Othello Essay :: essays research papers

Act i. sc. i.ADMIRABLE is the preparation, so truly and peculiarly Shakspearian, in the introduction of Roderigo, as the dupe on whom Iago shall first exercise his art, and in so doing display his avouch character. Roderigo, wi groundst any(prenominal) fixed principle, but non without the moral notions and sympathies with honour, which his rank and connections had hung upon him, is already vigorous fitted and predisposed for the purpose for genuinely want of character and strength of passion, opusage wind loudest in an empty house, constitute his character. The first three lines happily state the nature and foundation of the friendship between him and Iago, the purse,as excessively the contrast of Roderigos intemperance of mind with Iagos coolness,the coolness of a preconceiving experimenter. The mere diction of protestationIf ever I did dream of such a matter, nauseate me,which falling in with the associative link, determines Roderigos continuation of complaintThou toldst me, thou didst hold him in thy hateelicits at length a unfeigned liveing of Iagos mind, the dread of contempt habitual to those, who encourage in themselves, and engender their keenest pleasure in, the expression of con-tempt for others. Observe Iagos high self-opinion, and the moral, that a wicked man will employ real feelings, as well as dissemble those most alien from his own, as instru-ments of his purposesAnd, by the faith of man,I do it my price, I am worth no worse a place.I think Tyrwhitts reading of life for wife A fellow almost damnd in a fair wifethe true one, as fitting to Iagos contempt for whatever did not display power, and that intellectual power. In what follows, let the reader feel how by and through the glass of two passions, disappointed vanity and envy, the very vices of which he is complaining, are make to act upon him as if they were so umpteen excellences, and the more appropriately, because cunning is always admired and wished for by minds conscious of inward weaknessbut they act only by half, like medicinal drug on an inattentive auditor, swelling the thoughts which prevent him from listening to it. Ib. Rod. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,If he can carryt thus.Roderigo turns off to Othello and here comes one, if not the only, seeming justification of our blackamoor or negro Othello. Even if we suppositious this an uninterrupted tradition of the theatre, and that Shakspeare himself, from want of scenes, and the experience that nothing could be made too marked for the senses of his audience, had practically sanctioned it,would this prove aught concerning his own intention as a poet for all ages?