Instead a mixture of lack of self-confidence and awareness of perilous social standing are behind Othello’s uneasiness, and this is what Iago exploits to turn him into a ‘green-eyed monster… of jealousy’.From another angle, if by act two Othello has this low opinion of Desdemona, it is surprising that in act I sc.3 he has already declared ‘My life upon her faith!’. On the other hand, Gardner’s ‘full portrait of a professional soldier’ does not seem to include the insecurity of Othello’s struggle to shake off the racial prejudice attached to all Moors. However, surely we can allow Othello to be a little over-aware of his dark skin in the intolerant world in which he lives. This ignorance is taken by Dexter as evidence of Othello’s arogance as he does not understand the woman whose praises he is at such pains to sing. ![]() As Anne Barto suggests, Othello and Desdemona seem to be in love without understanding each other, and that allows Othello to believe unlikely things of his spouse. He tells Desdemona in act II sc.1 that ’It gives me wonder great as my contentTo see you here before me’From this we can deduce that he is surprised at Desdemona’s obvious preference of him he expects her to fall in with traditional prejudices showing his low opinion of the woman he has married. He strikes at Othello’s deep sense of incongruity to pervert him from a man of good sense and reputation to one of treacherous insecurity who strikes out at what he sees as the source of his vulnerability. Iago suggests to him that it is odd for Desdemona ‘Not to affect many proposèd matches / Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,’ but instead to marry him behind her father’s back. Thus any narcissism found could initially be excused if it was evidence of Othello’s struggle to fit into Venetian society a black man in a white world would have to seem ‘extra-good’ if he was to be accepted.Othello’s insecurity stems from this racial disparity. In such situations Othello would have to work hard to dispel both an audience’s, and Venice’s inherent bias and create for himself a reputation for solidarity and reliability. ![]() ![]() He is associated with blackness, devilry, and all things animalistic and dark by his enemies, and yet this shows only the traditional Elizabethan suspicion of other races. He is ‘thick lips’, and a ‘black ram’ to Desdemona’s ‘white ewe.’ Iago especially attacks his race he is always ‘the moor’, ‘the devil,’ and even a ‘Barbary horse’. As he has so few soliloquies, it is very hard to know what exists beneath his calm exterior before Iago’s scheming destroys him is he consciously trying to seem good and pure, or is it an intrinsic part of his character? In order to evaluate these ideas objectively, it is necessary to closely observe Shakespeare’s portrayal of him throughout the play, concentrating on his language, and how other critics have viewed him.Othello is made deliberately incongruous to his setting and fellow characters by Shakespeare. ![]() Using these views of Othello and your own opinions, how far do you agree that the tragic outcome of the play is due to character flaws in Othello?One of the problems of analysing Othello’s character is that he can be read in two mutually exclusive ways he is either the self important, self-dramatising man Dexter saw or the noble and tragic hero brought down by the manipulation of Iago that Gardner saw. However, Helen Gardner believed him to be ‘a man of action and heroic in his deeds’. John Dexter saw Othello as ‘a man essentially narcissistic and self-dramatising… a pompous, word-spinning arrogant black general’.
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