Othello Is One of Shakespeares Masterpieces - Essay Example

Othello is one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces. It is especially so because of its vivid characters and wide-ranging themes. There is the Moorish general Othello, who is out of place in Venice, who allows jealousy to get the best of him. And there is Iago, a person who Coleridge once described as embodying “a motiveless malevolence.” Together these two characters—the protagonist and the antagonist—act out the play’s greatest theme: jealousy and possessive love.

In other plays, villains may create situations or traps to ensnare protagonists as Iago does with a handkerchief. However, there is something more evil about Iago. He seems to enjoy not only inspiring Othello’s jealousy but fanning its flames. He watches Othello’s face contort and sees his pain and continues to act. The intimacy of this cruelty makes this relationship, and Iago’s malevolence, very interesting.

Othello at times seems to be foolish as he falls for all of Iago’s tricks, going so far as to, horribly, kill his wife. But he is also a poet and he has some beautiful lines. The fact that he has a romantic, passionate side to him and is not just a powerful one-dimensional general adds a great twist to the story. His dying words are very poetic and in them, we see just how far he has fallen and what jealousy has undone. This is an important distinction in the play, the difference between Othello’s final soliloquy which is so moving and in which we see how great a man he is, and Iago’s final lines, as he is being led off to be tortured: “What you know, you know. From this point forth I never shall speak a word.” The difference between the two characters is nowhere more clear.

The relationship between Othello and Iago is the key to this play. The emotions generated by it lead to both of their downfalls. By creating such life-like characters and inspiring them with very human feelings—even if these are bad feelings—Shakespeare created a masterpiece.