences of uncontrollable emotions and the fragility of trust.

Full Book Summary
Summary by Chapters

Othello: Characters

Enter the world of Othello and meet many unforgettable characters

Othello: Themes

Explore deep themes in Shakespeare’s Othello, from human nature to the destructive power of unbridled emotions.

Othello: Literary Devices

Shakespeare masterfully uses a number of literary devices in Othello, adding depth and complexity to the play’s themes and characters.

Othello: Quotes

Powerful and poignant quotes from Shakespeare’s Othello, highlighting the themes and character of the play.

Othello: Infographics

A Visualization of the World of Othello: An infographic that provides a key insight into the play.

The Mastermind of Othello: A Closer Look at the Life and Legacy of William Shakespeare.

Our writers will help you with any type of work on the topic of "Othello"

Dive Deeper into Othello

Free essay examples database

Questions & Answers

Featured Essays

2 pages / 899 words

3 pages / 1469 words

3 pages / 1405 words

3 pages / 1487 words

2 pages / 1125 words

5.5 pages / 2463 words

Recommended for You

by Mary Shelley

by Colleen Hoover

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Instructions Followed To The Letter
Deadlines Met At Every Stage
Unique And Plagiarism Free

by William Shakespeare

Othello summary and analysis of act v, act v, scene i: cyprus. a street..

Iago has Roderigo poised and ready to pounce on Cassio , and kill him; if either of them is killed, it is to Iago's benefit, although he would like to have both of them disposed of, so that his devices might not be discovered. Roderigo and Cassio fight, and both are injured; Othello hears the scuffle, is pleased, and then leaves to finish off Desdemona . Iago enters, pretending that he knows nothing of the scuffle; Gratiano and Lodovico also stumble upon the scene, having no idea what has happened. Roderigo is still alive, so Iago feigns a quarrel, and finishes him off. Bianca comes by, and sees Cassio wounded; Iago makes some remark to implicate her; Cassio is carried away, and Roderigo is already dead. Emilia also comes in, and pins more blame on Bianca; she has done nothing, but Iago has some quick work to do if he is to exonerate himself in this mess.

Here, again, Iago addresses the audience directly about his intentions and actions; Iago is only truly honest with the audience, and hides something from each of the players. This creates an undercurrent of dramatic irony throughout the play, since the audience knows all of his plans, and individual characters know nothing, like Othello, or only a small portion of it, like Roderigo. Iago's tendency to disclose himself to the audience gives him a connection to the audience that Othello does not have; although Othello is the title character of the play, Iago has more lines and more interaction with the audience. It is Othello's tragedy that is the focus of the play, but Iago succeeds in stealing the show; he is one of those peculiar villains, like Richard III , who is more compelling, complex, and sometimes more interesting than any of the more noble characters he deceives.

Here, Iago again proves himself a consummate actor. This scene again brings up the theme of appearance vs. reality; for though Iago claims to know nothing of this battle, and be merely discovering it, he is the mastermind of the entire situation. Iago is many selves in this act; he is friend and advisor to Roderigo, then betrayer and murderer of Roderigo, consoler of Cassio, and the lead officer in this crisis. He uses misrepresentation to fill each of these roles as best he can, and not let the others know of his true plans and character. And he nearly succeeds.

Act V, scene ii: A bedchamber in the castle: DESDEMONA in bed asleep; a light burning.

Othello enters Desdemona's room while she is asleep; and though she is beautiful, and appears innocent, he is determined to kill her. He justifies this with images, metaphors, and ideas of her rebirth after death, and though his rage is softened, he is still much mistaken about her. Desdemona awakens, and he tells her to repent of any sins before she dies; she believes there is nothing she can do to stop him from killing her, but continues to assert her innocence. Othello tells her that he found her handkerchief with Cassio, though Desdemona insists it must not be true; she pleads with Othello not to kill her, but he begins to smother her. Emilia knocks, curious about what is going on; Othello lets her in, but tries to conceal Desdemona, who he thinks is already dead. Emilia brings the news of Roderigo's death, and Cassio's wounding.

Emilia soon finds out that Desdemona is nearly dead, by Othello's hand; Desdemona speaks her last words, and then Emilia pounces on Othello for committing this horrible crime. Othello is not convinced of his folly until Iago confesses his part, and Cassio speaks of the use of the handkerchief; then, Othello is overcome with grief.

Iago stabs Emilia for telling all about his plots, and then Emilia dies; the Venetian nobles reveal that Brabantio , Desdemona's father, is dead, and so cannot be grieved by this tragedy now. Othello stabs Iago when he is brought back in; Othello then tells all present to remember him how he is, and kills himself. Cassio becomes the temporary leader of the troops at Cyprus, and Lodovico and Gratiano are to carry the news of the tragedy back to Venice. Iago is taken into custody, and his crimes will be judged back in Venice.

Othello's farewell to Desdemona is a return to his former eloquence, though it is also a farewell to his own peace and his life. Though he believes Desdemona's soul to be black, he can only focus on her whiteness; he pledges not to mar "that whiter skin of hers than snow," although he is determined to take her life (V.ii.4). Othello's allusion to Prometheus explains his wish to put out Desdemona's light in order to restore her former innocence; even when the act of murder is drawing near, Othello seems intent upon dwelling in beautiful images and poetic metaphors to hide the ugliness and wrongness of his deed. And where before Othello felt only hatred and anger, now he is forced to feel his love, along with his determination to see Desdemona die.

Here, Desdemona learns too late of the trap that was set for her with the handkerchief; this symbol of her love has come back to condemn her, just as all her protestations of her love and devotion for Othello do not soften his resolve to kill her. Othello refers to the belief of the time, that to die with all one's sins repented of meant that the soul was saved for heaven; that he asks Desdemona if she has prayed, and urges her to do so if she hasn't, shows a strange kind of mercy. But Othello takes Desdemona's cries for mercy, and her remorse at Cassio's misfortune, as proof of her indiscretion; although his rage is tempered, he is still set on having her dead.

Othello's reaction after smothering Desdemona shows an even greater rift between his resolve and his emotion. He does not want to admit that Desdemona is dead; he speaks to her, ponders her stillness, and seems hysterical. He is also grieved by this action; "methinks it should be now a huge eclipse of sun and moon," he says, referring back to the light/dark imagery of the play to communicate how unsettled and unhinged he feels (V.ii.97-98).

Desdemona's last words are especially cryptic; when asked who killed her, she remarks, "nobody, I myself...Commend me to my kind lord" (V.ii.123). Taking into account her resigned behavior before her death, she might be trying to absolve her husband of blame with her last breath, or trying to express her love for the one who has killed her. If this is so, it certainly does not sit well with her line, "falsely, falsely murdered," which seems to refer both to Desdemona's death, and to Emilia's mention of the death of Roderigo and wounding of Cassio (V.ii.116). However, Desdemona's goodness is a beacon in the play, and must remain unsullied - even beyond reason - if the full gravity of the play is to be achieved. Modern interpretations of Desdemona may find fault with her resignation, but here she is a tool of tragedy.

Othello's reaction upon Desdemona's death is a mixture of shock, hysterics, and anger. The greatest irony of the play is that it is only after killing Desdemona that Othello learns the truth about her; he finds out that she was blameless, and that Iago was manipulating him into believing otherwise. Still, even after the murder is exposed, Othello cannot let go of the idea that Desdemona really did cheat on him; but his fixation on the handkerchief is ended when Emilia reveals how the token was used to make him believe in the affair.

Emilia's fate is parallel to Desdemona's; although she was less naive than Desdemona, she too was betrayed by her husband. Desdemona might be a more central figure, but Emilia is the play's conscience; she makes Othello finally feel remorse for his act, and undoes some of the damage that Iago's allegations wrought, which not even Desdemona was able to allay. Emilia knows, almost as well as her husband, how human nature works; she knows of husbands' jealousies, of how men believe women are less human, and that people are naturally prone to folly. She is the sole voice of reason in the play, the only person besides Desdemona who is uncorrupted by Iago's manipulations.

At last, Othello's grief comes to its fruition, as his reason and speech are finally fully restored. "Roast me in sulfur! Wash me in steep-down gulfs of molten fire!" Othello laments, the images of pain and torment reflecting the feelings which are coming over him (V.ii.278-279). He juxtaposes heaven and hell to explain his despair, and the virtue he knows again that Desdemona did possess. But though Othello has some sense again, he still wounds Iago; this act seems to be done as a distraction of his pain, and makes Othello's character seem even more deeply flawed.

Othello insists that he is an "honorable murderer", but he is driven to kill out of his own shortcomings (V.ii.293). Although his beautiful language and his remorse make him seem noble again, Othello still denies the character flaws that have led him to this end. Iago was definitely the catalyst for Desdemona's death and Othello's jealous rages; but the seeds of jealousy and suspicion were already inherent in Othello, and only had to be coaxed forth. It certainly makes the resolution of the play more neat to believe that Othello is returned to his nobility; but, since he still denies the deep wrong he has committed, and his own part in this dirty act, he cannot be fully redeemed or forgiven.

Of course, all threads are wrapped up in this last scene of the play; letters are produced that expose Iago's part in these unfortunate events, even though these letters have not been mentioned or shown earlier in the play. Cassio seems to have been kept alive merely to testify about his part in this whole debacle; and Lodovico and Gratiano are conveniently there as witnesses of the Venetian state, with Montano representing the law and order of Cyprus. Although the plot is brought to its conclusion in this last scene, there are still questions and issues to consider, especially in Othello's last speech.

Othello has always been concerned with his reputation and public image; this was one of his justifications for killing Desdemona. His last speech reveals that he is still fixated on this cause; "speak of me as I am," he tells them, yet there is great irony in this statement, since he goes on to misrepresent himself and his motives. He says that he is "not easily jealous," although it is apparent from Iago's first insinuations that he is very jealous and possessive of his wife. He also says he is one who "drops tears as fast as the Arabian trees their med'cinable gum"; however, Othello found it difficult to be sorry for killing his wife, until he found out that his motives were wrong (V.ii.341-350).

This last speech is filled with heroic language; he reduces his foul, treacherous murder to "[throwing] a pearl away richer than all his tribe," a beautiful metaphor (though laden with racist overtones) that hardly does justice to the brutality and cruelty of Othello's behavior (V.ii.346). Othello tries to die with honor and some reputation intact; but his speech shows that his preoccupation with his image is still keeping him from the truth, as is his penchant for storytelling. Still, Othello is uniquely human, like Hamlet; his flaws and follies make him a compelling tragic figure, and his more noble aspects make him sympathetic. Although Iago steals most of the spotlight during the play, in the end, the tragedy is Othello's; it is his pain, folly, and misfortune which reverberate, and make this drama so compelling and so telling of human nature.

GradeSaver will pay $15 for your literature essays

Othello Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Othello is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

what attributers of the green eyed monster jealousy are made painful apparent as the scene progresses

Jealousy is the green-eyed monster in this scene. In Act 3 scene 3 Othello pretty much displays his jealousy,

desdemonas speech here confirms the masterly nature of iagos plot with what words does she assure cassio that she will do her best to get him reinstated

What is your question here?

why does othello ignore the cries for help?

Othello is hurdling towards self-destruction: sadly, by the deaths of people closest to him. Like tragic heroes such as Macbeth, Othello's senses are dull to tragedy and screams of terror. Roderigo and Cassio fight, and both are injured; Othello...

Study Guide for Othello

Othello study guide contains a biography of William Shakespeare, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About Othello
Othello Summary
Othello Video
Character List

Essays for Othello

Othello essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Othello by William Shakespeare.

Iago and Edmund: The Silence and Complexity of Evil
Unity in Shakespeare's Tragedies
Inevitability and the Nature of Shakespeare's Tragedies
Witchy Women: Female Magic and Otherness in Western Literature
Racism in Othello

Lesson Plan for Othello

About the Author
Study Objectives
Common Core Standards
Introduction to Othello
Relationship to Other Books
Bringing in Technology
Notes to the Teacher
Related Links
Othello Bibliography

E-Text of Othello

Othello e-text contains the full text of Othello by William Shakespeare.

List of Characters

Wikipedia Entries for Othello

Introduction

Othello’s Fall From Grace and Redemption at the End of the Play Essay

To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
As a template for you assignment

Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are often represented as noble characters who suffer disaster and who are not to blame because of their naivety. At the same time, the brilliance of the tragedy is confined to the flaws of the characters which prevents them from making the right decision. Othello is also in front of the choice whether to trust his wife or listen to his ill-famed tempter. Othello, therefore, is a tragic hero who confronts the strong force of his jealousy and excess trustfulness.

The rapid development of the actions in Shakespeare’s play reveals Othello’s gradual fall from grace as a result of his growing jealousy. At the end of the play, Othello’s realizes that his naivety and lack of confidences in his wife’ innocence and fidelity. The hero attempts to receive one more change to redeem and suffers because of the inevitability of the outcomes of his personal weaknesses.

Othello is a tragic hero whose nobleness and naivety prevents him from making the right decisions. The protagonist, therefore, is a soldierly character who belongs to a primitive race and is guided by emotions rather than by his mind. Although his has a jealous and passionate nature, Othello rejects his impulsivity: “… Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them. – Good signior, you shall more command with years than with your weapons” (Shakespeare 20).

By pronouncing these phrases, one can call Othello as a wise personality whose nobleness and grace makes him reasonable and impassionate. At a glance, Othello meet al the requirements of a noble figure. He takes the noble position of the General of the Republic of Venice and he is always aware of the responsibilities he takes.

Despite these words, the hero is soon eager to take revenge on his wife for reasons that would have never been counted as a proof by a reasonable and sensible mind. Placing faith in Iago, whom he considers to be committed to the highest moral values, Othello makes an error brining him to fall.

The wrong decisions made of Othello are due to the flaws in his character. The hero suffers tremendously because of his ill-famed nature and impossibility to resist his primitive impulses. The downfall of Othello lies in his extreme disposition to jealousy and excess confidence in Iago’s honesty. He overtly accepts Iago’s false statements as the truth leading to disaster of the self. Being extremely disposed to deception, he is furious about the facts he learn from Iago and acts immediately, with no delay and little reflection.

Othelo’s simple way of thinking, as well as his extreme hatred to wife differs completely from the noble and wise statements at the end of the play: “She’s gone; I am abus’d, and my relief must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage, that we can call these delicate creatures ours and not their appetites.” (Shakespeare 112). Being under the influence of the Ancient, the protagonist fails to believe in his wife’s words and, because of the wrong choice, he commits the inevitable.

Regarding Othello’s actions described in the play, the hero’s mind, as represented by the poet, is very primitive and simple. He rarely delves into deep reflections concerning his deeds and actions. Therefore, when emotions ignite his imagination, it confuses his intellect. Despite his dignity and faith in honesty and honor, he has absolute trust where there is no place for hesitation. Similarly, other feelings he experiences are also absolute.

If he loves, it should be all absorbing, just like other emotions, such as jealousy, passion, and respect. Because of his primitive and one-side nature, the hero is absolutely sure that he has the right to take the position of a judge and punish his wife for betrayal. This major fault, therefore, lies in misplacing confidence in his companion Iago who is extremely villainous. Because of the simple nature, Othello is incapable of conceiving the intrigue around him.

As a result, the hero is overwhelmed with emotion s and hatred and neglects the values and honors in which he previously believed. In this respect, the play provides an picture of Othello’s suffering and the shifts occurred to the perception of the surrounding world: “…let her rot, and perish, and be damned to-night; for she shall not live: no, my heart is turned to stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand” (Shakespeare 157).

Any signs of reason and wisdom disappear as soon as Othello is obsessed with taking revenge on Desdemona’s betrayal. Accepting the seen for the truth, Othello puts all doubts aside and suffocates his wife.

Being completely fired with the jealousy and passion, Othello later realizes that the murder he committed is not justified. At the end of the play, he realizes that his strong dependence on Iago’s false honesty and authority prevented him from making personal judgment and decisions.

Realizing that all moral values her believes in were lost and, therefore, Othello is sure that death is the punishment he deserves for his villainous actions: “…you must speak of one that loved not wisely, but too well, of one not easily jealous, but being wrought….one whose hand…threw a pearl away rich than all his tribe…” (Shakespeare 234).

Learning the truth, Othello once again reveals his primitive and noble character. His sincerity and naivety ruins him and distracts him from the noble path, which is the main tragedy of the play. On the one hand, Othello’s absolute trust in fidelity, honesty, and love makes him a gracious character. However, failure to listen to his own mind prevents him from doing the right decisions in his life. On the other hand, Iago is a strong villainous force that takes advantage of the hero’s naïve and primitive nature to generate chaos and dishonesty.

In conclusion, it should be stressed that Othello is a classical tragic hero who fails to resist his primitive and jealous nature. He fails to trust to the self and is trapped within the Iago’s intrigues.

Being disposed to the Ancient’s influence, the hero fails to discover the truth and relieve his mind from hatred and fury. As a result, his falls from grace and his utmost feeling of honesty. With no reflection and judgment, Othello commits murder because he believes that his acts are those of a noble man. Desdemona, therefore, must die in not to betray other man.

At the end of the novel Othello realizes that his hasty actions are not justified. Guided by a splash of emotions, the hero neglects other opinions and puts his fate in the hands of his ill-famed companion. Overall, Shakespeare’s play provides an insight in the tragic events leading to redemption and reconciliation. At the same time, the story is a bright example of events that teach people be more reliant on personal opinion.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Othello . US: Plain Label Books, 1968. Print.

Play’s Plot Explored
Act 1 Scene 1
Act 1 Scene 2
Act 1 Scene 3
Act 2 Scenes 1-2
Act 2 Scene 3
Act‌ ‌3‌ ‌Scenes‌ ‌1-2
Act‌ ‌3‌ ‌Scene‌ ‌3
Act 3 Scene 4
Act‌ ‌4‌ ‌Scene‌ ‌1
Act 4 Scene 2
Act‌ ‌4‌ ‌Scene‌ ‌3
Act‌ ‌5‌ ‌Scene‌ ‌1
Act 5 Scene 2
Characters Analysis
Important Quotes
William Shakespeare
Theatre - Goldinis Mistress of the Inn and Voltaires Orphan of China
Shakespeare: Hamlet
Iago’s Motives in Shakespeare’s Othello Play
Character of Iago in "Othello" by Shakespeare Analysis
William Shakespeare's Othello
Different Types of Love Portrayed in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Term Paper
How the Glass Menagerie Illustrates the Breakup of Family Structures
Gertrude's Character in "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare
The Beggar King of Ithaca
The Paradox of Comedy: A Society's Watchdog and Entertainer
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, May 20). Othello’s Fall From Grace and Redemption at the End of the Play. https://ivypanda.com/essays/othellos-fall-from-grace-and-redemption-at-the-end-of-the-play-essay/

"Othello’s Fall From Grace and Redemption at the End of the Play." IvyPanda , 20 May 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/othellos-fall-from-grace-and-redemption-at-the-end-of-the-play-essay/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Othello’s Fall From Grace and Redemption at the End of the Play'. 20 May.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Othello’s Fall From Grace and Redemption at the End of the Play." May 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/othellos-fall-from-grace-and-redemption-at-the-end-of-the-play-essay/.

1. IvyPanda . "Othello’s Fall From Grace and Redemption at the End of the Play." May 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/othellos-fall-from-grace-and-redemption-at-the-end-of-the-play-essay/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Othello’s Fall From Grace and Redemption at the End of the Play." May 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/othellos-fall-from-grace-and-redemption-at-the-end-of-the-play-essay/.

Website navigation

Othello - Entire Play

Download othello.

Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015

PDF Download as PDF
DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) without line numbers Download as DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) without line numbers
DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) with line numbers Download as DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) with line numbers
HTML Download as HTML
TXT Download as TXT
XML Download as XML
TEISimple XML (annotated with MorphAdorner for part-of-speech analysis) Download as TEISimple XML (annotated with MorphAdorner for part-of-speech analysis)

Navigate this work

In Venice, at the start of Othello , the soldier Iago announces his hatred for his commander, Othello, a Moor. Othello has promoted Cassio, not Iago, to be his lieutenant.

Iago crudely informs Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, that Othello and Desdemona have eloped. Before the Venetian Senate, Brabantio accuses Othello of bewitching Desdemona. The Senators wish to send Othello to Cyprus, which is under threat from Turkey. They bring Desdemona before them. She tells of her love for Othello, and the marriage stands. The Senate agrees to let her join Othello in Cyprus.

In Cyprus, Iago continues to plot against Othello and Cassio. He lures Cassio into a drunken fight, for which Cassio loses his new rank; Cassio, at Iago’s urging, then begs Desdemona to intervene. Iago uses this and other ploys—misinterpreted conversations, insinuations, and a lost handkerchief—to convince Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are lovers. Othello goes mad with jealousy and later smothers Desdemona on their marriage bed, only to learn of Iago’s treachery. He then kills himself.

Stay connected

Find out what’s on, read our latest stories, and learn how you can get involved.

IMAGES

Shakespeare: Othello Essay
BE CURIOUS: Resources for A LEVEL LITB AQA Literature & AQA GCSE LANG
English Advanced Othello Essay
Othello Essay
A level Othello Example Essay
Shakespeare's Othello essay

VIDEO

Othello // Roderigo's Death
Othello Essay Guide
M4S AST pov
Thai Othello Championship Female Final
BA 3rd Semester
Norwegian Blitz Othello Championship 2007 Final#1 Vidar Albrigtsen

COMMENTS

A Short Analysis of Othello's Dying 'I Kiss'd Thee Ere I Kill'd Thee
In his 1927 essay 'Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca', T. S. Eliot identified Othello's flair for self-dramatisation in this speech: he is trying to 'escape reality', as Eliot puts it, by taking refuge in his glorious past and tearing his mind from his horrendous crime (the killing of his innocent wife). One of the most tragic ...
Othello
Expert Answers. Othello 's suicide signifies his acceptance of his crime of murdering Desdemona and his understanding that, although Iago manipulated him into his actions, he is ultimately the one ...
Othello Critical Evaluation
There is a reference to punishment for Iago, but Shakespeare dismisses the obvious villain so as to focus on Othello's final act of expiation. Cite this page as follows: "Othello - Critical ...
Analysis of William Shakespeare's Othello
Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare's Othello. Analysis of William Shakespeare's Othello By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 0). Of all Shakespeare's tragedies . . . Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. From the moment when the temptation of the hero begins, the reader's heart and mind are held in a vice, experiencing the ...
Othello
The final verdict upon Othello's character, despite what he claims in his final speech, is that he loved neither "wisely" nor "too well." Bibliography: Bloom, Harold, ed. William ...
Shakespeare's Othello essay, summary, quotes and character analysis
Timeline. Master Shakespeare's Othello using Absolute Shakespeare's Othello essay, plot summary, quotes and characters study guides. Plot Summary: A quick review of the plot of Othello including every important action in the play. An ideal introduction before reading the original text. Commentary: Detailed description of each act with ...
Shakespeare's Othello: Study Guide
6 min. 3,769. Welcome to the Othello study guide! Our team of writers has thoroughly explored the play and answered the most crucial questions about it. The author of Othello, William Shakespeare, was the most famous playwright of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It affected the play's themes and setting.
Othello Critical Essays
Topic #3. Othello is a play in which many contrasts affect the characters' ability to discern the difference between reality and illusion. Identify and trace the contrasts between black and ...
Othello Study Guide: Plot Summary, Analysis & Key Events
Act 5 of Othello is the final act of the play and brings the tragic story to a climactic conclusion and to highlight the destructive power of jealousy and manipulation. The scenes in this act are characterized by tension, suspense, and violence. ... Featured Essays. Causes of Desdemona's Murder in Othello. 1 pages / 533 words. The Outcomes Of ...
Othello : Essay Topics
Othello: Essay Topics 1) Some have said that the focus of Othello is not the title character, as is the case with Shakespeare's other great tragedies, Macbeth, King Lear, and Hamlet.Is Othello simply too one-dimensional to be considered a great tragic hero? Does his seemingly unrealistic gullibility lessen our interest in him and his suffering?
Othello Final Essay
Othello Final Essay. Othello example essay. Subject. AP English Literature & Composition. 999+ Documents. Students shared 3588 documents in this course. Level AP. School Kamiak High School - Mukilteo-WA. Academic year: 2024/2025. Uploaded by: Rui Chu.
Othello Study Guide
The Mastermind of Othello: A Closer Look at the Life and Legacy of William Shakespeare. Enhance your understanding of Shakespeare's Othello with this comprehensive study guide. Explore the plot, characters, themes, and literary analysis to deepen your appreciation of this timeless tragedy.
Othello Act V Summary and Analysis
Othello Summary and Analysis of Act V. Act V, scene i: Cyprus. A street. Summary. Iago has Roderigo poised and ready to pounce on Cassio, and kill him; if either of them is killed, it is to Iago's benefit, although he would like to have both of them disposed of, so that his devices might not be discovered. Roderigo and Cassio fight, and both ...
Othello's Fall From Grace and Redemption at the End of the Play Essay
The rapid development of the actions in Shakespeare's play reveals Othello's gradual fall from grace as a result of his growing jealousy. At the end of the play, Othello's realizes that his naivety and lack of confidences in his wife' innocence and fidelity. The hero attempts to receive one more change to redeem and suffers because of ...
Othello
Othello strikes Desdemona in Lodovico's presence, then rudely dismisses her, leaving in a jealous rage. Lodovico expresses his astonishment at the change in Othello. Act 4, scene 2 Othello questions Emilia about Cassio and Desdemona's relationship, acting as if Emilia is the mistress of a brothel and Desdemona one of her prostitutes ...
Othello Criticism
Essays on William Shakespeare's Othello - Criticism. ... The climax comes following the scene of final "proof", when Bianca has thrown the incriminating handkerchief back at Cassio, before Othello ...