Innocence vs. Immorality in Othello Essay -- Othello essays

Innocence vs. Immorality in Othello In William Shakespeares tragic drama Othello we find a wide military of moral and immoral conduct, a full range of lifes goodness and badness. Let us in this paper examine the special types of each, and how they affect the outcome. In Shakespeares Four Giants Blanche Coles comments on the lack of honesty in Iagos speech The story that Iago narrates Roderigo about the promotion of Cassio all over him is not true, although it has been accepted by many discriminating scholars. Careless adaptation alone can account for this misapprehension, careless reading which for the moment dulls their alert to one of the most essential requirements of Shakespearean character analysis. That requirement is that the subscriber must never accept, or must always be earn to challenge, the word of any character unless the veracity of that character has been established, or unless the logical argument is accepted by more than one person of confirmed honesty . (76) Iagos lying is a type of immoral conduct which the ancient practices from lineage to end of the drama. But is lying his chief motivating evil? Roderigos opening lines to Iago in Act 1 Scene 1 withdraw us to the very root of the problem Tush never tell me I take it much unkindly That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse As if the arrange were thine, shouldst know of this. (1.1) In other words, the wealthy playboy has been paying forward the ancient for the soldiers intercession with Desdemona on behalf of Roderigo. This payoff has been in progress before the play begins, and it continues even in Cyprus. Yes, it would seem that currency is at the root of Iagos moral downfall, and of all the t... ...rce of evil, namely his purportedly false wife. But Emilia is the one who, in asserting the pureness of her murdered mistress, resuscitates morality in this play. Emilia refutes the untrue notions which Othello says motivated him to bug out she counters Iagos lies (She g ive it Cassio? No, alas, I found it, / And I did givet my husband.) and lays the guilt for Desdemonas murder on his shoulders. And she sacrifices her very life for the honor she dies a martyr, stabbed by evil Iago. Othello also is a martyr in a sense, paying in full for the crime that he committed. deeds CITED Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http//www.eiu.edu/multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos. Coles, Blanche. Shakespeares Four Giants. Rindge, bran-new Hampshire Richard Smith Publisher, 1957.