Othello & Concept of Evil

William Shakespeare wrote Othello to offer a dramatic exploration of the workings of evil on mortal men. George Brandes states that Othello is the only one of Shakespeare's tragedies that does not deal with national events (127). Instead, it is a "family tragedy" (127). Brandes establishes that Othello was probably first produced in the autumn of 1605 (113). He states that Shakespeare found the material for Othello in Cinthio's Italian collection of tales, the same place he found the plot of Measure for Measure (114). Brandes also argues that, although Shakespeare calls Othello The Moor of Venice, believing that Shakespeare thought of Othello as black is unreasonable. Rather, he believes that Iago's mention of Mauritania as the country to which Othello intends to retire shows that Othello should be represented as an Arab (116). However, the darkness of his skin would still make it possible for men who hate and envy him to apply to him the epithets usually reserved for blacks (Brandes 116).

Shakespeare arranges the dramatic action in Othello to present the most favorable field for Iago's operations (Brandes 117). Brandes states that Shakespeare creates Othello in a way that makes him more susceptible than any other man to Iago's poison (117). Then Shakespeare lets the reader trace the growth of his passionate jealousy caused by Iago's evil manipulations "through every stage of its development, until it blasts and shatters

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speare wants "to define Iago's evil as a depraved habit of mind and soul, a quintessential subversiveness, an obsessive need to reduce humanity and the ideals to which it aspires to a base and bestial condition" (Rackin 73). Rackin also states that, in Shakespeare's time, music and musical verse were associated with cosmic order and human love (73). She argues that Iago's affinity for chaos is expressed in the broken, unrhythmical verse he uses in his thoughts and his actions (73) However, Rackin also notes that, at the beginning of the play, Othello speaks in terms and forms that directly contrast with Iago's (74). This indicates that Shakespeare intends that the two characters be seen as acting in opposition to each other. For example, instead of the hell and devils of which Iago speaks, Othello talks of "heaven," "prayer," "faith," and "love" (Rackin 74). However, Othello's language changes during the play as Iago destroys his faith in Desdemona. Rackin states that Othello slowly begins to adopt "the language of Iago's despairing cynicism" (74). Shakespeare, therefore, is using language to demonstrate the internal character of each man. This is important because, as a playwright, Shakespeare certainly understood the powe
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Approximate Word count = 1512
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)