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

Othello It Ranks spirited or Low? William Shakespe atomic number 18s tragic drama Othello has been given senior high marks by some critics and low marks by other(a)s. allow us elaborate on this problem in this essay. In the mess Shakespeare and Tragedy John Bayley explains why the modern audience feels so cheesed off when viewing this play But Othello is not freed by this sense of his get situation he has been caught in it as if in a snare. And rather of being freed by the heros consciousness of things, and sharing it with him, we are forced 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 exacerbating than it is either thrilling or painful. (200-201) The feeling of exasperation on the segmentation of the audience is not universal. Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeares Tragic Heroes explains the factor that make Othello significant among the tragedies of its time The Moor goes to the task of killing his wife in the name of justice Thy bed, lust-staind, shall with lusts blood be spotted. And in the second scene, the scene of the murder, he cries again as he looks upon the sleeping Desdemona and kisses her Oh, balmy breath, thou dost almost persuade Justice to break her firebrand It is this insistence upon the passion which makes men try to take the place of God, and by private revenge execute the laws of God that makes Othello significant in the cataclysm of its time. Othello sees his acts as the expression of justice, worked out in the most perfect brace of deed and punishment. (172) If the justice aspect of private revenge gave the play popularity then, what gives it fame like a shot? Othello would appear to have a watcher about it which is hard to equate thus ranking the play high. Helen Gardner in Othello A Tragedy of steady and Fortune touches on this beauty which enables this play to stand above the other tragedies of the Bard Among the tragedies of Shakespeare Othello is supreme in one quality beauty. Much of its poetry, in imagery, perfection 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.