Othello: Character Analysis

[@ralphjenkins1507]

Your videos are awesome and a fabulous teaching aid. Please keep up the fine work. Looking forward to watching the entire collection.

[@5QShakespeare]

Thank you very much, Ralph. Glad you like Them:)

[@Ghoulinity]

Awesome video, Im currently taking notes with 2 hours left until the test.

[@5QShakespeare]

Thanks, G. Good luck!

[@rataulesego2052]

Great video by the way. I have a commentary on Emilia, the sabotage with the handkerchief may not be a result of her resentment, but it could rather stem from her desire to please her abusive partner ,because she has low self esteem, his validation matters to her.

[@rataulesego2052]

By the way, it's a perspective I'm offering. I'm no judge. It's just an opinion.

[@5QShakespeare]

I agree. You make a good point that maybe I should have addressed more (or at all?). Insecurity/desire to please is the traditional explanation for her otherwise inexplicable behaviour. I'd really like to add the resentment angle, though. Humans being humans, our behaviour is usually the result of a confluence of forces. The only question, perhaps, is the ratio of cause A to cause B. Thanks for the insights.

[@rataulesego2052]

@@5QShakespeare Its a pleaure. It could as well be a combination of it all. Thanks for that insight too.

[@rileybliss4292]

I didn’t see your comment until after the wrote mine. I said the exact same thing and I feel that a women is more likely to have this perspective. I think you are correct

[@sharan8965]

an information filled amazing video! based in the UK having exams, thank you!

[@5QShakespeare]

Thanks, Sharan. Good luck!

[@antidepressant11]

I've got some cassio in me. I get Dutch courage when I drink. A weak sense of self. But I've improved a bit over the years

[@5QShakespeare]

Glad to hear it. Modernity has been hard of the Self for a lot of us. In great literature we can usually find bits of ourselves. Not all of it is faltering, which is good because that honesty is essential.

[@rileybliss4292]

This is very helpful and insightful. My only argument with regards to Emilia being resentful and taking the handkerchief to spite Desdemona. I disagree with your argument. I think she did it because she is in an abusive relationship and wanted to please Iago.

[@5QShakespeare]

Thanks, Riley. You’re right, of course. The abusive relationship is the primary reason. I would add, though, that Emilia feels involuntary and guilty resentment. A deep, dark pang of pleasure at a successful friend’s happiness. It’s in our nature. Alas that it is so.

[@Ggukifantaesy]

This was a good refresh of Othello! and I know you said it was good trait to be trusting but his easily ability to trust is also a flaw of Othello. He quickly becomes distorted by Iago's malevolent scheme because of his lack of secure trust in Desdemona and this is further a reflection of his insecurity of being an outcast in a privileged, venetian society that lacks multicultural or tolerance towards race as in the Jacobean period, black people were associated with hell, curses and diabolic notions. Shakespeare wants to defy the easy trust in male relationships and the tragic facets of this being considered more prominent than his wife's claims. The lack of evidence he is provided with further illustrates Othello's naivety or reinforces the aspect that he does not question Desdemona first before making assumptions. Hence, I believe that his easy trust in Iago's, arguably irrational, claims of his wife's infidelity results in the ramification of calamity and Othello's hamartia as well.

[@5QShakespeare]

Interesting insights, G. Thanks. Such a complex play. And, as always with Shakespeare, it's the psychology that's so fascinating.

[@bethannewellx1278]

this is brilliant, thank you!

[@5QShakespeare]

Thanks, Bethan! Glad you find it useful:)

[@joshuagovi]

Cowardly doesn't seem like an apt way to describe Iago

[@5QShakespeare]

At the end of the play, he defiantly accepts his fate. True. But I'd argue there's always something cowardly about bullies and conniving, backstabbing snakes. Thanks for the comment.