Othello Play review

Caroline Bennet
May 19, 2014
8th Grade Theatre

Othello was written by William Shakespeare and was first printed in 1662 Othello tells the tragic story of Othello, a prestigious general in Venice; Iago is his best friend, however, when Othello promotes someone else to be personal lieutenant, Iago becomes jealous and begins plotting against Othello and his newly eloped wife, Desdemona. Othello is suspicious of Desdemona and plans to poison her. Othello smothers her to death. Emilia, Iago’s wife, tells Othello about Iago’s plots so Othello hurts Iago and kills himself while Iago kills Emilia. Othello is originally set in Venice, but moves later to Cyprus. Because Othello is set during the war between Venice and Turkey, the time period of it is the late 16th century. The protagonist of Othello is Othello while the antagonist is Iago. Othello conveys the theme that often people let others tell them how to view others. Othello is convinced by Iago that Desdemona is unfaithful to their marriage. Without even knowing the reality of the situation, Othello kills Desdemona. In Othello, people lie successfully to other characters. This causes death and distrust while breaking up three relationships, Iago and Emilia’s, Desdemona and Othello’s, and Othello and Iago’s. William Shakespeare conveys the truth of humankind beautifully in Othello. This is the plays largest strength. Shakespeare writes about human desire. Iago wants Othello to promote him and when he doesn’t he feels the need to exact revenge on him. Othello is convinced that Desdemona is being unfaithful, so he kills her. Emilia is distrustful of her husband, so she betrays him by telling Othello of his schemes. Othello depicts human reactions and relationships masterfully. However, I thought that the conflict between Turkey and Venice was difficult to keep track of while focusing on the character dynamics. The story of Othello was told effectively because of all of the character dynamics. Despite that fact that this play isn’t particularly concise or easy to decipher, Shakespeare keeps the audience captivated with all of the character relationships. The audience must keep track of all these relationships to understand the play. All of the characters are so perfectly portrayed in Shakespeare words so the audience is drawn in more and more throughout the course of the play. I liked this play because of the characters. Each character is different and Shakespeare did a phenomenal job of clearly outlining their objectives. While reading Othello, I felt that I really knew who these people were and I could decide whether to like them or hate them. I think that this kept me interested in the play more than anything else. Othello also explained relationship and human desire beautifully. Overall, Othello captivated the audience by using character development to propel it’s rich and fantastic story.