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Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Othello

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 0 )

Of all Shakespeare’s tragedies . . . Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. From the moment when the temptation of the hero begins, the reader’s heart and mind are held in a vice, experiencing the extremes of pity and fear, sympathy and repulsion, sickening hope and dreadful expectation. Evil is displayed before him, not indeed with the profusion found in King Lear, but forming, as it were, the soul of a single character, and united with an intellectual superiority so great that he watches its advance fascinated and appalled. He sees it, in itself almost irresistible, aided at every step by fortunate accidents and the innocent mistakes of its victims. He seems to breathe an atmosphere as fateful as that of King Lear , but more confined and oppressive, the darkness not of night but of a close-shut murderous room. His imagination is excited to intense activity, but it is the activity of concentration rather than dilation.

—A. C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy

Between William Shakespeare’s most expansive and philosophical tragedies— Hamlet and King Lear —is Othello, his most constricted and heart-breaking play. Othello is a train wreck that the audience horrifyingly witnesses, helpless to prevent or look away. If Hamlet is a tragedy about youth, and Lear concerns old age, Othello is a family or domestic tragedy of a middle-aged man in which the fate of kingdoms and the cosmos that hangs in the balance in Hamlet and Lear contracts to the private world of a marriage’s destruction. Following his anatomizing of the painfully introspective intellectual Hamlet, Shakespeare, at the height of his ability to probe human nature and to dramatize it in action and language, treats Hamlet’s temperamental opposite—the man of action. Othello is decisive, confident, and secure in his identity, duty, and place in the world. By the end of the play, he has brought down his world around him with the relentless force that made him a great general turned inward, destroying both what he loved best in another and in himself. That such a man should fall so far and so fast gives the play an almost unbearable momentum. That such a man should unravel so completely, ushered by jealousy and hatred into a bestial worldview that cancels any claims of human virtue and self-less devotion, shocks and horrifies. Othello is generally regarded as Shakespeare’s greatest stage play, the closest he would ever come to conforming to the constrained rules of Aristotelian tragedy. The intensity and focus of Othello is unalleviated by subplots, comic relief, or any mitigation or consolation for the deterioration of the “noble Moor” and his collapse into murder and suicide. At the center of the play’s intrigue is Shakespeare’s most sinister and formidable conceptions of evil in Iago, whose motives and the wellspring of his villainy continue to haunt audiences and critics alike. Indeed, the psychological resonances of the drama, along with its provocative racial and gender themes, have caused Othello, perhaps more than any other of Shakespeare’s plays, to reverberate the loudest with current audiences and commentators. As scholar Edward Pechter has argued, “During the past twenty-five years or so, Othello has become the Shakespearean tragedy of choice, replacing King Lear in the way Lear had earlier replaced Hamlet as the play that speaks most directly and powerfully to current interests.”

Shakespeare derived his plot from Giraldi Cinthio’s “Tale of the Moor,” in the story collection Hecatommithi (1565), reshaping Cinthio’s sensational tale of jealousy, intrigue, and murder in several key ways. In Cinthio’s story, Alfiero, the scheming ensign, lusts after the Moor’s wife, named Disdemona, and after she spurns his advances, Alfiero seeks vengeance by accusing her of adultery with Cassio, the Moor’s lieutenant. Alfiero, like Iago, similarly arouses the Moor’s suspicions by stealing Disdemona’s handkerchief and planting it in Cassio’s bed-room. However, the Moor and Alfiero join forces to kill Disdemona, beating her to death with a stocking filled with sand before pulling down the ceiling on her dead body to conceal the crime as an accident. The Moor is eventually captured, tortured, and slain by Disdemona’s relatives, while the ensign dies during torture for another crime. What is striking about Shakespeare’s alteration of Cinthio’s grisly tale of murder and villainy is the shift of emphasis to the provocation for the murder, the ennobling of Othello as a figure of great stature and dignity to underscore his self-destruction, and the complication of motive for the ensign’s actions. Cinthio’s version of Iago is conventionally driven by jealousy of a superior and lust for his wife. Iago’s motivation is anything but explainable in conventional terms. Dramatically, Shakespeare turns the focus of the play from the shocking crime to its causes and psychic significance, trans-forming Cinthio’s intrigue story of vile murder into one of the greatest dramatic meditations on the nature of love and its destruction.

What makes Othello so unique structurally (and painful to witness) is that it is a tragedy built on a comic foundation. The first two acts of the play enact the standard pattern of Shakespeare’s romantic comedies. The young Venetian noblewoman, Desdemona, has eloped with the middle-aged Othello, the military commander of the armed forces of Venice. Their union is opposed by Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, and by a rival for Desdemona, Roderigo, who in the play’s opening scenes are both provoked against Othello by Iago. Desdemona and Othello, therefore, face the usual challenges of the lovers in a Shakespearean comedy who must contend with the forces of authority, custom, and circumstances allied against their union. The romantic climax comes in the trial scene of act 1, in which Othello success-fully defends himself before the Venetian senate against Brabantio’s charge that Othello has beguiled his daughter, “stol’n from me, and corrupted / By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks.” Calmly and courteously Othello recounts how, despite the differences of age, race, and background, he won Desdemona’s heart by recounting the stories of his exotic life and adventures: “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, / And I loved her that she did pity them.” Wonder at Othello’s heroic adventures and compassion for her sympathy have brought the two opposites together—the young, inexperienced Venetian woman and the brave, experienced outsider. Desdemona finally, dramatically appears before the senate to support Othello’s account of their courtship and to balance her obligation to her father and now to her husband based on the claims of love:

My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty: To you I am bound for life and education; My life and education both do learn me How to respect you; you are the lord of duty; I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband; And so much duty as my mother show’d To you, preferring you before her father, So much I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor, my lord.

Both Desdemona and Othello defy by their words and gestures the calumnies heaped upon them by Roderigo and Brabantio and vindicate the imperatives of the heart over parental authority and custom. As in a typical Shakespearean comedy, love, tested, triumphs over all opposition.

Vindicated by the duke of Venice and the senate, Othello, accompanied by Desdemona, takes up his military duties in the face of a threatened Turkish invasion, and the lovers are given a triumphal wedding-like procession and marriage ceremony when they disembark on Cyprus. The storm that divides the Venetian fleet also disperses the Turkish threat and clears the way for the lovers’ happy reunion and peaceful enjoyment of their married state. First Cassio lands to deliver the news of Othello’s marriage and, like the best man, supplies glowing praise for the groom and his bride; next Desdemona, accompanied by Iago and his wife, Emilia, enters but must await news of the fate of Othello’s ship. Finally, Othello arrives giving him the opportunity to renew his marriage vows to Desdemona:

It gives me wonder great as my content To see you here before me. O my soul’s joy, If after every tempest come such calms, May the wind blow till they have wakened death, And let the labouring barque climb hills of seas Olympus-high, and duck again as low As hell’s from heaven. If it were now to die ’Twere now to be most happy, for I fear My soul hath content so absolute That not another comfort like to this Succeeds in unknown fate.

The scene crowns love triumphant. The formerly self-sufficient Othello has now staked his life to his faith in Desdemona and their union, and she has done the same. The fulfillment of the wedding night that should come at the climax of the comedy is relocated to act 2, with the aftermath of the courtship and the wedding now taking center stage. Having triumphantly bested the social and natural forces aligned against them, having staked all to the devotion of the other, Desdemona and Othello will not be left to live happily ever after, and the tragedy will grow out of the conditions that made the comedy. Othello, unlike the other Shakespearean comedies, adds three more acts to the romantic drama, shifting from comic affirmation to tragic negation.

Iago reviews Othello’s performance as a lover by stating, “O, you are well tuned now, / But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music.” Iago will now orchestrate discord and disharmony based on a life philosophy totally opposed to the ennobling and selfless concept of love demonstrated by the newlyweds. As Iago asserts to Roderigo, “Virtue? A fig!” Self-interest is all that matters, and love is “merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will.” Othello and Desdemona cannot possibly remain devoted to each other, and, as Iago concludes, “If sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt an err-ing barbarian and a super-subtle Venetian be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her.” The problem of Iago’s motivation to destroy Othello and Desdemona is not that he has too few motives but too many. He offers throughout the play multiple justifi cations for his intrigue: He has been passed over in favor of Cassio; he suspects the Moor and Cassio with his wife, Emilia; he is envious of Cassio’s open nature; and he is desirous of Desdemona himself. No single motive is relied on for long, and the gap between cause and effect, between the pettiness of Iago’s grudges and the monstrousness of his behavior, prompted Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a memorable phrase to characterize Iago’s “motiveless malignity.” There is in Iago a zest for villainy and a delight in destruction, driven more by his hatred and contempt for any who oppose his conception of jungle law than by a conventional naturalistic explanation based on jealousy or envy. Moreover, Shakespeare, by deliberately clouding the issue of Iago’s motive, finds ever more sinister threats in such a character’s apparently bottomless and unmerited hatred and capacity for evil.

Iago will direct the remainder of the play, constructing Othello’s down-fall out of the flimsiest evidence and playing on the strengths and weaknesses of Othello’s nature and the doubts that erode Othello’s faith in Desdemona. Act 3, one of the wonders of the stage, anatomizes Othello’s psychic descent from perfect contentment in his new wife to complete loathing, from a worldview in which everything is as it appears to one in which nothing is as it seems. Iago leads Othello to suspect that love and devotion are shams disguising the basest of animalistic instincts. Misled by the handkerchief, his love token to Desdemona, that Iago has planted in Cassio’s room and by a partially overheard conversation between Iago and Cassio, Othello, by the end of act 3, forsakes his wife and engages himself in a perverse version of the marriage ceremony of act 2 to Iago. As the pair kneels together, they exchange vows:

Iago: Witness you ever-burning lights above, You elements that clip us round about, Witness that here Iago doth give up The execution of his wit, hands, heart To wronged Othello’s service. Let him command, And to obey shall be in me remorse, What bloody business ever.

Othello: I greet thy love, Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous, And will upon the instant put thee to’t. Within these three days let me hear thee say That Cassio’s not alive.

Iago: My friend is dead. ’Tis done at your request; but let her live.

Othello: Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her, damn her! Come, go with me apart. I will withdraw To furnish me with some swift means of death For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.

Iago: I am your own for ever.

This scene has suggested to some critics that Iago’s true motivation for destroying the marriage of Desdemona and Othello is a repressed homosexual love for Othello. An equal case can be made that Iago here completes his role as Vice, borrowed from the medieval morality plays, sealing the Faustian bargain for Othello’s soul in this mock or black marriage scene.

The play moves relentlessly from here to catastrophe as Othello delivers justice to those he is convinced have wronged him. As he attempts to carry out his execution of Desdemona, she for the first time realizes his charges against her and his utter delusion. Ignoring her appeals for mercy and avowals of innocence, Othello smothers her moments before Emilia arrives with the proof of Desdemona’s innocence and Iago’s villainy. Othello must now face the realization of what he has done. He turns to Iago, who has been brought before him to know the reason for his actions. Iago replies: “Demand me nothing; what you know, you know: / From this time forth I never will speak word.” By Iago’s exiting the stage, closing access to his motives, the focus remains firmly on Othello, not as Iago’s victim, but as his own. His final speech mixes together the acknowledgment of what he was and what he has become, who he is and how he would like to be remembered:

I have done the state some service, and they know’t. No more of that. I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely but too well, Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought, Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand, Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe.

Consistent with his role as guardian of order in the state, Othello carries out his own execution, by analogy judging his act as a violation reflected by Venice’s savage enemy:

And say besides, that in Aleppo once, Where a malignant and a turban’d Turk Beat a Venetian and tradu’d the state, I took by th’ throat the circumcisèd dog, And smote him—thus.

Othello, likewise, has “tradu’d the state” and has changed from noble and valiant Othello to a beast, with the passion that ennobled him shown as corrosive and demeaning. He carries out his own execution for a violation that threatens social and psychic order. For the onlookers on stage, the final tableau of the dead Desdemona and Othello “poisons sight” and provokes the command to “Let it be hid.” The witnesses on stage cannot compute rationally what has occurred nor why, but the audience has been given a privileged view of the battle between good and evil worked out in the private recesses of a bedroom and a human soul.

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

Othello Oxford Lecture by Emma Smith

Introduction

Othello, also titled The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, is a tragic play written by William Shakespeare in 1603 (as accepted by most scholars). The play was first staged on November 1st, 1604 and 1st published in 1622 by Thomas Walkley. The idea of comes from Italian writer’s play The Moorish Captain, published in 1565. Shakespeare molded the play and fit it according to his own age and place.

The time and place of the setting of play is the 16th century during the war between Venice and Turkey and set in Venice, respectively. Othello is the protagonist of the play who marries to Desdemona despite the difference between their ages. Iago, the antagonist of the play, interrupted the play by convincing Othello that Desdemona is unfaithful. The main themes of the play include love, an inconsistency of the military heroism, and fear of isolation. The symbols of the play are the handkerchief, and the song “willow”.

Othello by William Shakespeare Summary

The play opens on the street of Venice, in the mid of conversation between Roderigo, a wealthy man, and Iago, the antagonist. Earlier Roderigo has been remunerating Iago to help in marrying Desdemona, however, now they have learned that Desdemona has just got married to Othello, a general whom Iago served. Iago claims that he hates Othello as he, in favor of soldier Cassio, has promoted to the rank of lieutenant and passed over Iago.

Iago and Roderigo go to inform Brabanzio that his daughter Desdemona has been kidnapped and married to Othello, the Moor. Brabanzio gathers some officers in search of Othello. Iago plays a double game and goes to Othello before Brabanzio finds him out, not wanting that his hatred for Othello reveals to him.

Meanwhile, Cassio comes to Othello in an emergency with a message from the duke that his (Othello’s) helps is needed in a matter of Turkish invasion. Soon Brabanzio, along with Roderigo and some other officer, arrives at Othello’s place to accuse him of stealing his daughter via witchcraft. There they find out that Othello is gone to have a meeting with the duke so Brabanzio decides to accuse Othello in front of the duke and accumulated senate.

The plan of Brabanzio backfires. The Senate and the duke are on the side of Othello and shows sympathy toward him. Othello is given a chance to defend himself. He explains that he doesn’t marry Desdemona through witchcraft but impressed her through his stories of travels and adventures in wars. The duke seems to be convincing with Othello’s explanation.

Moreover, Desdemona herself enters and defends her choice and her husband. Disappointed Brabanzio acquiesces and lets the meeting to resume. The duke, in the meeting, expresses that Othello must go to aid the protection against the Turks. Desdemona insisted to accompany her husband on the war.

The following day, in Cyprus, the news arrives that the Turkish Fleet has been worn-out at sea. In the meanwhile, three of the ships from Venice arrived safely and didn’t suffer the same fate. Cassio, Iago, Iago’s wife (Emilia) Roderigo, Desdemona, and Othello all landed safely at Cyprus.

Othello was in the last ship and arrives late from his wife, Desdemona. When he arrives, he meets his wife and announces they will celebrating their triumph over Turks this evening.

After the announcement, everyone leaves for their rooms, but Roderigo stays and complains to Iago that he will not be able to break up Othello’s marriage. Iago guarantees him that soon Desdemona will get bored of Othello as he is ugly and will find someone else for sexual satisfaction.

Moreover, he warns Roderigo of that “someone” and claims him to be Cassio. Iago, at the same time, directs Roderigo to have a fight with Cassio at the celebration by disgracing him. To ruin Othello, the 1st step should be to eliminate Cassio from Othello’s life, says Iago in isolation.

At the evening celebration, Roderigo does what he was directed to do. The drunk Cassio starts chasing Roderigo across the stage. When Governor Montano attempts to calm Cassio, Cassio bashes at him. Roderigo is sent by Iago to raise alarm in the town.

Rodrigo rings the alarm due to which Othello arrives in an emergency to investigate the matter (Othello had left the party earlier in order to celebrate her marriage life with his wife, Desdemona). When Othello inquires about the matter, Iago pretends as if he doesn’t want to involve Cassio, however, conveys the matter indirectly.

Consequently, Othello asks Cassio to surrender his rank of lieutenant. Extremely dishearten by this treatment, Cassio laments before Iago that his reputation has been ruined forever. Iago cunningly convinces Cassio that if he wants to restore his position before Othello, he must use the favor of Desdemona as an intermediary person. Iago plans that he will frame Desdemona and Cassio as lovers to Othello to make him jealous and his target, simultaneously will be achieved.

For reconciliation with Othello, Othello arranges some instrumentalists to play underneath Othello’s window. Irritated with this, Othello asks his clown to go and send the instrumentalists away. Cassio asks Othello’s clown to send Emilia to him in order to arrange a meeting with Desdemona.

When the clown departs, Iago again fills in Cassio’s mind that he should meet Desdemona in complete isolation. For this Iago will help him to get Othello out of the way. Iago makes Othello and another gentleman to inspect the town’s fortification.

Desdemona seems to be quite sympathetic to Cassio when he tells her the whole story. Desdemona assures him that she will help him so that Othello forgives him and return him his former rank of Lieutenant. When Cassio was leaving Desdemona’s room, Iago and Othello reaches there and watch him leave. On Othello’s confirmation that whether he was Cassio or not, Iago starts igniting a fire of jealousy in Othello.

Due to this, Othello turns out to be upset and moody. Iago, to achieve his goal, suggests to Othello that Cassio and Desdemona might have some affair. On the other hand, Desdemona’s favor toward Cassio adds to Othello’s conviction that Desdemona is unfaithful to him.

Soon after a conservation between Othello and Iago, Desdemona comes to call Othello for a dinner where she finds that Othello is feeling unwell. She offers her handkerchief that he find too small and eventfully it fells down. This handkerchief is picked by Emilia remembering that Iago always wanted her to steal it from Desdemona.

Emilia gives the handkerchief to Iago that makes him overjoyed. Iago places the handkerchief in Cassio’s room as proof of Desdemona’s affair with Cassio. On Othello’s demand for evidence for the unfaithfulness of his wife, Iago tells him that he sees Cassio wiping his beard with the handkerchief that he gave Desdemona as a gift. On that point, Othello vows to avenge Desdemona and Cassio, while Iago vows to help him in this regard.

Later that evening, Othello demands from Desdemona to return him the handkerchief he gifted her, Desdemona says that she doesn’t have it and changes the topic. This makes Othello super angry and burst out. Later, Cassio comes across the handkerchief in his chamber and wonders about it. He gives that handkerchief to Bianca, a prostitute to copy its embroidery for him.

Too much consumed by jealousy, Othello falls into abstraction and has fits of epilepsy. Othello writes something on the ground, meanwhile, Cassio enters but Iago tells him to return a few minutes back. Here Iago plays another game. He, on the one side, tells Othello, as he recovers, that he is going to arrange a meeting with Cassio where he will confess his affair with Desdemona while on the other side he asks Cassio to say something about Bianca.

This creates a misunderstanding once more and Othello’s suspicions were confirmed. The scene catches fire when Bianca herself enters with the handkerchief chiding Cassio for making her a copy of it for him and he received it as a token of love given by some other woman. Desdemona also enters and gives Othello a letter from Venice. Othello is called back to home and instructed to appoint Cassio in place of him. This makes Othello super angry and strikes Desdemona.

Desdemona and Othello have fought and Othello accuses her of being a whore. Desdemona protested that was accompanied by Emilia but he ignores her and asks her to wait for her in the bedchamber tonight. Desdemona waits for him while sends Emilia away. Meanwhile, Iago convinces Roderigo that if he wants Desdemona he should kill Cassio.

Roderigo was instructed by Iago to kill Cassio, However, in an attempt to kill Cassio, Roderigo gets wounded by Cassio. Watching the scene and taking advantage of the moment, Iago attacks Cassio but fails to kill him rather wounds him. Othello, by hearing Cassio’s cry, assumes that he has been murdered by Iago as he had promised him to do so. Shortly after they discover that Roderigo has been killed. The clown takes Cassio to dress his wounds.

Meanwhile, in the bedchamber, Othello prepares himself to kill his sleeping wife. Desdemona wakes up and begged Othello. She confirms him her innocence but Othello oppresses her. Emilia enters with the news of Rodrigo’s death and Othello asks her if Cassio is dead or not that Emilia negates.

Soon Othello wounds Desdemona, she cries out claiming that she has committed a suicide. Emilia returns hearing the cries and asks Othello that what happened. He tells her that he has killed Desdemona for her faithfulness that was brought into attention by Iago.

Everyone else comes to the bedchamber. Emilia realizes immediately that what has been done by Iago and speaks up. Iago tries to silence Emilia. Othello, at first sided Iago and refers the handkerchief as a proof.

However, this confusion soon dispatches when Emilia tells him that she found the handkerchief and gave it to Iago. The crushed Othello attempts to kill Iago but he soon flees away after killing Emilia. He is immediately caught by the clowns. Othello tries to kill Iago but is disarmed. Othello makes a speech and kills himself. The ended with Lodovico’s speech who announces to hand over Othello’s house to Graziano and orders the execution of Iago.

Themes in Othello

Love and the discordancy of military heroism.

As Othello was a soldier, we see throughout the play that his married life is much affected. Just as he gets married, he is sent to Cyprus. In Cyprus when he tries to enjoy his marriage, an emergency alarm is rung in the whole town, though the matter was not that serious. We see that he asks for “fit disposition” for his wife.

While, on the other hand, we see Desdemona be very compromising a d compassionate wife. She only accompanies Othello to Cyprus but supports her and seems to be calm and untroubled with his husband’s going war. She doesn’t mind when she is awakened by the emergency alarm, however, was more curious than furious. Desdemona supports Othello in every situation and never let him feel down regarding any matter. She may also be called as Othello’s “rational warrior” and he, too, feels happy when she is around during everything.

Othello’s marriage to Desdemona provides Othello a certificate to enter to a Venetian society, previously, this society, in the play, seems to be fearful of Othello’s social status in white society; however, his marriage earn him a respect in Venetian’s society as a soldier.

Othello, consider that his success in love is just because he is a successful soldier, as he wins Desdemona’s heart by telling him the stories of wars, military travels, etc.

Moreover, Othello goes to Cyprus to fight against Turks, however, they are drowned by the natural disaster and Othello doesn’t get a chance to show his battle skills to Desdemona.

In Cyprus, they have nothing left to do. The last time we find him doing a military action is when he views fortification and that too was an extremely short scene in Act Ⅲ. Othello starts feeling uneasy in his private setting for not getting a chance to prove his manhood in public or in court.

Moreover, Iago takes advantage of the situation by calling his “epilepsy fit” the passion most unsuitable for such a brave soldier. Moreover, Iago also backbites Cassio and mentions him to Othello that Cassio has a very low opinion of him and think him as an enfeebling dream.

Othello confuses his identities (being soldier and lover) while desperately adhering to his former identity i.e. of a soldier. The manifestation of his possessiveness rapidly transfers from the conformist i.e. “Farewell the peaceful mind” to the bizarre. One can easily guess that Othello is leaving bad habit and is completely occupied with his identity as a soldier.

However, his attitude to discerning is rather warranted by its seductiveness to the spectators as well. The audience and the Critics both seem to find comfort and nobility in the final speech of Othello plus the anecdote he tells but still, he depends upon his identity as a soldier to deliver that speech not a lover and attempts to make the audience forget about his disastrous marital life.

The Danger of Isolation

In the play Othello, the action shifts to Cyprus from the city of Venice. The city of Cyprus faces little some external dander that is why it is highly protected by military defenses and natural forces as well. the army of Turks is destroyed by the natural disaster and once Othello, Desdemona, Iago, Roderigo, Cassio, and Emilia, the main characters of the play, reach Cyprus, they have nothing else to do but to spy and make prey on one another.

Throughout the play, isolation among characters imparts special effect, for instance. The soliloquies of Iago provide us knowledge of what he is going to do; the standing apart of Othello while the conversation between Iago and Cassio is going on. Everyone leaves the stage while Othello is alone with dead bodies of Emilia and Desdemona for some time.

More importantly, Othello is considered a man from another nation and is subject to isolation because of his physical appearance and the color of his skin. Iago manipulates the distance among character to achieve his cunning plans.

The characters in the play cannot be isolated, however, the play delivers a lesson that to isolate oneself in order to preserve oneself causes an ultimate self-destruction. In the play, such isolation causes the disastrous deaths of the main Character: Iago, Othello, Roderigo, and even Emilia falls in this category.

Othello Characters Analysis

He is the protagonist and the hero of the play. Othello, a Moor, and an army general at the city of Venice, has an expressive personality and powerful stature. He is respected by everyone around him. Despite his high status, he never gets rid of his insecurities due to his age, race, and life as a soldier. He is master of “free and open” nature that has been used by Iago to screw his love for his life partner, Desdemona, and changes it to prevailing and disparaging distrust.

She is the daughter of the senator of Venetian society, Brabanzio. When the plays open, we come to know that Othello and Desdemona are married secretly. However, in many ways, we see that Desdemona is stereotypical, pure and humble. Desdemona is very strong-minded and confident. She defends her marriage by jesting bawdily towards Iago and responds to Othello’s jealousy with dignity.

He is Othello’s ensign (an ancient job), and the antagonist of the play. He is about Twenty-eight years old. He deliberately hates Othello just because he has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Iago’s seeks revenge from the Othello by making him against his dear ones. His motivations, throughout the play, are never expressed clearly as if they originate in obsessive and he seems to find aesthetic joy in destruction and manipulation people.

A young and inexperienced soldier and Othello’s Lieutenant, whose higher status position is begrudged by Iago. He is truly faithful to Othello and is extremely ashamed of being caught up in the brawl and consequently loses his position as lieutenant. His youth, good looks, and friendship with Desdemona are being used by Iago to make Othello jealous of him and play on Othello’s insecurities.

She is Iago’s wife and attendant to Desdemona. She is a pessimistic and worldly woman, deeply attached to Desdemona and suspicious of her husband.

He is a jealous person and wants to marry Desdemona. He is a young, foolish and rich person who is assured that if he offers some money to Iago, he will help him to marry Desdemona. He gets frustrated when he knows about Desdemona’s marriage with Othello and then Othello takes her to Cyprus. Desperate enough to get Desdemona, he agrees to help Iago to kill Cassio.

She is a prostitute in Cyprus who is much more interested in Cassio, his regular customer. Cassio makes her believe that he will marry her.

He is Desdemona’s father. He is senator of Venetian society who is somewhat loudmouthed and arrogant person. Othello was also his friend who marries his daughter.

Duke Of Venice

He is the only official authority in the city of Venice. He has the great respect for Othello for being a soldier and military servant. In this play, his role is limited to the reconciliation of Othello and Brabanzio in act 1 and then direct Othello to Cyprus.

He was the governor of Cyprus before Othello was appointed. He appears in Act 2 when he verifies the status of the war and waits for Venetians to come.

He is a kinsman of Brabanzio and acts as a messenger from Venice to Cyprus. He appears in Act 4 with a letter for Othello to return to Venice while placing Cassio in his place as the governor of Cyprus.

He, too, is a kinsman who escorts Lodovico to Cyprus. In the middle of the final he reveals a news that Desdemona’s father, Brabanzio has died.

He is Othello’s servant. He only appears in two scenes i.e. Act 3 scene 4 and Act 4 scene 1. His arrivals echo and twist the action and confrontations of the main plots. For instance, his jests on the word “lie” and forestall Othello’s muddle of two connotations of that word.

Othello Literary Analysis

The play Othello is a story of a soldier who is an honorable and principled army general who encountered much military success, but due to errors in judgment and status as an outsider in the Venetian society, destroys his most cherished relationship and himself. The play opens in the grandeur style of military romance reciting on the Mediterranean Sea.

Conversely, the drama ends with a suffocating end in a bedchamber where the protagonist, Othello, kills himself after murdering his innocent wife. The play transfers from huge facades that deliver a background for Othello’s valor to central spaces that offer, both factually and metaphorically, no possibility to breathe.

The contracting trajectory of the play suggests that deleterious sentiments like distrust put a sensitive choke hold on an individual, throttling their capability to think undoubtedly and therefore averting them from performing rationally. The play distinctions the grounds in which Othello is self-assured and influential, such as the external world of an encounter, with the internal spaces in which he is less confident and able to be effortlessly operated.

The tenor of the play Othello mainly mirrors Iago’s view of the world that is considered as pessimism and misgiving. Iago couriers his pessimism often, and predominantly in opening acts of the play. When Roderigo comes to know about Desdemona’s marriage with Othello, he feels so shameful and calls it his virtue, however, Iago condemns him that virtue is a fig and reject the idea that person’s character is set in stone. Iago’s pessimistic attitude of life averts him from feeling regret or sorrowful for his deeds.

According to Iago, he just workouts his willpower on others and cannot be seized responsible if those others are deficient of their inborn disbelief and doubt. To Iago, Othello’s unexperienced confidence in a “truthful Iago” is the real trick, not Iago’s deceitfulness.

The pessimism of Iago sets the platform for the suspicious tone in the second half of the play. When Othello progressively drops in Iago’s influence, just like Iago, he too instigates to speak wary remarks that boom Iago’s skeptical worldview. Othello, not only starts referring to the falseness and unfaithfulness of women but also calls Desdemona a “whore” on her face. His growing uncertainty echoes an all-consuming obsession that strengthens the fervors of distrust.

As he develops progressively paranoid, he inclines into a close to schizophrenic misperception. In an instant of no reason, he suggests that nature would devote herself is such a surveillance passion without some directions. Othello claims that he would not feel so intensely bothered if nothing had actually occurred amid Cassio and Desdemona. Consequently, since he does feel troubled, the custody of infidelity must be well started. Othello who usually is so rational, eloquent, and self-possessed, here employs a disordered reason that platforms the tone of fear that surpasses the play.

Why “Othello” by William Shakespeare Is a Tragedy Essay

A tragedy drama is a drama that covers the events of human achievement and suffering as a result of the protagonist’s decisions at one time or another. The leaders are more likely to become victims of other people who intend to manipulate their power and good leadership skills. Although many critics consider Othello a perverted form of tragedy, it belongs to the classic tragedy as it comprises the Aristotelian tragedy’s characteristics. The other personage, Bianca, is another subject to a discussion. She was a prostitute which made her personality doubtful, especially in regard to her actions. Despite her shady character, she was not responsible for her downfalls in life because she was a victim of circumstances.

Shakespeare’s Othello can be referred to as a tragedy for several reasons. Primarily, Aristotle’s tragedy has several specific characteristics, including the presence of a fatal error, the admission of the error, and the epiphany, in which people imagine various ways to avoid undesirable consequences. To be classified as an Aristotelian tragedy, a film or story must be complex and include a situation in which a respectable person suffers a complete reversal of fortunes due to a fatal mistake and the discovery of it. The tragic hero suffers as much from his actions as from those of his fellows. In addition, the tragedy consists of floral elements, because it tells about good and evil and shows how they lead a person to despair. Hence, the mentioned play corresponds with most of these characteristics, which makes it a true Aristotle’s drama.

Apart from the abovementioned elements, Aristotle’s tragedy normally discloses the most heinous problems such as racial prejudice. Racism is a prominent theme in William Shakespeare’s Othello. It depicts European society’s attitude toward racial, ethnic, and linguistic differences. In Europe, white people were the majority, and all other races were considered inferior and unimportant. Rodrigo and Iago disparage Othello’s apparent race in the first scene, calling him “Thick Lips” and “Barbary Horse,” among other things (Othello 1.1.72). Most of the time, biased characters refer to Othello as an ugly creature: “turn thy complexion there, Patience, thou young and rose-lipped cherubin, Ay, there look grim as hell” (Othello 4.2.72-74). In other words, they used racist language to label Othello as an outsider and as less human and thus less deserving of respect. This prejudice appears to have been internalized by Othello.

Ever since the drama Othello, the Moor from Venice, Shakespeare portrayed Othello in many ways as a tragic hero and, in many cases, led to his failure. Othello is a great and noble man of high status who turns tragic as Shakespeare portrays him. He serves as the commanding general of the army in Venice, and then becomes the governor of Cyprus. The main character has an increasingly successful career, and his life seems flawless until he gets into trouble. Othello is overwhelmed by his pride and arrogance, which makes him vulnerable when it comes to correcting mistakes. From the study of this traditional tragic hero, it is clear that his disappearance is due to the presence of his arch-enemy Iago. It was also certain individual factors that destroy his success, such as self-pride and other social changes in the country.

Bianca’s character could be compared to Rodrigo because both were besotted by someone who did not respond enough to their advances, and neither of them quickly realized when they had been cheated. Yet, they believed that true love would eventually be returned to them. She was a prostitute; however, her profession did not determine her as a negligible person. Instead, she was rather a plaintive figure due to Cassio and Iago’s attempts to use her for ill purposes.

Moreover, she was a victim of circumstances because other people contributed to her jealousy. Bianca was first depicted in act 3, scene 3, where Iago disclosed that Desdemona gave Othello a handkerchief as an expression of her love, and he would lose it in Cassio’s lodgings. After discovering it in the next scene, Cassio admired how the handkerchief was crafted and asked Bianca to copy it for him. Bianca, already angry at Cassio for his evident negligence in their relationship, supposed that it was a gift from another woman; yet she complied with his request. Even after a talk with Cassio, who she was deeply in love with, she said: Bianca says, “I must be circumstanced” (Othello 3.4.232). This proves that her surroundings were ill-mannered, and she was hapless in that situation.

In addition, Bianca was exposed to terrible attitudes from her clients. For instance, Iago stated that Cassio mistreated her as well as did her potential husbands: ’tis the strumpet’s plague/ To beguile many and be beguiled by one” (Othello 4.1.115-116). Hence, Bianca realized that everybody around merely misused her and that Cassio’s request for a handkerchief made her vulnerable. Even after Cassio was assaulted, she still rushed to help him, while Iago accused her of all the misfortunes.

To summarize, despite that some people claimed Shakespeare’s Othello to be a distorted version of the tragedy, Shakespeare used the means of the classic Aristotle’s tragedy to develop his play. In addition, even though the protagonist had a very high rank and many other pleasures in life, he was exposed to jealousy and racial discrimination. The other character Bianca was ill-used and became a victim of circumstances. Her mishaps were not due to her infamous profession, but rather because of the people surrounding her. Therefore, Bianca could only be sympathized with since she was clearly betrayed by Cassio.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of OTHELLO, the Moor of Venice . Edited by Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine, Simon & Schuster, 2017.

Shakespeare, William. “Othello: The Moor of Venice.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 8th ed. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Boston: Pearson, 2016. 962-1060. Print.

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1. IvyPanda . "Why "Othello" by William Shakespeare Is a Tragedy." November 7, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/why-othello-by-william-shakespeare-is-a-tragedy/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Why "Othello" by William Shakespeare Is a Tragedy." November 7, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/why-othello-by-william-shakespeare-is-a-tragedy/.

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Is Othello the Victim? A Literary Essay Example

The play Othello by Shakespeare is an interesting play which manages to twist the nature of a character into different directions hence confusing the readers view towards the character. This is evident with Othello's character in the play. Othello change over time as the play progresses and at the end of the play, the reader is left wondering whether he is the victim of the entire play or is he the villain in the play. One's choice depends on the understanding of the play and the different interpretation of the different incidences occurring within the play towards Othello. From my stand, Othello is the victim within the entire play since all his actions are driven by factors unknown to him but only the readers of the play and the Lago and Roderigo.

From the beginning of the play Roderigo, a rich man and Lago the main villain in the play formulate a diabolic plan to separate the marriage of Othello and his wife, Desdemona. They accuse Othello of stealing the daughter of Brabanzio which is not true. Both characters have their hidden motives which include the fact that Lago hates Othello for passing a promotion he found fit for him to an inexperienced soldier Michael Cassio while Roderigo is after getting Othellos wife.

Were I the Moor I would not be Iago.In following him I follow but myself;Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,But seeming so for my peculiar end.For when my outward action doth demonstrateThe native act and figure of my heartIn compliment extern, tis not long afterBut I will wear my heart upon my sleeveFor daws to peck at. I am not what I am. (I.i.5765)

From this speech by Lago, e explain to Roderigo his plain on how he is going to frame his master so as to revenge on what he did towards him as well as how to get Roderigo the wife he needs. He explains how he is to follow is master not because of love but because of his duty and his plans. The speech exemplifies Lego's cryptic and elliptical manner of speaking. Also, this portrays his real intentions.

Up to this point, we have not been introduced to any weakness of Othello which may make him a villain in the entire play. On confrontation, Othello confirms that he has not used any sort of witchcraft to lure Desdemona into marrying him but out of his stories of war and adventure she has fallen in love with him and decided to marry him. This brings out an image of who Othello is to the reader. He is seen as an honest man, and this is confirmed by Desdemona. She claims that she has fallen in love with Othello and it has nothing to do with witchcraft.

My noble father,I do perceive here a divided duty.To you I am bound for life and education.My life and education both do learn meHow to respect you. You are the lord of my duty,I am hitherto your daughter. But heres my husband,And so much duty as my mother showedTo you, preferring you before her father,So much I challenge that I may professDue to the Moor my lord. (I.iii.179188)

The above is Desdemona's speech which is directed to her father where she tries to show her father that her decision to be with Othello is completely based on her the love she has for him, and she now owes her loyalty to her husband.

The duke wants Othello to go to Cyprus so as to aid the defense against the Turks. This shows the resourcefulness of Othello. It's hard to possess such qualities if one has any signs of being a villain since one is usually motivated by personal gains. Good examples being Lago and Roderigo. Their trip to Cyprus has all sorts of hidden motives which make them more of villains rather than the heroes within the plot of the play. The failed attack on Cyprus by the Turkish is an event that gets them in a relaxed mood. Othello has the intentions of the people at heart and reveals of the celebration to be held due to the turn of events. It takes a good heart to let people celebrate and have fun together.

Every person happens to have their weaknesses and Othello is no different. After Lago plots on how to get him into thinking his wife is having an affair, this gets him so jealous that he starts acting badly towards her. He does not take time to think through the situation and acts out of information given to him by Lago. This is a huge character flaw, he does not take time to consider the actions of Cassio before the incident that happened, and neither does he take his time to listen to his wife.

as summer flies are in the shambles [slaughterhouses],

/ That quicken even with blowing (IV.ii.6364, 6869)At some point some readers may consider these as the main reasons to perceive Othello as a villain. As the Victim within the play, Othello is expected to have better ways to address the problems rather than how he handles them. Bearing in mind the same Lago who had conspired with Roderigo to claim that he had used witchcraft on Desdemona. But all this can be overlooked by the fact that Othello ha no clue of all the events that were happening. This does not clearly justify his actions in relation to the situation, but the fact that he had no idea he was being set up makes him more of a victim within the play.

The killing of his own wife seals the thought of many readers towards the conclusion that Othello is less of a victim but more of a villain. It's hard to refute this claim due to the evidence within the play. There is no justifiable reason behind the murder of your loved one despite the amount of love towards the person. But it is still possible to claim all these actions were based on false information feed in his mind by the true villain within the play. On the discovery of this information Othello cannot bear the thought of having killed his wife as long as the guilt of his actions. He wants to revenge on Lago but when this is impossible. This leads to his next cause of action which is taking of his life.

Then must you speakOf one that loved not wisely but too well,Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought,Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand,Like the base Indian, threw a pearl awayRicher than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,Albeit unused to the melting mood,Drop tears as fast as the Arabian treesTheir medicinable gum. Set you down this,And say besides that in Aleppo once,Where a malignant and a turbaned TurkBeat a Venetian and traduced the state,I took by th throat the circumcised dogAnd smote him thus. (V.ii.341-354)

The speech is before he stabs himself and tries to identify himself as a threat and an outsider. He takes his act of suicide as a service to his state. This shows words of a good person who finds out his mistakes and decides to take action on himself for a villain to do such an act it is completely impossible. We find Lago again trying to escape so as to avoid the consequences of his actions, unlike Othello. From the different analysis, it is evident that he turns out to be the victim throughout the play although different readers may have different opinions regarding the entire play.

Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. "Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, and writing." Compact Interactive Edition (2010).

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English Literature
William Shakespeare

Victims in Shakespeares play Othello.

Alice Kostrzewa

Victims in Shakespeares play Othello

William Shakespeare presents the character Othello the eponymous hero of the play, as a victim of racism and prejudice. Othello suffers from being one of a black minority in the 16 th century white Venetian society. It is seen that by the end of Act One, Iago, Othello’s trusted ancient, has gone as far as to plan to destroy Othello’s life.

Iago is an anthrapist, he hates everybody, one reason why he hates Othello is that he promoted Cassio to be his lieutenant over Iago. We learn that Iago is a racist, by the language he uses towards Othello, ‘black, ass, Barbary,’ he, Iago a white Venetian, cannot believe that a black Moor has more and power dictatorship over the Venetian army than him.

‘Old black ram is tupping your white ewe,’ is the first of many racist and prejudice quotations from Iago. This quotation shows that Othello is a victim of racial stereotyping. It also symbolises that black men are ruled by lust and passion not by reason. Shakespeare’s use of the verb tupping symbolises the act of sexual intercourse. Shakespeare’s choice of simile the ‘old black ram’ symbolises Othello, the old black feisty male sheep, the other simile in this quotation, ‘the white ewe’ symbolises Desdemona the white harmless female sheep.

‘Covered with a Barbary horse’, is another quotation, which Shakespeare uses to symbolise sexual intercourse, the verb “covered” symbolises this. Shakespeare’s choice of simile Barbary horse symbolises Othello the North African horse. This is another animal reference and racial stereotyping towards Othello.

‘Cassio’s a proper man ……abuse Othello’s ear, that he is too familiar with his wife,’ Shakespeare shows in this quotation Iago’s desire for revenge. Shakespeare’s choice of the verb abuse suggests that Iago is not going to tell Othello directly but manipulate him into thinking that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio.

In Act One, Othello suffers from victimisation from Brabantio his father in law. Brabantio does not believe that Othello is good enough for Desdemona his daughter, he believes that Othello has ‘practised on her with foul charms enchantments and black magic’. Shakespeare uses the verb practise to symbolise Brabantio claiming that Othello has experimented on Desdemona with his black magic.

The Duke, the most important man in Venetian society, is against Brabantio’s accusation ‘your son-in-law is far more fair than black’. This refers to Othello the Duke says Othello is better for Desdemona than any common white man.

In Act Two Othello is now presented as a victim of lies, manipulation, self-doubt, hatred, slander and racism.

This is a preview of the whole essay

‘Desdemona is directly in love with Cassio’ this quotation shows Othello is now a victim of lies and slander from Iago. In Act One was just manipulating the truth but now he is lying. Othello is not the direct victim of this lie but his wife Desdemona, as Iago is saying she had an affair with Cassio. Shakespeare shows that Desdemona has now become a victim of lies. In sixteenth century Venetian society would have reflected on Othello’s honour. If it was discovered that Desdemona was having an affair it would be more inexpedient for Othello than Desdemona.

Othello has become a victim of himself and hasty decisions ‘Cassio, I love thee, but never more be officer of mine’. Shakespeare now shows that Othello has easily been manipulated into becoming his own victim. Othello’s hasty decisions were based on the lies and slander whispered to Othello by Iago. Othello’s dismissal of Cassio, his lieutenant, results in Iago’s promotion to Lieutenant, which is what Iago desired all a long.

In Act Three is now presented as a victim of ignorance, jealousy, manipulation, self-doubt, trickery, passion, anger, lies, being alien to the culture, slander and deceit.

‘Jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster’ Shakespeare uses this quotation to show how Othello has now become a victim of jealousy. The language Shakespeare uses the simile of calling jealousy a green -eyed monster suggests that it is as evil as a monster, green-eyed is often associated with greed and envy. This quotation could also show that Othello is possessive of Desdemona and jealousy is eating him up inside.

‘I’ll see before I doubt’ in this quotation Shakespeare shows Othello is not convinced by Iago. Othello at this point believes Iago but still loves his wife Desdemona.

‘In Venice they do let God see the pranks, they dare not show their husbands’ Shakespeare demonstrates in this quotation Iago’s manipulation of Othello. Othello is now a victim of being strange to the culture. Shakespeare’s use of the word pranks means Desdemona’s affair, women in Venice may take lovers knowing that God is aware of their activities but keep everything secret from their husbands. Iago uses Othello’s lack of experience in Venetian society to manipulate him into thinking that it is commonplace for women to have affairs.

‘Set on thy wife to observe’ Shakespeare shows here that Othello has become entrapped in Iago’s web of lies that he believes his loving wife is an affair. Othello now wants Emilia, Iago’s wife, to secretly spy on Desdemona. Iago will make sure that Emilia tells Othello nothing, because he knows that Desdemona only loves Othello. Othello is now a victim of self-doubt because he is uncertain of Desdemona.

‘Must be to loathe her’ Shakespeare uses this quotation to show how Othello is a victim of hatred and is making Desdemona the victim of hatred. In the sixteenth century hate was a very strong word, it was not used as lightly as it is used today.

In the play Iago asks Emilia to get hold of the handkerchief that was the first present Desdemona received from Othello. The handkerchief is very important to Othello, as it was his mothers, so he gave it to the love of his life Desdemona. When Emilia finds the handkerchief she hands it to her husband Iago. When Iago shows Othello the handkerchief, which he said he had found in Cassio’s room, Othello replies with ‘a whore’. He has now been reduced to calling his loving wife a whore. Shakespeare shows how Othello has fallen into Iago’s trap so far that he is making Desdemona a victim of hatred and abusive language.

‘I’ll tear her to pieces’ Shakespeare demonstrates how evil and hatful Othello has now become. Shakespeare presents Desdemona as a victim of abusive language and death threats.

‘That Cassio is not alive’ Shakespeare uses this quotation to show that Othello now wants his wife and lieutenant dead. Othello has now become so entrapped in Iago’s web of deceits that he is making Desdemona and Cassio victims. Othello who was originally the victim has now become the victimiser so it was like he had become Iago’s puppet to be manipulated into what he wants.

In Act Four Othello is now no longer the real victim but Desdemona is the victim of abuse, both physical and verbal, hatred and slander.

Shakespeare presents Desdemona as a victim of Othello’s abusive language ‘chuck impudent strumpet whore of Venice’ are all examples of Othello using abusive language towards Desdemona. Shakespeare uses these phrases to demonstrate how full of hatred Othello has become towards Desdemona, this shows how Desdemona is a victim of hatred.

Desdemona says ‘for the love I bear to Cassio’ innocently meaning that she misses Cassio for he is no longer Othello’s lieutenant. Due to his poisoned mind Othello takes this in the wrong way. This shows that even a harmless statement can be turned rotten by a twisted mind. Othello responds to Desdemona’s remark by calling her devil and striking her. Shakespeare here shows Desdemona as a victim of verbal and physical violence. Shakespeare uses the noun devil to show how twisted Othello has become. Othello does not simply call Desdemona a whore but likens her to Satan by using the word devil to her.

After Lodovico witnessed Othello striking Desdemona he asked Iago what had happened to ‘the noble Moor of solid virtue’. Iago says that ‘ he is light of brain’. Shakespeare uses this quotation to show Iago calling Othello mad and also how people around Othello have noticed a change in his behaviour.

Act Five is the final act of the play, in this act there are many victims. The victims in this act are Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, Roderigo and Emilia. Desdemona is the main victim in this Act.

‘Thou art to die’, Shakespeare uses this quotation to show Othello telling Desdemona that she should die. Desdemona is now a victim of death threats and verbal abuse. Othello confronts Desdemona about Cassio, Desdemona denies all these accusations. So Othello says ‘ Cassio have confessed’ Shakespeare again shows that Othello has been entrapped by Iago.

‘Stumpet!’ Othello gets angry when Desdemona denies all the accusations she tries to fight off Othello but she fails. Othello murders his wife on the basis of lies. Desdemona is now a victim of murder, she is also a victim of herself. Shakespeare demonstrates this by her weakness, she is unable to stand up to Othello and she was blind to the changes in his persona. She trusted to the end in her love and that Othello’s love for her would prevail. She was a victim of denial, ‘my wife! My wife! What wife! I have no wife’, here Othello is denying that he has a wife, thus making grows harsh’ Desdemona a victim of denial. Shakespeare uses this to show that Othello is now a victim of grief. Even though Desdemona did not start as a victim she has become a victim.

Othello still remains a victim in this act even though he is victimising Desdemona. “My Wife! My Wife! What wife? I have no wife’ presents Othello as a victim of grief and denial. Shakespeare uses anger, denial and grief in Othello’s language. Shakespeare shows that Othello is still very angry with Desdemona as he shouts that he has no wife. In ‘Filthy bargain’ and ‘blacker devil’ Shakespeare shows that Othello is a victim of verbal abuse, racial stereotyping and racism. Othello is also a victim of being a murderer, ‘twas I that killed her’. Shakespeare shows that Othello is now a confessed murderer.

‘Killing myself’, Othello commits suicide and dies beside Desdemona. Shakespeare shows that Othello is a victim of suicide. He also shows that Othello would prefer to die and be remembered as an army general than to be imprisoned and be known as a murderer who had it all and lost it.

In this act Cassio is also a victim, so now Cassio along with Desdemona and Othello have been entrapped by Iago, and are all victims. Cassio is a victim of attempted murder because Iago manipulated Roderigo to murder Cassio. So now Roderigo is a victim of manipulation. Iago’s plot of revenge towards Cassio fails as Roderigo is killed and Cassio is only injured. So now Roderigo is a victim of manipulation and murder.

‘Not Cassio killed!’ Then murders out of tune, And sweet revenge grows harsh’, this quotation is Othello’s response when he finds out that Cassio was only injured. This shows verbal abuse and a plot of revenge towards Cassio. ‘Fruit of whoring’ is a further example of verbal abuse towards Cassio, this is from Iago in response to hearing of Cassio’s injuries, showing Cassio as a victim of verbal abuse from two sources.

Emilia is also a victim in this act as she gets stabbed in the back by her husband. ‘Villianous whore’ Shakespeare now shows that Iago has even entrapped his own wife and called her a whore. Shakespeare shows that Emilia is a victim of murder and verbal abuse. Iago has now entrapped all the main characters of the play, he has made them all victims.

Iago has managed to kill Othello, Desdemona, Emilia and Roderigo and injured Cassio. Iago also manages to make himself a victim as Othello stabs him. Iago has weaved so many lies and deceptions that in the end he manipulates his own injury.

Throughout the play we observe the gradual destruction of Othello from a kind, trusting, loving man to a jealous, untrusting, evil, twisted man by Iago. This play can be described as a simile. Iago is a spider that is spinning a web of lies and deceit. His initial prey is Othello, as he continues to spread his web he catches Desdemona and Cassio and then in the final act his web captures Roderigo and Emilia. The web eventually overtakes him and he is consumed by it as well.

Shakespeare shows in this play how trusting the wrong people can lead to your demise. Othello trusts Iago who uses this to his own advantage. Shakespeare also shows how one person can change people through lies, and ultimately shows how dangerous lies can be.

In this play Iago started to manipulate Othello for his own ends but it was not successful and in the end it turned on Iago. Othello is not the sole victim of this play, as Desdemona, Cassio, Emilia, Roderigo and Iago all become victims during the play.

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Mr. Biden encountered a tangle more than a mile long of concrete and steel that has snarled traffic , devastated blue-collar communities and disrupted operations at one of America’s biggest ports, threatening chaos that could ripple across supply chains.

Mr. Biden took an aerial tour of the damage and received a briefing from officials overseeing the cleanup and rebuilding efforts, before meeting privately with families of six construction workers who plunged into the Patapsco River when the bridge collapsed.

“We’re going to keep working hard to recover each of them,” Mr. Biden said.

Hours after Mr. Biden departed, the local authorities announced the recovery of the body of a construction worker, the third to be found. They identified the man as 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo Sandoval.

In his remarks, Mr. Biden described how the workers had been on a break from filling potholes right before disaster struck. Just seconds before, Mr. Biden said, one of the men, a 24-year-old, sent a message to his girlfriend that said, “We just poured cement, and we’re waiting for it to dry.”

Mr. Biden spoke of the pain of loss of loved ones, adding that “we’ll also never forget the contributions these men made to this city.”

In the week since the collapse, the administration has funded the harbor cleanup, unlocked $60 million in emergency funding to help rebuild the bridge, provided low-interest disaster loans to affected businesses and overseen efforts to manage any supply chain disruptions.

On Friday, Mr. Biden called on companies to commit to keeping employees — about 20,000 people depend on the port for jobs — on their payrolls as the port reopens. This week, senior administration officials, including Mr. Biden’s chief of staff, called major employers in the Baltimore area, including retail chains such as Home Depot and distributors like Amazon, to encourage them to retain workers.

“We’re going to move heaven and earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible,” Mr. Biden said. He called on Congress to help fulfill his promise that the federal government pay to rebuild the bridge.

As he spoke, the bridge’s steel girders remained partially submerged in water, reaching skyward like arms from a grave. The giant cargo vessel was still carrying dozens of colorful containers, and pieces of the broken bridge were lying across the ship’s bow.

Local and federal officials said the road to recovery would be long.

“As you can see behind me, the physical impact of this tragedy is massive,” said Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore. “But let’s be clear, the human impact is immeasurable.”

At a briefing on response efforts, Brig. Gen. John P. Lloyd from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers described a “mangled mess” that was being tackled by 51 divers and 12 cranes. He told the president that one pending task was to remove a large section of the bridge sitting on the ship. The section weighs 5,000 tons and is 125 feet high.

The bridge crumbled in the dead of night when a 985-foot-long cargo vessel crashed into it shortly after departing the Port of Baltimore, a vital economic engine that handles more cars and farm equipment than any other port in the country. The vessel, the Dali, lost power before it hit the bridge but sent a mayday call that gave officials enough time to halt bridge traffic.

But it was not enough time to get to workers who were already on the bridge.

The bodies of two of the workers were recovered from the river on March 27. Recovery efforts for the remaining workers, who were presumed dead, later stalled. The authorities said the bodies were most likely encased in steel and concrete.

Mr. Biden spoke affectionately of his own ties to the port of Baltimore, including his family who worked as watermen in the 1850s and his many years commuting from Delaware.

The structure, which took five years to build, opened in 1977 and served as a critical transportation link on the East Coast. It was named after Francis Scott Key, the Maryland-born author of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Mr. Biden’s response drew praise from Gov. Wes Moore, who said he received the first call from the White House at around 3 a.m., just 90 minutes after the collision.

“And every hour since we’ve worked hand in hand with this administration,” Mr. Moore said. “President Biden might not be a Marylander by birth. But I tell you, he’s proven what it means to be Maryland tough, and Baltimore strong.”

Scott Cowan, the president of the local chapter of the International Longshoremen’s Association, said he was encouraged by Mr. Biden’s visit but believed there was more to be done.

As the weeks go by, Mr. Cowan said, the situation for the 2,400 members of his local was getting more difficult. Around 400 people in the local were working at the moment, he said, with around 2,000 idled, roughly the inverse of the normal ratio.

If it had been a gradual work slowdown, people could have adjusted, he said, but “it was like hitting a wall” when the bridge collapsed and all but shut down the port.

“President Biden does know about ports,” Mr. Cowan said. “I think he wants to do so something. But obviously there’s Congress involved too.”

Jacey Fortin contributed reporting.

Campbell Robertson

The economic impact of the bridge collapse stretches far beyond Baltimore.

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge last week was both a human tragedy, with six lives lost, and an economic catastrophe. More than 30,000 vehicles crossed the bridge daily, including some 4,900 trucks that each year move $28 billion in goods. All of that traffic is being forced to find new routes.

But the collapse also shut down much of the Port of Baltimore, which handles millions of tons of cars, trucks, industrial machinery and other cargo every year. Thousands of dock workers help move this cargo; in 2023, more than 15,000 jobs were directly connected to the port, and tens of thousands more were linked to it.

Pete Buttigieg, the secretary of transportation, told reporters last week that the port accounted for “about $2 million” in wages every day. “That’s one of the areas we’re most concerned about,” he said.

The Small Business Administration has opened offices in the area, and federal officials said that funds had been made available for up to $2 million in low-interest, long-term loans for small businesses and nonprofits affected by the bridge collapse.

But the key is getting the port back. While the authorities have opened two alternative channels , these routes are much shallower than the deep draft channel used by the massive barges carrying the bulk of the port’s cargo.

On Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that engineers planned to open a deeper channel to ship traffic by the end of April , and to reopen the permanent deep draft navigation channel by the end of May.

“We still have a long road ahead of us getting vessel traffic back to full capacity,” Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland said at a news conference. “But we will get it back up to full capacity. It’s critical for our workers. It’s critical for our economy. It’s critical for our state. And it’s critical for our country.”

In a working-class area near the bridge, some residents were skeptical of the president’s visit.

President Biden has a lot of skeptics in Edgemere , a working-class neighborhood southeast of Baltimore and just on the eastern side of the Patapsco River, but the bridge doesn’t have a lot to do with that.

“Do I think they’re doing enough? How much can they do?” Denise Melvin, 61, said when asked about Mr. Biden and his administration. Ms. Melvin is a nurse who now leaves the house at 5 a.m. to get to work on time — a longer commute because of the bridge collapse. She is not terribly keen on Mr. Biden, she said, but she added: “No one expected this.”

In the parking lot of the Food Lion, Howard and Dawn Baker said they believed that everyone in Washington was out of touch with working people, Mr. Biden certainly included.

The vast economic ripples from the collapse of the bridge — and all of the international companies involved — “just shows we’re caught in a trap; we’re so interconnected,” Ms. Baker said.

Mr. Baker said the government’s critical job here was to enforce rules that might have prevented the collapse and to hold parties responsible that had caused it, but he did not hold out much hope that they would do that. “The government doesn’t hold anybody responsible,” Mr. Baker, 71, said. “They don’t even hold themselves responsible.”

At the Sail Inn, a seafood restaurant in the nearby harborside community of Sparrows Point that would normally have a bustling dock worker crowd for lunch, Will Gustaitis sat at the corner of the bar rolling his eyes at the presidential visit.

“He could help our country a lot more going to the border than coming here,” said Mr. Gustaitis, who does not work on the docks but routinely took the bridge.

Lance Mauck, 51, a community college professor sitting down the bar, remarked that Mr. Biden did seem to have been aggressively involved in this whole thing. “I thought he was very quick about offering money,” he said. It was unclear if Mr. Mauck meant it as a compliment. He predicted that the president would push for the bridge money in a bill, load the bill down with other Democratic priorities, then turn it into a campaign issue when Republicans balked.

Mr. Gustaitis, 60, agreed with that prediction. He wished Mr. Trump were visiting, but he allowed that a visit from him would not make any difference, either. “That bridge is going to be rebuilt no matter what,” he said.

Jacey Fortin

“We’re going to move heaven and earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible,” Biden said. “And we’re going to do so with union labor and American steel.”

Folks, finally, we’re going to move heaven and earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible. And we’re going to do so with union labor and American steel. For simple reasons, you’re the best workers in the world, and that’s not hyperbole.

Erica L. Green

Biden pays tribute to the construction workers killed in the bridge collapse, reciting the last message one of the men left his girlfriend. They had just poured cement and were waiting for it to dry, he said. The president is scheduled to meet with the families of the killed workers after his remarks.

Biden called on companies to commit to keeping employees on their payrolls as the port reopens. He said 20,000 employees depend on the port, one of the country’s largest.

President Biden was met with a standing ovation as he began remarks at the Francis Scott Key Bridge. “Your nation has your back,” he said. He described his family's ties to the area, including watermen in the 1850s.

The leader of a port workers union seeks more help for his members.

Scott Cowan, the president of International Longshoremen’s Association Local No. 333, covering the Port of Baltimore, welcomed President Biden’s visit and said he was encouraged by the president’s public posture so far on the bridge collapse, though he believed there was more that needed to be done.

“President Biden does know about ports; the state he comes from, Delaware, has a port,” Mr. Cowan said. “I think he wants to do so something, but, obviously, there’s Congress involved, too.”

As the days go by, Mr. Cowan said, the situation for the 2,400 members of his local was getting more difficult. Around 400 people were working at the moment, he said, with around 2,000 idled, roughly the reverse of the normal ratio. If this had been a gradual work slowdown, people could have adjusted, he said, but “it was like hitting a wall” when the bridge collapsed and all but shut down the port.

“We need some money in the pockets of these men and women to put food on the table and keep the lights on,” he said. Mr. Cowan, who was expected to be with the president during today’s visit, said he was pushing for a temporary supplement to unemployment insurance, similar to what happened during the Covid pandemic, and that he was hopeful that something would be worked out.

Anna Betts and JoAnna Daemmrich

Anna Betts reported from New York, and JoAnna Daemmrich reported from Baltimore.

Here’s what the bridge meant to Baltimore.

Blue-collar workers crossed it. Families went crabbing around it. Teenagers celebrated new driver’s licenses by traversing it. And couples were known to get engaged near it.

Completed in 1977, the Francis Scott Key Bridge was a practical, final link to the beltway of roads that circled Baltimore Harbor, a much-needed solution to reduce Harbor Tunnel congestion. But for so many, it was more than that.

For some, it symbolized the working-class communities around it — for others, the city itself. The bridge also served as a reminder of a storied chapter in history: Near Fort McHenry, the bridge is believed by historians to be within 100 yards from where Key was held by the British during the War of 1812, when he witnessed the siege of the fort in September 1814 and wrote the poem that became the national anthem. (A star-spangled buoy commemorates the supposed spot.)

And the Key Bridge was simply a presence in people’s everyday lives. Since the collapse last week, residents have been processing the loss on many levels, from profound grief for the six workers who died, to concern for the immigrant communities affected by the port’s shutdown, to a sense of emptiness that has cast a pall over their memories.

Aatish Bhatia and Francesca Paris

The ship struck the Baltimore bridge with a force on the scale of a rocket launch.

The Dali, the container ship that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, had appeared to be moving slowly before it made contact with a pier. Yet it delivered a force so large that one reasonable comparison is to a rocket launch.

How could something traveling slower than a casual bike rider cause such a devastating impact? The answer lies in its mass: roughly a third to a half of the Empire State Building.

It may be months or even years before engineers conduct careful simulations of this disaster that take into account all the variables. But we used the limited available data to start to understand how strong the collision might have been.

And even our most oversimplified calculations show the impact was enormous.

Our lowest estimate of how much force it would take to slow the Dali, if it were fully loaded, is around 12 million newtons, about a third of the force it took to launch the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo moon missions.

And our higher-end estimates, reviewed by several civil engineering experts, suggest it is realistic to put the force of the impact with the pier at upward of 100 million newtons.

Experts disagreed on whether it was reasonable for any bridge pier to withstand a direct collision with a massive container ship.

“Depending on the size of the container ship, the bridge doesn’t have any chance,” said Nii Attoh-Okine , a professor of engineering at the University of Maryland. He said the Key Bridge had been performing perfectly before this accident occurred, and that he thought 95 to 99 percent of bridges would be damaged if such a container ship were to strike them.

But Sherif El-Tawil , an engineering professor at the University of Michigan who reviewed our calculations, said it was feasible to design a pier that would stay standing after such an impact.

Modern bridges, designed in the age of ultralarge shipping containers, are typically built with stronger piers or protection systems around the piers that can either absorb or deflect the force of ship collisions.

But the Key Bridge was completed in 1977, when standards were different and ships were far smaller .

President Biden is en route to Baltimore, where he will start his visit with an aerial tour of the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Debris clean-up has begun, but the devastation is stark. The bridge’s steel girders are partly submerged in water, reaching skyward like arms from a grave.

Erica L. Green , Jacey Fortin and Eduardo Medina

The body of a third construction worker has been recovered.

The body of a third construction worker who died in the catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore was found on Friday morning, officials said.

The man, identified as 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo Sandoval, was discovered by divers, according to a release from local authorities.

“The collapse of the Key Bridge is undoubtedly one of the most challenging tragedies we have faced as a law enforcement agency,” Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of the Maryland state police, said in a statement announcing the recovery. “Along with our local, state and federal public safety partners, we will not give up.”

Mr. Suazo Sandoval’s body was found around 10:30 a.m., officials said, just hours before President Biden visited the site of the disaster and met with victims’ families. The bodies of three more victims have yet to be recovered more than a week after the bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River.

“While I take solace in knowing this brings us one step closer to closure, my heart continues to be with all the families still waiting anxiously for their loved ones,” Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement.

The men were part of a construction crew working on the Baltimore roadway before dawn on March 26 when a gigantic cargo ship rammed into the bridge. Two workers survived the destruction, but six disappeared into the dark water. They were presumed dead by the evening.

A day later, two of their bodies were found inside of a red pickup underwater. But efforts to locate the other victims have been severely hampered by the colossal underwater wreckage.

Divers have been sifting through the ruins of the bridge, but they can barely see two feet in front of them as they navigate heaps of mangled steel and piles of crumbled concrete in murky water. With help from sonar renderings, they are working to survey and salvage the wreckage to ultimately clear the channel — a daunting project, of which recovering victims is only one part.

Still, “the recovery is not an afterthought,” Col. Estee S. Pinchasin of the Army Corps of Engineers said at a news conference on Thursday. “It’s integrated in that plan.”

The six men who died have been named by the authorities, relatives or advocacy organizations: In addition to Mr. Suazo Sandoval, who was from Honduras, the victims were Jose López, who was in his 30s and from Guatemala; Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, who was from Mexico; Carlos Hernández, 24, from Mexico; Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, from Guatemala; and Miguel Luna, who was in his 40s and from El Salvador. The bodies of Mr. Fuentes and Mr. Cabrera were recovered on March 27.

The men were working late at night to ensure that thousands of other Marylanders could use the Key Bridge to commute to their own jobs. “And they never came home,” said Lucía Islas, a community leader and president of Comité Latino de Baltimore, a nonprofit that assists the Hispanic community.

“They hailed from communities that have gone long overlooked and underappreciated,” Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement on Friday. “But their work had dignity — and their contributions will never be forgotten.”

In the days since the collapse, friends and relatives of the victims have been preoccupied with unanswered questions, said Donna Batkis, a clinical social worker in Baltimore who has helped the victims’ families.

The families of the men whose bodies have not been found have been left to wonder where their loved ones are. “Waiting is a very hard space to be in,” Ms. Batkis said.

From above, the president will see the Dali looking much as it has been for the past few days: The giant cargo vessel is still carrying dozens of colorful containers, and pieces of the broken bridge are lying across the ship’s bow. Sonar images show that the wreckage under the water is even messier: The riverbed is littered with crushed and mangled steel from the bridge, pieces of which have plunged down into the mud.

Though the earthquake this morning could be felt in Baltimore, the Key Bridge Joint Information Center said there were “no reports of it impacting our operations.”

Jim Tankersley

As President Biden heads to the bridge today, his budget director, Shalanda Young, is calling on Congress to authorize a “100 percent federal cost share for rebuilding the bridge” — meaning state and local governments would not bear any rebuilding costs.

Young sent the request in a letter on Friday to congressional committee leaders, noting a precedent in 2007, when a freeway bridge collapsed in Minnesota.

Michael Corkery

Investigators expect to issue a preliminary report on the bridge collapse this month.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board expect to provide an early report later this month on the crash of a massive cargo ship into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a spokesman for the agency said.

But a full investigation could take as long as two years to complete, the spokesman, Peter C. Knudson, said in an email on Thursday.

The cargo vessel, called the Dali, was leaving the Port of Baltimore when it had what one industry official described as a “ complete blackout ” that knocked out power to the engine and the navigation equipment. The ship issued a warning shortly before hitting one of the bridge’s pylons, which is a critical structural component.

Radio traffic from emergency workers suggested that the crew was struggling to steer the ship, according to audio published by Broadcastify.

The N.T.S.B. has been focused on what happened aboard the 985-foot ship in the moments before its collision with the bridge. On the night of March 26, N.T.S.B. investigators boarded the ship to gather documentation. They obtained data from the voyage data recorder, which is essentially the ship’s “black box.”

Maritime and shipping experts have been puzzled by what could have caused such a catastrophic power failure on a modern cargo ship and why there appeared to be no working backup power source.

Getting to the bottom of these issues has high stakes for the shipping company that owned the vessel, as well as the company’s insurers, which could be asked to cover the costs of the recovery and rebuilding effort or face other legal issues. The bridge collapse killed six construction workers.

“The thing that we know is that if there are people who need to be held to account for what happened, they need to be held to account,’’ Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland said in a news conference on Thursday.

Victoria Kim

Baltimore shipping channel will partially reopen by the end of April, officials say.

A shipping channel in the Baltimore harbor that has remained blocked since last week’s collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge will be partially reopened by the end of April, with full traffic expected to be restored by late May, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday.

The announcement comes ahead of President Biden’s scheduled visit to the site of the wreckage on Friday. A giant container ship rammed into the bridge on March 26, causing the bridge to plunge into the waterway leading in and out of one of the nation’s busiest ports.

Officials have warned that clearing the warped, jagged debris from the channel will be a complex and potentially dangerous underwater salvage operation, as they scramble to reopen the Port of Baltimore, a key automobile hub that employs 8,000 people.

A 280-foot-wide, 35-foot-deep channel leading to the port is expected to be opened first, allowing for container ships and vessels transporting automobiles, the Army corps, which maintains the shipping channel to ensure that it is navigable, said in a statement . The channel will allow one-way traffic of vessels at a time to and from the port, according to the statement.

Officials are aiming to reopen the full 700-foot-wide, 50-foot-deep span of the navigation channel a month later, bringing access to the port back to its normal capacity, according to the statement.

On Friday, Mr. Biden is scheduled to go on an aerial tour of the wreckage and receive a briefing on the response and recovery efforts, according to the White House. He is also expected to meet with the loved ones of six construction workers who fell into the river with the bridge’s collapse and are presumed dead.

In the 10 days since the collapse, responders conducted underwater surveys and detailed structural analysis of the bridge’s wreckage to assess the work that lies ahead, according to the statement.

Two smaller temporary channels, at 11 feet and 14 feet in depth, had previously been cleared and opened to allow some small barges and other vessels to travel to and from the port.

Experts said divers will first need to cut the metal and concrete structures that now sit at the bottom of the Patapsco River into more manageable pieces, which will then be hoisted to the surface by cranes. Divers will be working amid swift currents and low visibility.

The reconstruction of the bridge, which carried about 35 million vehicles annually and spanned 1.6 miles over the river, will be a much longer process that could take several years. The Biden administration said last week that it was allocating $60 million in emergency federal highway funds, the initial costs of what will likely be a far more costly operation.

Mr. Biden has pledged that the federal government would pay for the bridge to be rebuilt.

Christina Morales

The collapse is unlikely to affect Baltimore’s vital seafood industry.

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge came just days before the start of crab season in the Chesapeake Bay, but the accident, which has cut off Baltimore’s port, seems unlikely to disrupt the city’s vital seafood industry, according to local fishermen and restaurant owners.

Fishermen said the crabs are harvested from the bay, about three miles out from the destroyed bridge on the Patapsco River. “We don’t crab up there,” said Blair Baltus, the president of the Baltimore County Watermen’s Association and a board member for the Maryland Watermen’s Association .

Even so, Mr. Baltus said it will be inconvenient — and possibly costly — to reroute shipments of seafood, including the more than five truckloads a day of blue crab that are flown or driven in from other states for restaurants to serve during Maryland’s off-season.

“This is a crab-eating state,” he said.

Maryland’s blue crab season opens Monday and runs through Dec. 15. Summer is the peak time for locals to enjoy the crab, the official state crustacean , whether steamed by the bushel or shaped into crab cakes. Supplies of blue crab experienced a shortage in 2021 , as more people began eating at restaurants after the initial shock of the coronavirus pandemic and prices rose substantially.

Kim Gardner, the general manager of L.P. Steamers in Baltimore’s Locust Point neighborhood, upriver from the crash site, said that much of the restaurant’s blue crab is flown in from Louisiana or Texas during the off-season. Even though Maryland’s crab season begins in a few days, she said, locally caught crabs “aren’t that great until the weather warms up.”

Crime victims deserve compensation for their healing. Meet Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick

Good morning:

On March 27, 2023, a little more than a year ago, a shooter walked into Nashville’s The Covenant School, killing three adults and three 9-year-old children. It was a tragedy that garnered the attention of the nation and galvanized gun reform activists in Nashville and beyond.

Much of the outrage and proposed legislation was targeted to Tennessee’s lack of so-called “red flag” laws — wherein a state can refuse to sell firearms to someone perceived to be a danger to others (because of mental health or other issues) and/or confiscate that individual’s legally owned weapons — as well as a refusal to ban semi-automatic, military-style weapons, like the AK-47.

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

These are worthwhile concerns, concerns that could have certainly prevented many of the mass shootings that have monopolized headlines. But for every workplace or school-based massacre, there are, unfortunately, many more shootings that occur outside of those spaces, many of them not involving the multiple parties that denote a “mass” shooting.

Nashville resident Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick lost her son Rodney Armstrong to gun violence in 2020. He was in the backyard of their Murfreesboro home when he was shot and killed following a dispute with a visitor. When Armstrong died, there were no bulletproof vests or building blueprints, no 20-page manifestos or 30-round magazines. There were just two young Black men and an argument — an argument that turned fatal.

These aren’t the shootings that garner camera crews and headlines, but in the conversation about guns — and victims of gun violence — they are still critically important.

This week, in a Tennessean guest opinion column , Muhammad-McCormick wrote about the importance of improving access to grants from the Tennessee Criminal Compensation Fund, which, she writes, “is supposed to help victims and their families partially cover funeral expenses and trauma counseling.”

But she says that too much red tape that make the funds difficult, if not impossible, to access.

“Many mothers, just like me, whose children’s lives have been violently taken, are denied compensation,” Muhammad-McCormick wrote. “Others are too intimidated by the process to apply while others don’t even know that support is available. In fact, Tennessee’s fund denies 60% of requests for assistance from these very victims, ranking among the top five worst states for denials.”

For Muhammad-McCormick, improving access to the Tennessee Criminal Compensation Fund is but one aspect of restorative justice. These efforts, which include trauma counseling and laws designed to stem the tide of generational poverty, don’t replace red flag laws. They should, however, stand alongside them.

“We all want to be safe and not to live in fear,” Muhammad-McCormick wrote. “For too many communities this is not the reality. But it could be.”

What else should you read this weekend?

On the 56 th anniversary of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, Dr. Russ Wigginton, president of the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, reminds us of Dr. King’s fight for economic justice — a fight that continues today.

Martin Luther King III delivered a speech during an event at the National Civil Rights Museum, honoring his father’s legacy, mourning his death, and emphasizing what he believes is an ongoing need for unity and non-violence.

As Tennessee State University continues the search for its next president and attempts to recover $2.1 billion in state underfunding, students and administrators share how they plan to move forward under the leadership of its new, Gov. Bill Lee-appointed board.

As always, it’s a pleasure to be in your inbox, and if we haven’t yet connected, I’d love to hear from you!

Until next week…

Andrea Williams is an opinion columnist for The Tennessean and curator of the Black Tennessee Voices initiative. She has an extensive background covering country music, sports, race and society. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @AndreaWillWrite .

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Crime victims deserve compensation for their healing. Meet Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick

Rafiah McCormick with Moms Over Murder, is hugged by Karen Johnson during a press conference where McCormick spoke about the killing of her son, Rodney Armstrong at Cordell Hull State Office Building in Nashville , Tenn., Thursday, July 20, 2023.

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Othello: A+ Student Essay
Only when Othello buys into the absurd idea that his race inherently makes him dangerous does he begin to creep toward the possibility of doing violence to his wife. When he sees himself through society's eyes, as a barbaric interloper, Othello begins to despise himself, and it is that self-hatred that allows him to kill what he loves most ...
Is Othello a Victim or Villain?
View our services. However as much as Othello is the villain of the story, at more than one instance he has appeared to look like the victim as well. He appears to be a victim of his society and seems as though Iago toys with his irritable nature at his pleasure. Othello seems to be very gullible and at times very distant from the truth.
In Shakespeare's Othello , was Othello a villain or a victim?
Expert Answers. Othello is primarily a victim in the play, although it's important to remember that he is a villain to the extent that he kills Desdemona. Othello is the victim of both Iago's ...
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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Othello is one of Shakespeare's five best-known and widely studied tragedies, along with Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet.But as is so often with a well-known text, we don't know this one nearly as well as we think we do: Othello has more in it than jealousy, the 'green-eyed monster', and (implied) racial hatred.
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Analysis of William Shakespeare's Othello By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 0). Of all Shakespeare's tragedies . . . Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. From the moment when the temptation of the hero begins, the reader's heart and mind are held in a vice, experiencing the extremes of pity and fear, sympathy and repulsion, sickening hope and dreadful ...
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Othello by William Shakespeare, written around 1603, is a tragic play that delves into themes of jealousy, betrayal, and racism. Set in the Venetian Republic, the play follows Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army, and his ensign and antagonist, Iago. Othello's marriage to Desdemona, a Venetian woman, becomes a focal point for Iago ...
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Othello as Tragic Hero. From Hamlet, an ideal prince, and other essays in Shakesperean interpretation: Hamlet; Merchant of Venice; Othello; King Lear by Alexander W. Crawford. Boston R.G. Badger, 1916. In the matter of Othello and Iago, it cannot fairly be maintained that Iago was the sole cause of the calamities that befell Othello.
Shakespeare's Othello essay, summary, quotes and character analysis
Timeline. Master Shakespeare's Othello using Absolute Shakespeare's Othello essay, plot summary, quotes and characters study guides. Plot Summary: A quick review of the plot of Othello including every important action in the play. An ideal introduction before reading the original text. Commentary: Detailed description of each act with ...
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Othello, also titled The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, is a tragic play written by William Shakespeare in 1603 (as accepted by most scholars). The play was first staged on November 1st, 1604 and 1st published in 1622 by Thomas Walkley. The idea of comes from Italian writer's play The Moorish Captain, published in 1565.
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Better Essays. 1370 Words. 6 Pages. Open Document. William Shakespeare's Othello as a Victim. Not All Works Cited Included. In "Othello" Shakespeare shows that Othello is victimised in many ways, for instance; his race, his culture, his social position and naÃ¯ve. Othello's victimisation could also show Shakespeare's meaning of the term ...
Othello
Argues against Othello as a "victim," presenting him as responsible, if only in part, for his own actions. A good resource for both general readers and students. Nevo, Ruth.
Othello
Summary of Othello. Othello is one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, performed in five acts depicting the dramatic downfall of a hero as a result of racial prejudice, jealousy and pride. The play is set in motion when an African General in the Venetian Army, Othello, passes over Iago, a senior officer in the Venetian Army who is under ...
Othello Character Introduction
Shakespeare's Characters: Othello. A preliminary assumption may be that, because Othello kills his beloved wife after the devious machinations of Iago, then perhaps Othello is as much a victim of Iago's evil as Desdemona is of Othello's wrath. Some may argue that the sin of Iago - to plot the downfall of the Moor - is worse because it blossoms ...
Is Othello a victim of destiny, responsible for his own demise, or both
Othello gives in to negative thoughts and falls victim to his own demise: He begins to act as if her unfaithfulness is a certainty, bemoaning that "Othello's occupation is gone" (III.iii.357 ...
Why "Othello" by William Shakespeare Is a Tragedy Essay
A tragedy drama is a drama that covers the events of human achievement and suffering as a result of the protagonist's decisions at one time or another. The leaders are more likely to become victims of other people who intend to manipulate their power and good leadership skills. Although many critics consider Othello a perverted form of ...
How and in what ways is Othello a victim in the play
In this essay I am going to show how Othello is a victim in the play "Othello" by William Shakespeare. I will do this by comparing Othello to other characters and giving examples of how certain characters and situations affect this victimisation. Throughout the play Othello is a victim in many ways, some self-caused but most caused by others.
Critical interpretations Post-colonial readings Othello: A Level
Post-colonial readings. A post-colonial critique of the play considers the way in which Othello's race is portrayed, and considers the hero's 'outsider' status in a white world. In Gender, Race, Renaissance Drama (1987), Ania Loomba suggests the central conflict in Othello is 'between the racism of a white patriarchy and the threat ...
Essay Plan: Shakespeare presents Othello as a victim
- victim of Iago's self love/self interest. - victim to his entrapments from jealousy and selfishness - "Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body?" metaphor - entrapment, questioning - Othello portrays himself as having a lack of control - physical and spiritual combined. Ultimately powerless - sense that he used Othello for his own purposes - "I follow him to serve my turn upon him" - "We ...
Is Othello the Victim? A Literary Essay Example
Othello change over time as the play progresses and at the end of the play, the reader is left wondering whether he is the victim of the entire play or is he the villain in the play. One's choice depends on the understanding of the play and the different interpretation of the different incidences occurring within the play towards Othello.
Victims in Shakespeares play Othello.
Victims in Shakespeares play Othello. William Shakespeare presents the character Othello the eponymous hero of the play, as a victim of racism and prejudice. Othello suffers from being one of a black minority in the 16th century white Venetian society. It is seen that by the end of Act One, Iago, Othello's trusted ancient, has gone as far as ...
Othello: A Victim
"This essay is off to a great start. You have clearly stated your opinion about how Othello is portrayed as a victim. You analyze Othello's love and jealousy, and discuss how Iago was able to manipulate Othello. To strengthen this essay, please improve the transitions between paragraphs. Please include additional support for your arguments.
Othello section b essay plans Flashcards
Explore the significance of the military world to the tragedy of Othello. 'Venice and Cyprus are polar opposites: Venice represents civilisation and control, Cyprus represents catastrophe and chaos.'. 'Ultimately it is hard to see Emilia as anything other than a tragic victim of male power and malice.'.
Feminist Lens Essay On Othello
487 Words2 Pages. Gavin Obringer Monroe 2A 03/09/24. Othello Essay In William Shakespeare's "Othello," the character of Iago stands as a fascinating subject for feminist literary analysis. While the play centers on the tragic downfall of Othello and Desdemona, Iago's manipulative actions and his interactions with other characters offer a good ...
Essay Comparing Othello And Catcher In The Rye
Both Holden and Iago know how to get people riled up and use it to egg people on. Another similar theme of Othello and The Catcher in the Rye in regards to Iago and Holden, is their use of eavesdropping. Holden was at a club and was sitting next to a group of women and he "listened to their conversation for a while" (Salinger 111).
Biden Visits Baltimore to Show the 'Nation Has Your Back'
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Crime victims deserve compensation for their healing. Meet Rafiah
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