Comparing the Plays Othello and Oedipus - Essay Example

number The two plays, Oedipus and Othello, separated by a period of several centuries, shall form the subjects of study of this paper. This paper seeks to look at the aspects of tragedy within both these plays and how the time-period between these two plays have affected the way tragedies are played out. The paper shall argue about the basic changes that have taken place in the nature of tragedy and how historical factors play a role in shaping these changes. The social and political changes that took place during Renaissance England, to a great extent, affects the way tragedies were seen and perceived during the age in which William Shakespeare wrote his plays. The conditions that shaped the plays of Sophocles shall also be looked into. These shall enable an exploration of the main concern of this paper, which is to examine the role of the agency of the tragic protagonists of these plays, Othello and Oedipus, in their own downfall. This shall include a reference to the ideas of free will and predetermination, a debate that had great political, intellectual and religious value during the Renaissance. How this contrasts with the pre-Christian world of Sophocles shall be looked into and these issues shall be incorporated into the main thesis of the paper. The paper shall thus, attempt a comparison of the two plays, Othello and Oedipus, by examining the social, cultural and political situations that shaped these plays. This paper shall thus, place both these plays in their contexts and try to analyze how the concept of tragedy as propounded by Aristotle undergoes a change in the intervening time-period. Othello and Oedipus: Agency and Fate Othello and Oedipus are two of the most famous characters in the history of tragedy. Timeless in their appeal, these two tragic heroes are as similar as they are different. In a sense, Othello represents the evolution of the tragic hero from a world-order that gave precedence to fate over the will of man, to one where he undergoes a fall as a result of his own actions. This signals a transition to a world-order where man is considered to be the supreme being, one where he is considered a being who is able to create his own destiny. Oedipus is considered to be the most perfect tragedy that has ever been written. In fact, it is by citing this play that Aristotle explains his theories regarding tragedy as a form of drama. Peripeteia, the tragic revelation that the tragic hero experiences at the climax of the play that sends him hurtling to his doom, is explained by Aristotle using examples from Oedipus, where he describes it as “a change from ignorance to knowledge, and thus to either love or hate, in the personages marked for good or evil fortune” (Aristotle 30). Peripeteia for Oedipus is preceded by inaction, an inaction that stems from an inability to change his fate. This is evident from the predictions that the oracle makes. As Harold Bloom points out, it is significant that the oracle does not merely predict that Oedipus would commit some heinous crime but specifies every detail of it. Harold Bloom warns against readings that see Oedipus as a free man, since that entails a neglect of the oracle’s warnings, which form a very important part of the plot of the play (Bloom 141). The oracle stands for the religious forces that controlled, and were controlled by fate. For Aristotle, these forces represent the “good or evil fortune” that he talks about in The Poetics. Fate for Oedipus represents a course of action that he cannot avoid, as is seen from the events in the play, where significantly, none of his actions have as a direct consequence the murder of his father, or incest. Oedipus's knowledge of the prophecy of the oracle too cannot mitigate the misery that fate holds in store for him. Ironically, it is the knowledge of the prophecy that leads Oedipus towards the land of his birth. Throughout the story of Oedipus, we see him being willed towards the ultimate outcome of the play without his knowledge of his exact position. Oedipus’s position can be said to be one that is entirely the doing of fate rather than his own free will, since the series of events that lead to the climax of the play are set in motion even before Oedipus is capable of understanding the world. The inevitability of the situation that Oedipus finds himself him has resulted in the complex where the son feels an incestuous love towards his mother being termed the Oedipus complex. Here, the unchangeable workings of the subconscious are equated with the unshakeable will of the fates that decide the destiny of Oedipus. Oedipus’s will, thus, is insignificant in the greater cosmic order which operates, in the play to ensure an overall harmony, the workings of which remain unknown to the protagonist and the audience. This is indicated by the plagues that affect the city of Thebes, which are taken as a signal of the underlying sickness that needs to be removed. Here too, the actions of the people of a city are governed by fate. Oedipus being a part of royalty represents the workings of fate at a higher level. William Shakespeare lived during a completely different era, when the agency of man had started to be given more importance. This was the age of the Renaissance, a period of time when the dominant ideology was that of Humanism. Humanism emphasized the greatness of man as superior to other creations of God. This necessarily meant that man could improve his lot through his actions. There existed the concept of the chain of being according to which man occupied an intermediate position between the angels and the beasts. The followers of Renaissance Humanism believed in the ability of man to raise himself in the chain of being through his actions. These actions, according to them were governed principally by the will of the doer. One of the most important works to come out of this movement was Oration on the Dignity of Man by Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola. We see this in his account of the conversation between God and the first man, Adam. Thou, like a judge appointed for being honorable, art the molder and maker of thyself; thou mayest sculpt thyself into whatever shape thou dost prefer. Thou canst again grow upward from thy soul’s reason into the higher natures which are divine. (Mirandola 87) In this passage, Mirandola sums up the salient aspects of Renaissance Humanism. These theories influenced Shakespeare and the other playwrights of his age to a great extent. Othello as a tragic hero is a product of such influences. Othello’s tragic end is self-inflicted, all his actions being a part of a series of events that hasten his fall. Othello’s fate, at a basic level, is one that he decides for himself. His suicide is not a necessary outcome of the murder of the innocent Desdemona but because of a tragic revelation regarding his involvement in it. Emilia’s revelations regarding the handkerchief and how she stole it for her husband makes the innocence of his wife clear to Othello. He is overcome with remorse at the part that he has played in the death of his wife. Unlike Oedipus, he is aware of the fact that the events could have happened in a different manner, if he had not worked in collusion with Iago. It is this changeability that places the responsibility of Desdemona’s death on Othello and forces him to pay with his own life, whereas Oedipus lives on. Shakespeare emphasizes the culpability of man as the other side of his attempts to raise himself in the chain of being, a descent into the realm of the bestial. Othello’s suicide is the ultimate tragedy that can befall a man in a Christian framework; it is still, however, one that is conscious and self-inflicted. Critics have pointed to Othello’s racial belonging as being a significant factor in determining his course of action. Despite being a respected general within his army, Othello is not given the respect that is due to him because of his Moorish lineage. As critics like Philip C. Kolin (Kolin 1) have pointed out, this discrimination gets intertwined with a misogynistic attitude towards Desdemona. Othello himself begins to find it difficult to believe in the possibility of a white woman falling in love with him. He needs only very inconsequential details from Iago to believe in the adultery that his wife had apparently committed. The fate that Othello meets at the end of the play is thus, one that is caused by his own insecurities, albeit engendered by the social and moral codes of the time. It is not a result of the machinations of fate like it is for Oedipus. Othello’s inability to view his relationship with his wife as one free of the racial politics of his society offer a glimpse into the social determinism that operates in the play. Othello’s decision to murder Desdemona, however, still arises out of a choice that he exercises. His tragic fate arises out of his failure to restrain his own rage that is fuelled by jealousy. The figure of the tragic hero in Shakespeare’s times was closest to the figure of Icarus, a mythical Greek character who flew too close to the sun, and thus met his doom, in a moment when he was oblivious to his own wings, which were made of wax. Characters such as Doctor Faustus in the play of the same name by Christopher Marlowe, established this character type which Shakespeare too was a proponent of (Marlowe). The historical differences that we have discussed in this paper can thus be seen as the reason why its plays are radically different from the one that Sophocles produced, even though both belonged to the same genre. Works Cited Bloom, Harold. Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex. New York: Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations, 2007. Print. 141 Aristotle. The Poetics.Trans. Ingram Bywater. New Delhi: Doaba Publications, 2008. Print. 30 Mirandola, Giovannni Pico Della. “Oration on the Dignity of Man”. The Tempest. New York: A Norton Critical Edition, 2005. Print. 87 Kolin, Philip C.. “Blackness Made Visible: A Survey of Othello in Criticism, on Stage, and on Screen”. Othello:New Critical Essays. Eds. Kolin, Philip C. Print. 1 Shakespeare, William. Othello. Eds. Sanders, Norman. Chennai: New Cambridge Shakespeare, 2007. Print. Marlowe, Christopher. Doctor Faustus. Eds. Mukherjee, Suroopa. New Delhi: A Worldview Critical Edition, 2006. Print. Sophocles. The Theban Plays. England: Penguin Classics, 1978. Print. Read More