Rhetorical Devices - Essay Example

Teacher Rhetorical devices in Othello’s Act I, Scene 3, lines 149-197 Shakespeare’s another tragic play en d Othello is rich with rhetorical devices that made it favorite subject to study literature. In this piece of work, Othello is peppered by soliloquy mostly by another character Iago but in in Act I, scene 3, lines 149-197, it was Othello himself who did the soliloquy. Soliloquy is a rhetorical device common in Shakespearean tragedy where a character utters or narrates his or her own thoughts in a personal discourse (talking to nobody but himself or herself) that would reveal the character or the dilemma of the narrator or his/her motive.

Soliloquy is used as the best way to give insight into the character of the narrator because he or she would not lie to himself when he talks to himself. In Act I, scene 3 lines 149-197, Othello basically portrayed himself as a great heroic figure beginning from his childhood to his later exploits evident with this line “the story of my life From year to year--the battles, sieges, fortunes That I have passed. I ran it through, even from my boyish days“. This narration of Othello’s heroic exploits was necessary to convince the Venetians that he is not a threat to them, particularly the Duke who was about to send him against the Ottoman soldiers.

Othello needs to convince the Venetians as well as the Duke because he is considered as an outsider in Venetian society as he looked different from them and to some extent, he was perceived as a sort of witch doctor. So he has to convince them that he will act in their best interest even if he is an outsider. Othello also needs to convince the Duke that he did not bewitched Desdemona (daughter of the Duke) and that the only thing he did was charm her with his stories. These stories were then told to the Duke that these are harmless personal exploits of bravery to convince him and the Venetians that he is not a threat.

During the process of Othello’s soliloquy, he claimed that Desdemona fell in love with him because of this background as told by his soliloquy. These adventures of his, was a sort of an aphrodisiac that Desdemona loved him because of this. For his part, Othello fell in love with her because of her fascination to his story indicating that Desdemona’s patronage and faithfulness to his self-image is very important to him and probably one of the pre-requisite for him to fall in love with her.

Through this rhetorical device of soliloquy also, it is hinted to us the nature of Othello’s character to be somewhat narcissistic or that he loves himself too much but at the same time, helped his cause in convincing the Duke and the Venetians that he is not a witch but just a ladies man. The use of rhetorical device of imagery also served the intention of Othello’s soliloquy. We can say that Othello bragged about his exploits and to make him look more heroic, his adventures must be very difficult that made Desdemona fall in love with him.

It is a sort of analogy that the protagonist can only look as good as his or her antagonist. In this case, the antagonist are the challenges that Othello has to overcome which was portrayed in a colorful use of imagery such as in these lines; “And portance in my travelers history, /Wherein of oceans vast and deserts idle, / Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven”. The line used vast deserts and hills whose heads touch heaven to emphasize his imagery. This line also was a form of another literary device of syntax or the use of words whereby he used hyperbole or exaggeration to make his claims more adventurous and probably, more believable.

Of course we know that hills do not have any heads nor can it touch heaven but we get the idea that these hills are tall and big but it certainly made Othello look big in the eyes of Desdemona that she fell in love with him.