Othello: the Abnormal Essay -- Othello essays

Othello the AbnormalFive Works Cited William Shakespeares tragic drama Othello presents to the audience a very irregular character in the person of Iago. Also can one classify the epileptic seizure of Othello as normal? Let us in this essay consider the abnormal in the play. The abnormal behavior of the ancient is partly rooted in his misogynism. In Historical Differences Misogyny and Othello Valerie Wayne implicates Iago in sexism. He is one who is almost incompetent of any other perspective on women than a sexist one Iagos worry that he cannot do what Desdemona asks implies that his dispraise of women was candid and easily produced, composition the praise requires labour and inspiration from a source beyond himself. His insufficiency is more surprising because elsewhere in the play Iago appears as a compass rhetorician, but as Bloch explains, the misogynistic writer uses rhetoric as a means of renouncing it, and, by extension, woman. (163) And how about epilepsy? In Act 4 the ev il Iago works up Othello into a frenzy regarding the missing kerchief. The resultant illogical, senseless raving by the general is a prelude to an epileptic seizure or entranced differentiate Lie with her? lie on her? We say lie on her when they belie her. Lie with her Zounds, thats fulsome. Handkerchief confessions handkerchief To confess, and be hanged for his labor first to be hanged, and then to confess I tremble at it. . . . (4.1) Cassio enters right after the general has fallen into the epileptic trance. Iago explains to him IAGO. My lord is falln into an epilepsy. This is his second enclothe he had one yesterday. CASSIO. Rub him about the temples. IAGO. No, forbear. The lethargy must have his quie... ...l find Iago peeping out from many of its pages. Still more, Iagos name will be arrange appearing occasionally in bold print in books on abnormal psychology. (89-90) WORKS CITED Bevington, David, ed. William Shakespeare Four Tragedies. untried York Bantam Books, 1980. Campbell, Lily B. Shakespeares Tragic Heroes. New York Barnes and Noble, Inc., 1970. Coles, Blanche. Shakespeares Four Giants. Rindge, New Hampshire Richard Smith Publisher, 1957. Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http//www.eiu.edu/multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos. Wayne, Valerie. Historical Differences Misogyny and Othello. The Matter of Difference Materialist Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. Ed Valerie Wayne. Ithaca, NY Cornell University Press, 1991.