I have to admit, Othello isn't one of my favourite Shakespeare plays - I hate Iago with a passion, and just want to slap Othello for being such an idiot.
Tragedy is a device used in plays where a main character who is successful suffers a downfall, usually due to some kind of tragic flaw. It is also an important device used to question society’s social and moral values through the characters and the structure of tragedy. The play Othello is a good example of this, where it seems that through the device of tragedy, the play is questioning the social and moral values/attitudes in the society which it was written. Othello is the main character of the play, and is the tragic hero who dies at the end, thus restoring the original status quo of society. The issues this play raises through the characters and through tragedy help to question some of society’s social and moral values, such as multiculturalism, the roles of men and women and the value of power and class in society. Although some of these issues contradict each other it is important to see how tragedy is used to show and question these various aspects of society in general.
The death of Othello in this play is a key one in determining what social and moral issues the play is questioning. Through the death of the tragic hero, we see that his flaw was not just jealousy, but his downfall was really due to a number of reasons. These include the constant prodding by Iago of Othello’s obvious insecurities about his race and gender throughout the play. The issue of race is a big one in Othello, and is one of the social issues in this play that the play questions through the device of tragedy. The death of Othello at the end of the play shows that people of a different race will never be accepted in society and this causes unnecessary violence and death. Othello is often referred to as “the Moor” and associated to animals such as “barbary horse” and “old black ram” by most characters of the play. The fact that Othello is not referred to by name is significant, as it shows that he is not fully accepted in society as a “white” although it seems to be a quite tolerant city (“He is far more fair than black”). The eventual downfall of Othello is also caused by his racial insecurities, brought on by Iago’s conversation with him. “Haply, for I am black...” shows the doubts he has about his acceptance in society. Even Desdemona complies with the assumptions of society – “I think the sun where he was born drew all such humours from him” (jealousy). This quote emphasizes the pressures society has on Othello and the expectations from society of black people like him. This extra pressure on Othello to not show these feelings, and to act as society expects him to adds to Othello’s reason for his downfall, and shows that even though black people can be powerful and authoritive in society, they are still not fully accepted and part of the Eurocentric culture. His attempts to be part of this culture are seen at the start of the play, where he describes other societies as strange and new to the European people – “of the cannibals that each other eat, and the Anthropophagi…” adds to the evidence of insecurity he has about his race. Through the death of this tragic hero, the reader can see that the play is questioning the multiculturalism and tolerance of black people in society, as it is these pressures on people like him in society that contributes to his eventual downfall.
The issue of gender in this play is also one that is significantly questioned by Othello through the deaths of Othello, Emilia and Desdemona. Gender is questioned in both the male and female side, and through tragedy shows that society’s expectations of both genders is impossible for women and adds pressure to men to conform to these expectations, causing violence and death. Othello’s masculinity is questioned from the start of the play, and when Iago convinces him Desdemona has cheated on him. “What are you a man?” shows the pressures on men to “keep” their wives and implies that if they’re wife is cheating on them, they are not considered to be a man. “That we can call these delicate creatures our own – but not their appetites” also shows Othello’s position over his masculinity and his feelings about it. It’s clear from this that a man’s role in society is to have and to control and own a woman, and when Othello is convinced he has failed to do this, goes to desperate measures to prove his masculinity. This gradually leads to his death, and the deaths of most of the people around him. Through this, there is a message to the reader that expectations from society of men can lead to tragic and unnecessary consequences.
Tragedy pays an important part in showing the reader what is being questioned through the outcome at the end of the play. The deaths of Emilia and Desdemona also question the position and role of women in society, and whether society is expecting too much of them. Desdemona’s blaming of herself for her death puts extra sympathy on her, and her taking the blame for Othello’s or society’s actions against her. Because we know that she wasn’t responsible for her death, the sympathy created by making her fully loyal to Othello reinforces her position as the tragic victim. Emilia’s conversation with her before she was killed my Othello also shows the impossible situation women are in. Although they are both loyal to their husbands, which was something considered to be good in a woman in that society, they both end up dying at the end. Bianca, Cassio’s mistress and prostitute lives at the conclusion of the play, which question social as well as moral values of that time. Elizabethan values were of Christian and conservative views – the conclusion of the play does not seem to support this. Through the deaths of Desdemona and Emilia – the faithful and loyal women, and the prostitute Bianca who lives after the play leaves the end open ended and helps to question what really a female’s position or role really is in society. It also helps to question the necessity of the pressures put on both genders to live up to what society expects them to be, and whether they are appropriate for society.
The value of power and status in this play is also a key issue that is questioned through tragedy. As Othello demonstrates, power seems to drive society and people, to do something they think they can’t do. Iago is also a character in this play which is used to question how far a person will go to achieve their desires, through the role of the villain. The fact that Othello is dead at the end, and Iago is alive, he is seen as the “triumphant” character who has outwitted him. The death of the tragic hero and Iago who is still alive at the end is not just providing the reader a view of society in which the play was written, but questioning the issue of power within society. Iago, at the beginning of the play states that part of his motive for bringing about the downfall of Othello was because he promoted Cassio, a Florentine with no battle experience instead of him who should rightly have gotten the position seeing he was one rank above him (“And I – God bless the mark! – his Moorship’s Ancient….Now sir, be judge yourself; Whether I in any just term am affined; To love the Moor.”). The role of Iago as the villain of the play questions society’s moral values of power and status – that not all people who hold power and a good reputation can be fully trusted. It also questions what people in society will do to get what they want – with Iago this is shown when he manipulates everyone to his own ends, and succeeds with tragic consequences. The ending of the play and the characters that live/die question this and how power drives society.
Through tragedy, issues about society and morals can be questioned. In the play Othello, the deaths of certain characters create the message that some social and moral issues in society need to be dealt with. The deaths of Othello, Desdemona and Emilia create a particularly strong argument that the expectations about gender are not appropriate for the people living in that time. The death of the tragic hero also places questioning on the acceptance of people who aren’t white in Elizabethan society, and if they will ever be accepted as ‘one of them’. Also, the “triumph” of Iago at the end of the play questions society itself and the value of power to people, as well as the trust people placed on more reputable individuals like Iago, who seem to be trustworthy because of their rank and reputation but lead a double life. Tragedy is an important device used in Othello to show the reader what Elizabethan society was like, and the values and attitudes in that society which was being questioned.