Othello †its Appeal Essay -- Othello essays

Othello its Appeal Let us examine the William Shakespeare drama Othello for the purpose of determining barely what characteristics of the play are the outstanding ones which give it such universal appeal. Othello would appear to have a beauty about it which is hard to match. Helen Gardner in Othello A disaster of Beauty and Fortune touches on this beauty which enables this play to stand above the other tragedies of the Bard Among the tragedies of Shakespeare Othello is supreme in one quality beauty. Much of its poetry, in imagery, perfection of phrase, and steadiness of rhythm, soaring yet firm, enchants the sensuous imagination. This kind of beauty Othello shares with Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra it is a corollary of the theme which it shares with them. But Othello is also remarkable for another kind of beauty. overleap for the trivial scene with the clown, all is immediately relevant to the central issue no scene requires critical justification. The play has a rare intellectual beauty, fulfill the desire of the imagination for order and harmony between the parts and the whole. Finally, the play has intense moral beauty. It makes an immediate appeal to the moral imagination, in its presentation in the figure of Desdemona of a love which does not alter when it alteration finds, but bears it out even to the edge of doom. (139) The ability of the audience to identify with the characters in Othello this is of primary importance. M.H. Abrams in The Norton Anthology of English Literature attributes the dramatists universality to his characters as well as to the relevance of his themes One preliminary document in the First Folio is by Shakespeares great... ...inceton University Press, 1965. Gardner, Helen. Othello A Tragedy of Beauty and Fortune. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from The Noble Moor. British Academy Lectures, no. 9, 1955. Heilman, Robert B. The Role We empower Shakesp eare. Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapman. Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press, 1965. Levin, Harry. General Introduction. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http//www.eiu.edu/multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos. Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. Shakespeare. Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York Macmillan publish Co., 1992.