William Shakespeare’s Othello is an Aristotelian tragedy that dramatises the gradual demise of the eponymous protagonist. Shakespeare employs a multiplicity of literary techniques to convey universal ideas exemplified throughout the course of Othello’s decline. However, Oliver Parker reinvigorates the play’s timeless ideas in a cinematic medium, sexualising the play for modern sensibilities. Parker utilises visual motifs and cinematic devices to place an emphasis on the idea of power and its intrinsic relationship with language in the original play. Hence whilst retaining the authenticity of Shakespeare’s expression in creating this contemporary adaptation, Parker’s film… Shakespeare illustrates the power inherent in language through Othello’s speech in the courtship scene. Othello presents to the audience a dignified and powerful speech in his defence against Brabantio’s crude accusations.
He establishes a sincere tone when greeting the Venetian state’s ‘most potent, grave and reverend signiors’ whilst also presenting himself as a modest speaker, who is ‘rude…in [his] speech’. His statement is ironic in that his courtship speech is eloquent and adds credibility to his defence. In telling his ‘unvarnished tale’ in the ‘tented field’, vivid imagery is created through Othello’s use of cumulation and alliteration when describing his life in ‘battles, sieges [and] fortunes’ by ‘flood and field’. His emotive emphasis on his military background sways the senator’s views, slowly dismissing Brabantio’s accusations. The exotic tales of ‘hair-breadth scapes’ are what Othello suggests as the ‘only witchcraft I have used’ to ‘woo’ Desdemona, demonstrating the seductive power of his language. Thus, Brabantio’s accusations go unheeded, ultimately subdued by Othello’s eloquent speech, bringing about the idea of the power and its relation with language.
The Essay on Othello Manipulation To Gain Power
Othello: Manipulation To Gain Power Manipulation is a very powerful word. People use this tactic everyday to get what they want in life. By deceiving people or tricking them into seeing a certain point of view, people gain power. To skillfully use the power of manipulation a person must use another person's weaknesses. By using a person's emotions against them, they can be manipulated with ease. ...
However Parker exemplifies the idea of power through jealousy and its many destructive implications. Adapting ‘a room in the castle’ in the play, Iago instead leads Othello into a dark dungeon setting, paralleling his descent into Iago’s diabolic world. The various torture instruments and prisoners depict Iago’s position of power in manipulating Othello. Iago’s calculated insinuations and machinations are apparent in causing the jealousy within Othello, sending him into an epileptic seizure. – ‘work[ing] on [his] medicine- . Othello is seemly imprisoned by the chains of jealousy, the ‘green eyed monster’ within him. Parker incorporates a sex scene montage accompanied by an increasingly intensified music, to accentuate the sexual suspense whilst illustrating Othello’s loss of control and incoherent mindset. He employs the changing use of perspectives when Iago ‘encaves’ Othello behind bars, reinforcing the idea that Othello being imprisoned and manipulated by Iago.
Othello’s perspective through the bars parallels his clouded perception by Iago’s ‘poison’. Parker’s visual motif of the handkerchief possesses a symbolic power, emblematic of Desdemona’s ‘infidelity’. It serves as the ‘ocular proof’, and thus Othello, the caged beast, is unleashed – ‘How shall I murder him’. Hence, through cinematic devices Parker is able to illustrate the destructive power of jealousy, evident in Othello’s transformed mentality of strength to paranoia and ‘vengeance’ as he succumbs to Iago’s scheming mastery.
Shakespeare again illustrates the inherent power in language. Through the catharsis of the play, it is used to receive a degree of redemption for one’s sinful acts. Here, the audience is presented with Othello’s purgation of guilt of the murder of Desdemona, with his guilt ‘wash[ing] [him] in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire’. Referring to the preceding water imagery of the ‘Pontic Sea’ in Act iii, Othello marks his ‘journey’s end’ and the ‘sea-mark of [his] utmost sail’, thus he ‘retires as a ‘soldier’. By returning to imagery similar to the courtship scene, Othello attempts to regain as much of his original stature and respect as possible through the use of language. Othello invokes his prior services to the state, ‘pray[ing]’ that the Venetians will ‘speak of [him] as [he] [was]’.
The Essay on Othello Iago en0
As villain in Shakespeare?s play Othello, Iago has two main actions. They are to plot and to deceive. Iago hates Othello for two reasons. He believes that Othello made love to his wife, and Iago is mad that Cassio was chosen to be Lieutenant instead of himself. From this hate comes the main conflict of the play. Iago plans to ruin Othello by carrying out a plan based on lies and deceit. This plan ...
Ultimately, he attempts to establish his own final identity – ‘where a malignant and a turban’d Turk…and smote him, thus’. Through this, he recalls the earlier duties of defending the Venetian state against the army, and thus re-enacting this through his suicide to end on a final act of service. Although his crimes rooted from the ‘seeds of doubt’ from Iago will never be forgiven, Othello regains his some of his original dignified stature of a respected general presented through his use of language. Although both Shakespeare and Parker utilise different mediums, they both convey parallel ideas particularly in relation to the idea of power. Shakespeare presents power that lies within language while Parker utilises visual mastery in exemplifying this idea, both sanctioning that ‘Power, however it has evolved, whatever its origins, will not be given up without a struggle.’ Shulamith Firestone.
Bibilography:
Othello by William Shakespeare
Othello; film adaptation from Shakespeare’s Othello; Directed by Oliver Parker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shulamith_Firestone
Various teacher’s notes
