2004 Death Scene -
The most important themes in literature are sometimes developed in scenes in which a death or deaths take place. Choose a novel or play and write a well-organized essay in which you show how a specific death scene helps to illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
Othello
I think Erika had a great point when she brought up how Othello betrays himself and I think this really shows through when he kills himself. Othello is such an honest and trusting man (unlike "honest Iago") and yet, he is so jealous and insecure, he does not trust his own wife, causing him to kill her. Once he realizes he let jealousy cloud his inhibitions, Othello takes his own life. We have brought up multiple times in class how Shakespeare liked to right his plays based on human emotions, jealousy is strong human emotion that drives this play forward. This is apparent from the beginning, but it isn't until Othello kills himself that we see that jealousy may be able to control people, but in the end, it does not change who we are.
ReplyDeleteThanks, and I like your point about Shakespeare and how he drives his plays with very distinct human emotions. I literally just ran through a couple of his plays in my head and picked out the most distinct emotion in all of them after reading that and I think it is definitely a valid point. Othello would not even have a plot if it was not for jealousy, and it's the reason for the death of so many characters.
DeleteI feel as though the death of Emilia is an underrated scene in the play. Clearly we see jealousy in the form of Othello however this takes on new meaning when we talk of Iago and Emilia. Obviously Othello is full of jealousy and the death of Desdemona and his suicide clearly displayed the destructive force of jealousy. However, as Erika (I believe) stated in class, there are two types of jealousy: in the sense that a lover was adulterous, and jealousy of power and social status. As strongly as Othello's jealousy is portrayed, I feel as though Iago's jealousy of Othello far surpasses it. Iago's jealousy led him into a homicidal rage far worse than Othello's. Iago risked the lives of Othello, Desdemona, Emilia, Roderigo, and Cassio. This was all for the mere hope that the manipulation would result in Iago gaining power. While we knew of Iago's disturbing and selfish jealousy it was not until Emilia's death that it became clear just how powerful it was. He was willing to kill his wife, a woman who was loyal to and loved him, without hesitation even after the damage of what she said was already done. This pure rage showed me just how seemingly evil Iago is and how jealousy drives this play in more way than one.
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