I am writing this paper to discuss two very distinctive pieces of English literature (Othello by Williams Shakespeare and The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer) and how I responded to both of them.
Othello is a Shakespearian tragedy, like Hamlet, King Lear and Romeo and Juliet. As a dramatic work, it sizzles with evil and the villain Iago is perhaps one of Shakespeare's greatest characters as created for stage. It has an almost Athurian quality in that Iago the villain brings Othello the vision that allows him to view his young wife Desdemona's infidelity with Othello's right hand man, Michael Cassio. This is a plot line similar to King Arthur discovering Guineviere's unfaithfulness to him with his right hand man, Lancelot.
The themes of Othello offer a discourse in value judgments, especially when those judgments are rooted in a person's appearance. Othello is black and as a black man he is judged. Othello's world is decisively black and white. There is no middle ground and he often feels like an outsider because of his heritage. Witness black and white in this passage:
OTHELLO She turn'd to folly, and she was a whore.
EMILIA Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil.
EMILIA Thou art rash as fire, to say
That she was false: O, she was heavenly true!
Rumors abound that he has utilized his 'black' magic to woo Desdemona. Slowly his world, at first so orderly and ordered, loses itself to chaotic emotions and shady allegations as Othello allows Iago to inflame his jealousy.
On the other hand, The Canterbury Tales center around stories of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. This was a common pilgrimage undertaken to commemorate the death of Thomas ßBeckett at Canterbury Cathedral. I liked this work because it reminded me so much of similar vacation stories I've heard while making my way to various American tourist attra
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