Othello as a Tragedy of Intrigues
Othello is most painfully exciting and
the most terrible of all Shakespearean tragedies. It begins with external
conflict, but the conflicts soon internalized and get a peep into the suffering
soul of the tragic hero. His intense suffering grows more and more intense
right from the temptation scene up to the very end where we see the tragic
loading of Desdemona’s bed. Evil is displayed before him. He sees it almost
irresistible.
Othello is a play which is full of intrigues.
In no other play of Shakespeare,
we find such a plot in which the good souls are caught in the meshes of the net
cast over them by Satan like
human being. Othello wanted to see his foot to find whether he is actually a
devil or not. In this tragedy,
the hero is a man of loving heart with a genuine faith in the human qualities.
Even when he was led to believe that Desdemona had been corrupted by Cassio, he
demanded ocular proof only for his faith in man. Similarly, Desdemona, a woman
with a pure heart, could never suspect Lago not for his power to beguile man
but for her simple trust in man.
The very beginning of the play,
we see that lago uses Roderigo as his tool. Roderigo is
a fool and is easily duped by lago. He uses his purse freely as if it were his own,
always promising that he was spending his money to give presents to Desdemona and in course of time
he would certainly enjoy her. Through this foolish tool, he tries to spoil the
marriage bliss of Desdemona and Othello. He incites him to awaken Brabantio,
tell him of the elopement of his daughter and also of the place where she was
to be found. Lago taunts him (Brabantio) by saying– “I am one sir, that comes to tell your daughter and the moor
are making the beast with backs”.
Lago knows that Roderigo is
a rejected suitor of Desdemona and extracts money from him by inspiring him
with false hopes of gaining Desdemona. When Roderigo becomes impatient and
begins to doubt him, he so arranges matters that he stabs Cassio in the dark
and lago himself fatally stabs him, so that he may not live to tell any tales.
But unfortunately certain papers are discovered on the person of Roderigo which
reveal his full villainy.
Next we find lago is jealous of Cassio and
has a grudge against him. He thinks that he himself is a better soldier. But
Othello has appointed him as his lieutenant while he continues to be mere
ancient. He decides to take revenge upon Cassio for this insult. Besides this,
Cassio has a beauty in his daily life, which is intolerable to him. Therefore,
he intrigues to bring about his downfall.
Even then he is not satisfied and
intrigues to remove Cassio from the scene. Moreover, he suspects Cassio to have
a secret relation with his wife. He also afraid of Roderigo that one day he
might disclose his intrigue to Othello. Next, he insights Roderigo to stop
Cassio in the dark night, and he places Roderigo behind the wall of a house
with instructions to kill Cassio as he passes by that way.
Further, we see that lago wants to spoil the
conjugal happiness of Othello and Desdemona by
hatching an intrigue. Seeing Othello’s excessive love for Desdemona, he becomes
jealous and plans to ruin it. He uses Cassio as his tool. He excites
Othello’s suspicion and jealousy by giving false reports of Desdemona’s love for
and undue intimacy with Cassio. Lago advises Othello to remove the sense of
jealousy from his mind. He says:
“Beware,
my lord, of jealousy.
It is the green monster, which doth
mock.”
Such are the various intrigues of Iago. It is these intrigues which
bring about the catastrophe. In the other tragedies, the dramatist has
introduced the supernatural but here he has introduced the fiend-like lago, who
causes the tragedy. Therefore, Othello has rightly been called a tragedy of
intrigue.
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