The Reputation of Othello Essay examples -- Othello essays

The Reputation of Othello Where in the rankings does this Shakespearean tragedy stand? This essay will explore the dissolving agent to this question by considering professional literary commentary. Francis Ferguson in Two Worldviews Echo Each Other ranks the play Othello quite high among the Bards tragedies Othello, create verbally in 1604, is one of the masterpieces of Shakespeares tragic period. In splendor of language, and in the sheer power of the story, it belongs with the greatest. But some of its admirers find it too savage . . .. (131) Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar in The Engaging Qualities of Othello maintain that the popularity of this play has been consistent for about 400 years because it treats emotions that are universal and persistent in human nature. Its characters do not know on a plane far removed from ordinary life we are not asked to witness the conflict of kings and conspirators beyond the experience of everyday mint we are not involved in the consequences of disasters on a cosmic scale what we witness is a struggle between good and evil, the demonstration of love, tenderness, jealousy, and despise in terms that are humanly plausible. (126) The realistic aspect of the play presents a well(p) range of characters, a full range of emotions, a full range of motivations, a full range of actions just as are present in real society. The down-to-earth, realistic consideration is very important to Othellos enduring popularity. The play is so quotable consider Desdemonas opening lines before the Council of Venice My noble father, / I do perceive here a carve up duty, or Othellos last words Killing myself, to die upon a kiss. Could the... ...d Nothing. Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapman. Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press, 1965. Heilman, Robert B. The Role We Give Shakespeare. Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapman. Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press, 1965. Levin, Harry. General Introduction. The rive rbank Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http//www.eiu.edu/multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos. Wright, Louis B. and Virginia A. LaMar. The Engaging Qualities of Othello. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Rpt. from Introduction to The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare. N. p. Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1957.