The Tragedy Of Othello is outlined or illuminated fully in Act V. I say this because in Act V, the build up of internal anger from Othello grows to such an extent in regards to the false evidence provided by Iago. The word Tragedy poses negative connotations, and in this Act the actions of Othello towards the people around him show why this play is a tragedy. Othello in his hypnosis because of believing Iago he is being cheated on by Desdemona with Cassio, leads him to eventually kill his wife Desdemona who is a devoted loving wife. Only later to realize that he has been set up, then in his guilt killing himself for his immoral actions.
- My question to the class is, do you think Othello killing himself makes him a coward ? or do you think his action was right ?
- Another question for the class is, which do you think is a greater punishment for Othello’s actions, him killing himself? or Othello having to live knowing he killed his loving wife because of false evidence he was lead to believe?
This act was for sure dramatic , I liked the word you used “hypnosis” , when reading this play I couldn’t think of the word to perfectly describe othello , but the idea of him being under the spell of Iago is a bit ironic , since Othello was accused of black magic . Towards your second questions I feel bad for othello and I’m sure all the guilt was punishment enough , after all he was under some kind of “hypnosis”. What I really want to know , is does Casio get a punishment ?
Good question regarding which is the greater punishement for Othello. In my opinon, him living with knowing what he has done to Desdemona would be the greater punishment. Living everyday with the knowledge he took his lover’s life for reasons which were proven to be false would bear down greatly on him, as it would anyone in his position. For this reason, I feel that Othello taking his own life was a way out of this; or rather, the lesser punishment.
Hi Yassir,
What a tragedy? Othello ending up killing himself because there is no reason for him to continue living after he killed Desdemona. Is he a coward, by ending up his life? I do not think so. In my view point Othello felt overwhelmed by the events, and tired of proving himself over and over again. Because killing Desdemona does not only live him sorrowful but also somehow confirms the personality he has always rejected. The stereotypes make it more difficult for him. He just killed the only person that really accepts him as he is, the Moore.
My question to the class is, do you think Othello killing himself makes him a coward ? or do you think his action was right ?
I wish I could give any answer to these questions – and the first one interests me the most – but I don’t feel that the concepts are worked out properly. What do we make of cowardice? We say that one is coward when they flee in the face of danger. But is it always wrong to flee in the face of danger? Isn’t it foolhardy to always confront a threat? Foolhardiness is just as contemptible as cowardice; they are both irresponsible responses to a threat. Responsibility is in the response, and we would have to examine all of Othello’s motives to determine if he is a coward. Even then, though, we would have to discuss the value system on which his suicide rests. Why kill himself? Did he feel that he would never live to see a benefit again? Is his suicide absurd?
Before even getting to that, we would have to examine certain conceptions of justice and responsibility to the other, which we have neither the space nor the means to do here. I would say, in short, that the concept of cowardice does not apply to Othello either positively or negatively; it is the field of another question. Not that you are guilty of this, but assertions of the type “suicide is an easy way out” are, moreover, entirely misguided and irresponsible remarks, which misunderstand the nature of life and death, suicide and living on, power and powerlessness. I’ll leave this here, because there is no room to explore it more.
Now, whether or not he was right to kill himself gets closer to the mark, and I believe that’s the real question to be asked, though I can’t answer it. I only wished to redirect what I saw to be misunderstandings in conceiving an approach to Othello’s suicide, a redirection without which we would get into too many errors of judgment.
I think some readers would assume Othello to be a coward for killing himself, and i also believe that some may assume that he was not able to live with the mistake he made when he killed his wife for something she never did. However, I believe Othello’s true reason for stabbing himself is his own inner self-conflict, that he believes what he did was unjust and he believes in justice. He looked for the enemy in that situation, and other than Iago, the enemy was himself. However, i still believe that killing himself was a greater punishment then living with what he did. Yes, he killed his wife when he should have believed her and trusted in her faithfulness. However, it was all Iago’s fault! If Iago had never stirred the pot with everything he did, Othello wouldn’t have had his emotions manipulated. I think living with that is still better than death.
Hi Yassir,
Last act was definitely the most dramatic one out of all of them. For question one, I believe there is some cowardliness in his action, and he could have solved this issue with Desdemona differently. For question two, I think having to live with that guilt inside of you would be a greater punishment because death is always the easy way out.
Yassir,
To answer your question about Othello’s suicide and whether it makes him a coward, I would have to answer with an “I don’t know.” I see both sides to this. On one hand, learning (or being led to believe) that your wife is cheating on you is a very traumatic experience, especially because Othello was an outsider and depended greatly on Desdemona.
On the other hand, things in life are fixable. It takes time, commitment, compromise, cooperation and other various steps, but fixing a broken relationship is doable. However, it is easier said than done. So I’m not sure if it makes Othello a coward. However, I do think it makes him a fool. Life is precious; after all, we only get one life. (Well, at least that’s what Othello believed and what I personally believe.)
Understanding that we are only granted one life is why taking Desdemona’s life and then taking his own life makes Othello a fool; things in life are fixable, albeit difficult, and Othello acting rationally on emotion, instead of on logic, makes him a fool (especially considering the fact that he did not even try to fix things and instead jumped to conclusions and made a rash decision).
However, the greater punishment for Desdemona’s murder is by far living with the guilt. There are many factors that play into this.
For one, Desdemona was innocent. This alone will bring grief to Othello; knowing she was innocent will bring up two sad points that Othello would come to realize. The first being that he killed an innocent person who did not deserve to die. The second, and more regretful point, is that because she was innocent, had he not killed her, the mess could have been fixed. (Like I said before, it could have been fixed regardless, but innocence definitely makes things way easier for Othello and Desdemona.)
Secondly, Othello killed Desdemona, and even if she cheated on him, he would miss her. You don’t stop missing or loving someone just because they’re gone or just because you enacted some sort of revenge– the pain remains despite the fact that revenge was served.
Thirdly, Othello’s suicide is not punishment enough for what he did. The guilt would consume him alive if he were still living. That is why he killed himself– he knew the guilt was far too horrible to live with.