Othello Part II

First off I must say that I absolutely think that the play shouldn't have been named after Othello. Although he did have a tragic ending, I think that the other characters that died also died in a tragic way for an innocent reason. I think that Othello's wife had a more tragic death than Othello because not only was she accused of something she never did but she was killed by the man that she betrayed her father for. If it were up to me I would have named the play “Iago- The Devil” because he is just something else. I have to admit that I am glad he is a fictional character, and after reading this play a weird sense of paranoia swept over me, because I imagined what if there are really people out there just like Iago (which I am sure there are plenty of all over the world).  I also can’t believe what a light punishment he got after all the troubles and deaths he has caused. If anything the play should have been named just “A Tragedy” because this play is a complete disaster whichever way you look at it. Although I liked Othello and his naïve and kind character, I think that this play shouldn’t have been named after him. I wish I could speak to Shakespeare and ask him what was his reasoning behind making Othello the title of the play.

When talking about disasters, I think that every character in this play was struck by a tragedy one way or another. The tragedies of Roderigo, Desdimona, Emilia and Othello are obvious, but Desdimona’s father also faced a tragedy. Not only was he so broken to hear that his daughter secretly got married to someone he despised, but if he only knew that his daughter was suffocated to death by the same man whom she chose to be with. If that is not a tragedy for any father I don’t know what is. Even though Cassio remained alive and become the general, I think that he somewhat had a tragic ending too, because he will never know who his true friends were and who was behind the plot the whole time. It makes me think what if Iago was released from jail for whatever reason, and he returned to be a “best friend” to Cassio and help him with his leadership. I can only imagine how ugly things would get. Although Iago remained alive too (which really made me mad), I think that he had a tragic ending as well because even though most of his little plans worked out I think one of the main goals of his was to take Cassio’s place. Now that he is going to jail, he will never be able to achieve that goal of his, which I am sure were bad news to him.

I am not sure what to think about Iago. He was either too evil or clever, or the rest of the characters were very naïve and easily fooled. I am glad Cassio ended up on the top, yet it makes me wonder why out of all characters, Shakespeare chose Cassio to be the one who will end up on the good side of the situation.