Geographical juxtaposition is not uncommon in the genius works of William Shakespeare. In his renowned play, Othello, Shakespeare exploits the stark contrasts in the story’s two settings, the two cities of Venice and Cyprus. Shakespeare presents...

While certain of William Shakespeare’s plays have so ingrained themselves into popular culture as to be ubiquitous, others are rarely performed or read and are, in fact, largely ignored. Shakespeare’s Othello, one of the former, and Titus...

In Shakespeare’s play, Othello, the character Emilia is essential in exploring the theme of gender and the expectations placed on women. The anonymous writer of, “From Counsel to the Husband: To the Wife Instruction” believes the answer to...

Literature can be viewed as a manifestation of the context it is composed in, whilst retaining universal elements such as the human experience. Whilst human emotions such as jealousy remain universal despite context, attitudes and values must be...

Othello and Otello The act of adapting a work of art into a new medium is not simply revision of the original but is a creation of a new work of art. Giuseppe Verdi is one of the most famous Italian Opera composers of all time, and William...

In the opening scene of “Othello” written by William Shakespeare, the key sources of tension lie within the racial prejudice of the Moor people and the ambition behind occupational and wealth success, are portrayed through bitter conflict between...

An antagonist is essential to any story. Establishing a clear “bad guy” gives the story more emotion, uniting the reader with the protagonist(s) against a common enemy that is easy to hate. Every story has an antagonist, but only some are evil....

After four hundred years of being performed on innumerable stages and cinema screens across the globe, Shakespeare’s Othello, with its many instances of jealousy, racism, and misogyny, remains a remarkably relevant play. As a result, it has been...

Both The Hate Race and Othello explore identity as a core facet of human nature by considering the consequences of a strong versus weak sense of identity. The idea of a society’s perception of an individual’s identity as opposed to the individual’...

Compare and contrast the representation of jealousy and the destructive nature of love in Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’, and Ian McEwen’s ‘Atonement’.

When comparing themes of jealousy and the destructive nature of love...

Scholars have portrayed the character of Othello in remarkably different ways: tragic hero, sinner, victim, deluded romantic, noble outsider, and a myriad of other characterizations. Taking that into consideration, it is surprising how little...

The character of Iago in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello appears to be the quintessential villain. His rampant deception and cold-blooded plotting leads to misunderstanding, agony over love, and unnecessary death with no definite motivation....

Identity is crucial in understanding our values and morals and is shaped by societal expectations and the choices we make. Thus, it is ultimately an individual’s choice to relinquish temptations of deception, in which often eventuates to the...

Shakespeare brings Othello with the audience being thrown into the middle of an argument between Iago and Roderigo. This opening leaves the reader mildly confused as they don't know what the argument is about for several lines. Only around 40...

Emilia’s monologue in Othello is the closest to a feminist manifesto that Shakespeare has written, as well as revered as one of the most powerful speeches in the play. As the wife of the villain, Iago, her hidden bitterness boils over when she...

In the play ‘Othello’, William Shakespeare portrays power and hierarchy as fragile, and it is this fragility that creates the tragedy within the play, catalyzing the ‘fall from prosperity to wretchedness’ in Kastan’s view. Taking on Nuttall’s...

In his 1604 play ‘Othello’, William Shakespeare criticizes the damaging effects of patriarchy during the Jacobean era, using the relationship between Desdemona and Emilia as a route to expose the corrupting influence of men. The male characters’...

Arguably, Shakespeare presents the male characters within Othello as spontaneously emotional, and unable to control their reactions to negative events. Within this extract, Othello obsesses over the idea of Desdemona’s infidelity, goaded by Iago’s...

Throughout Shakespeare’s Othello, the notion of monsters, monstrosities and the unnatural is a prominent theme. Often brought to light within the context of the villain Iago, the words “monster” and “monstrous” are used a combined 12 times...

Within the opening act of Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, deception is a central theme that is also prevalent throughout the play and the result of the tragic ending, which, in the view of Kastan is the ‘genre of uncompensated suffering’ that is either...

Within ‘Othello’, Shakespeare’s portrayal of the fragility of power and hierarchy is exposed through the downfall of individual characters who have a desire and need to maintain status. This consequently becomes the cause for what Kastan believes...

The importance of a narrative lies in its capacity to illustrate how humans perceive themselves as individuals and communities. Groups have been sharing stories since the beginning of time. As a result, narratives are products of their specific...

The unique and extraordinary elements of dark beauty translate to an exotic alterity in the poets' eyes. The more obvious, and traditional, methods bestow the woman with godly attributes. Shakespeare first refutes this resemblance by underscoring...

Beauty, irrefutably, is a common theme throughout the Shakespearean sonnets. Generally, Shakespeare's love of beauty is expressed with regard to an undefined person, or muse. Nowhere is the beauty of Shakespeare's muse expressed more strongly than...