Custom Written Term Papers: Othello’s Involved Imagery :: Othello essays

Othellos Involved Imagery The intricate imagery peppering the language of the characters in Shakespeares drama Othello is deserving of our particular consideration in this paper. It has significant meaning, and nearly expresses a life of its own. The leans imagery is oftentimes reflective of the fortunes of the protagonist. As the Moors place declines, the quality of the imagery in the play declines. In The Riverside Shakespeare Frank Kermode explains the relationship between imagery and Othellos jealousy It is very important to gain that Othellos self-estimate one not easily jealious, but, being wrought, / Perplexed in the extreme (V.ii.345-46) is, as Bradley says, perfectly just, and perfectly consistent with the release of unsuspected coarseness of language and imagery under the shock of discovering infidelity in the loved one. The peculiar pain of knowledgeable jealousy is deeply involved with the excremental aspect of the sexual organs, and the emotion in betrayal i n a supremely intimate trust is involved with agonizing associations of filth and animality. (1200) A surprising, zoo-like variety of animal distress occur throughout the play. Kenneth Muir, in the Introduction to William Shakespeare Othello, explains the conversion of Othello through his increased use of animal imagery Those who have written on the imagery of the play have shown how the hold Iago has over Othello is illustrated by the language Shakespeare puts into their mouths. Both characters use a great deal of animal imagery, and it is interesting to note its distribution. Iagos occurs broadly in the first three Acts of the play he mentions, for example, ass, daws, flies, ram, jennet, guinea-hen, baboon, wild-cat, snipe, goats, monkeys, monster and wolves. Othello, on the other hand, who makes no use of animal imagery in the first devil Acts of the play, catches the trick from Iago in Acts III and IV. The fondness of both characters for mentioning repulsive animals and ins ects is one way by which Shakespeare shows the corruption of the Moors mind by his subordinate. (21-22) clean how strong a force is the imagery in this drama? Is it more powerful than the chorus in ancient Greek tragedy? H. S. Wilson in his phonograph record of literary criticism, On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, discusses the influence of the imagery of the play It has indeed been suggested that the logic of events in the play and of Othellos relation to them implies Othellos damnation, and that the deductive reasoning is pressed home with particular power in the imagery.