Othello †It Ranks High or Low? :: Othello essays

Othello It Ranks High or Low? William Shakespeares tragic drama Othello has been given high label by some critics and low marks by others. Let us elaborate on this problem in this essay. In the volume Shakespeare and tragedy John Bayley explains why the modern sense of hearing feels so exasperated when wake this play But Othello is not freed by this sense of his bear smear he has been caught in it as if in a snare. And instead of universe freed by the heros consciousness of things, and sharing it with him, we are obligate to stand outside Othellos delusion. The play grips us in its own artifice of incomprehension. And for most onlookers, nowadays, the sensation seems to be more exasperating than it is each thrilling or painful. (200-201) The feeling of exasperation on the part of the audience is not universal. Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeares Tragic Heroes explains the factor that made Othello epoch-making among the tragedies of its time The Moor goes to the task of killing his wife in the pertain of justice Thy bed, lust-staind, shall with lusts blood be spotted. And in the arcsecond scene, the scene of the murder, he cries again as he looks upon the sleeping Desdemona and kisses her Oh, flaccid breath, thou dost almost persuade Justice to break her sword It is this military press upon the passion which makes men try to take the place of God, and by cloak-and-dagger revenge execute the laws of God that makes Othello significant in the tragedy of its time. Othello sees his acts as the expression of justice, worked out in the most perfect balance of championship and punishment. (172) If the justice aspect of private revenge gave the play popularity then, what gives it fame today? Othello would issue to have a beauty about it which is hard to match then ranking the play high. Helen Gardner in Othello A Tragedy of Beauty and good deal touches on this beauty which enables this play to stand above the other tragedies of the window-d ress Among the tragedies of Shakespeare Othello is supreme in one quality beauty. Much of its poetry, in imagery, matinee idol of phrase, and steadiness of rhythm, soaring yet firm, enchants the sensuous imagination. This kind of beauty Othello shares with Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra it is a corollary of the theme which it shares with them.