Repetition and Mirror Images in Othello

Repetition and Mirror Images in Othello Among the techniques Shakespeare uses in his plays to achieve dramatic and thematic effects is the leitmotif. He chooses an image, or an idea and uses it throughout a play to emphasize his insights. In King Lear, Shakespeare makes repeated reference to eyes and blindness. In Macbeth, he makes repeated reference to blood. In Othello, a play in which Shakespeare is addressing the question of honesty and duplicity, he uses repetition and mirror image as a leitmotif.

Although it is tempting to frame Shakespeare's Othello as a play about jealousy, much as one might characterize Hamlet as a play about indecision and Macbeth as a play about ambition, such a characterization would be, if not misguided, at least misleading. It is not merely a play about one man's fear that his wife is unfaithful. Jealousy, while it is a predominant emotion in the text, is better thought of as an effect. The play is not so much about jealousy as it is about the conflict between words and thought, between action and purpose, between disbelief and conviction. Jealousy drives Othello to murder his wife Desdemona, but Othello's errant distrust of her, and his errant trust of his aide Iago leads to his jealousy. This theme of disbelief and attempted conviction is exploited to great effect by Shakespeare's use of repetition and mirror imagery throughout the play. He uses repetition in a technical sense, repeating words, phrases and images. He juxtapos

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ago" serves to heighten the tragic irony of the play. Another instance in which Shakespeare uses the repetition of a phrase to achieve either a dramatic or thematic effect occurs in Act III. Othello and Iago are speaking, and Iago is placing doubt of Desdemona's faithfulness in Othello's mind: Othello: . . . Is he not honest? Iago: Honest my Lord. Othello: Honest, ay honest. Iago: My Lord, for aught I know. Othello: What dost thou think? Iago: Think my Lord? Othello: Think my lord. By heaven, he echoes me as if there were some monster in his thought too hideous to be shown. (Oth.III.iii). Iago is giving credence to his lie, acting circumspect as though he has no need to. Iago holds such power over Othello at this point that repetition serves as a mask for Iago, enabling him to engender suspicion in Othello while avoiding direct accusation. Here, repetition is having a direct impact on both plot and character. Iago is showing himself to be a master of deceit, and Othello is being revealed as a man too ready to believe in his wife's infidelity. Othello's gradual disintegration into manic jealousy is also foreshadowed by repetition. Iago points out to Othello that Desdemona deceived her father

Category: Literature - R