“Othello” by Shakespeare Analysis Essay Example

good Brabantio”. Lago responds, “In Venice, they do let God see the pranks they dare not show their husbands”. Lago continues by saying “She did deceive her father to marrying you”. From the conversation, politics and gender are revealed where Lagoimplies that the Duke of Venice used his political power to woo his wife. I fact, the wife to the Duke of Venice used deceit in order to marry him. Race is also an important theme in the play. In particular, race is a critical factor as revealed in the story of the “dark Moor” who is seen to succumb to sexual jealousy in the white society. Othello is misled by Lago to an extent that Othello believes Lago’s lies and ultimately commits the heinous act of killing his beloved wife. The play also opens with soldiers Lago and Roderigo speaking negatively about their leader.This shows how race, politics and gender issues are central to this play.

In Othello, the main characters die in the end. Although Othello and Desdemona die next to each other romantically, the readers’ perception is changed and made to think that the play was romantic. Also, Othello decides to die rather than live without his loved one. This reveals to the reader Othello’s intense love to his wife. However, when the reader alternates the ending of the story, new ideas unfold in the reader’s mind as the bitter love story is taken away. For example, instead of choosing death, the writer could have had no character die. The reader would also think that Lago could have escaped the town and nobody could have seen him. That way the play could have

continued longer and the couples could have lived to avoid Lago and his thrive to kill the couples.

The other visualization of alternate ending is that of traditional happy ending of the play. The audience might be tempted to imagine the play ending with Othello and Desdemona walking off together arm in arm towards a magnificent sun set. However, the part and the power of the ending of this play lies in its tragic ending where Othello is seen undone by his inability to control his thoughts and jealousy. This is something acknowledged by Othello himself during his final speech in Act V scene 2, before he kills himself.

In this context, if Othello did not killed Desdemona and finally himself at the end of the play, then it would be clear that the impact of the play and particularly the impact of jealousy and acceptance for manipulation would not have been so much emphasized in the play. However, the audience may expect Othello to bear some sort of suffering because of the way he is loose for manipulation perpetrated by Lago. That is,Lago is not supposed to bear all the blame. The alternative ending of the play is that the matter could have been handled amicably without the need for the death of Desdemona. On the other hand, this is something which reveals Othello’s true self and his reaction when confronted by jealousy. To some extent, the fatal flaw of Othello will always be present in him and will keep waiting for somebody to exploit it. Therefore, a happier ending of the play where the tragedies would have been brushed under the carpet would have been

perceived as putting off the inevitable.

Again, if the ending of the play was that of happy ending, then the audience could not have been able to witness the sufferings and torture experienced by the characters. For example, Othello is tortured by his doings and thinks it is his husbandly duty to kill Desdemona. He likens her life to a candle light as confirmed from his soliloquies “though flaming minister”. He recognizes that although a candle can be relit, the life of Desdemona cannot be relit. Lago, on the other hand, is power-hungry, just like Lady Macbeth, and is a representative of supernatural fates. That is, Lago takes the form of a devil, dark and mischievous and causes trouble. This means that if he did not meet his death at the end of the play, the audience would have seen the unfolding of events unfair as he was outrightly an evil villain and breeder of trouble that resulted into his friend’s downfall.