A Critical Analysis of Othellos Emotions and Emotional Outlets in Shakespeares Pay - Research Paper Example

A Critical Analysis of Othello’s Emotions and Emotional Outlets in Shakespeare’s “Othello” William Shakespeare’s protagonist, Othello, is a complex character whose downfall is often considered as the result of his psychological imperfections. Though Iago’s manipulation plays a crucial role in bringing him down, critics, almost unanimously, agree that the pitfall of his destruction is embedded within his own mindset. That is, Iago does not destroy him; rather he provokes him to initiate his self-destruction by triggering the deep-seated suspicion, insecurity and inferiority complex in his psyche. So, Othello is self-destructive. But the question which arises here is whether his emotional character-traits reveal this self-destructive nature of Othello. A close scrutiny of Othello’s character will necessarily reveal that Othello’s personality comprises of several emotions such as love, anger, credulousness, overconfidence and jealousy. Obviously, these emotions of Othello have been greatly shaped and determined by more subtle emotional traits -such as inferiority complex, fear of being rejected and mental insecurity- of his mindset. After all, his passionate love for Desdemona lies at the center of all the emotional behaviors of Othello. This emotion has been greatly affected by those emotional traits. His love for Desdemona and subsequent ‘jealousy and suspicion’ appear to be the extreme manifestations of those subconscious emotional traits. In the play, Othello’s love for Desdemona can be viewed as the extreme revelation of his feelings toward the color-aware Venetian society. Othello’s love for Desdemona is very complicated in nature. Though it is popularly believed that Othello passionately loves his wife, his love is, indeed, the embodiment of other subconscious feelings of his mind. Possibly, Othello himself does not know that what he considers as his love is his predisposition to own a wife in a rigidly materialistic sense. In Act 1 Scene 3, Othello says before the Duke, “She loved me for the dangers I had passd, / And I loved her that she did pity them” (Shakespeare 2.1.228-229). Othello tells the Duke about how he wins Desdemona by his stories of heroism in the battlefields. He tells that he falls in Desdemona’s love because she falls for her. In his long speech on how he wins Desdemona, he never mention any of Desdemona’s virtue. Even nowhere in the story, he tells that he is attracted to Desdemona because of her beauty. Rather he fairly indicates that his love is a mere, often cold, reciprocation of Desdemona’s love for him. Therefore, he lacks the ability to ‘trust’ her partner which is supposed to be an essential element of love. Referring to the lack of trust in Othello’s character, Mathew Siler notes, “True love requires trust, and Othello’s insecurities prevent such an idea from ever being a legitimate possibility” (4). In true love, a man’s best reward is that his unconditional trust is reciprocated by his partner’s fidelity and loyalty. Othello pathetically lacks this virtue. Othello’s fear of being betrayed is a combined emotional outlet of his psychological insecurities and his racial status in the Venetian society. Later, this fear has been intensified and cleverly turned into his jealousy by Iago. A man’s feeling of being loved gives him the sense of belonging and acceptability to others. Initially, Othello may be driven by a desire to increase his acceptability in the society on a more emotional basis than the mere give-take relationship. Desdemona’s love provides him with this emotional basis of acceptance in the society. Therefore, his love entails the perpetual fear of being betrayed by Desdemona. Othello’s fear being betrayal evolves from several sources. First, as a well-grown man, Othello must have been aware of the fact that “[his] impressive merit would not be enough to woo such a woman” (Siler 5). Rather by sheer chance, Desdemona falls for him. Secondly, he knows quite well that Desdemona, being charmed by his stories, has fallen in his love. So, it is possible that when Desdemona will become tired of sex with him, she may turn away from him, as Othello says, after he returns from the battlefield in Cyprus: “When the blood is made dull with the act of/sport” (Shakespeare 2.1.228-229). Thirdly, being manipulated by Iago, he starts to believe that since she has “deceive[d] her father, marrying [him]” (Shakespeare 3.3.206), it is possible that she will deceive him also. Othello’s fear of betrayal gradually turns into maddening jealousy. Jealousy is ‘‘an emotion experienced when a person is threatened by the loss of an important relationship with another person to a rivalry” (Parrott 15). Often ‘envy’ is confused with ‘jealousy’ since these two are closely related. During the second half of the play, Othello does not become envious; rather he becomes jealous at the fear of losing Desdemona’s love and affection. This jealousy further becomes perpetrated by the fear of losing the society’s favor. Indeed, Lazarus and Lazarus’s definition of jealousy is more pertinent to Othello’s situation. They define jealousy: “The personal meaning of jealousy is that one has lost or is threatened with loss of favor, usually another’s affection” (37). For him, ‘betrayal’ does not simply mean the loss of a wife. Rather it is the loss of his rank, prestige and, after all, his identity which he has constructed with much hardship by risking his life wholeheartedly for the society’s security from external threat. Othello’s internal fear and insecurity are so intense that, for a single moment, he cannot forget that he is going to be cuckolded by Desdemona. Iago attempts to play with Othello’s psychological insecurity which is induced by his racial status. He manipulates the protagonist’s insecurities and “trigger off an engulfing suspicion and jealousy of his wifes supposed infidelity, which culminates in him murdering her” (Hamlin 34). Before the Senate, Brabantio refers to her daughter’s feeling about a man of dark skin: “Of spirit so still and quiet…[could] fall in love with what she fear’d to look on” (Shakespeare 1.3.97-100). Obviously, it seems that Othello also knows about such racial-dispositional fear of Desdemona of a man of color. So, his fear of being abandoned Desdemona is well justified. Credulousness, confidence and overconfidence are often considered as some of Othello’s important, but closely interrelated, emotional traits. Obviously, these emotional traits are the results of the deep-seated suspicion, insecurity and inferiority complex of his subconscious mind. Siler has made a very useful comment on Iago’s about Othello’s psychological structure: “Iago executes his scheme so skillfully because of his intimate knowledge of the way Othello’s mind operates and is able to use his superior’s weaknesses to achieve success” (4). Undoubtedly, Othello’s military prowess has earned him high respect in the society. But from the very beginning of the play, it is evident that his military achievements have done little very to extinguish the society’s color-prejudices. Most of the characters never mentions him by his name; rather they use various derogatory racial adjectives, such as “thick-lips”, “barberry horse”, etc, to refer to him. These racial remarks which tend to portray him as a sex-crazed beastly barbarian, quite vividly reveal the deep-rooted racial prejudices of the Venetians. Brabantio sues Othello in the court, the Duke finally comments that “[Othello] is far more fair than black” (Shakespeare 1.3.292). In the Duke’s comment, there is a clear hint of Othello’s obedience and modesty. The duke implicitly indicates that the ‘blacks’ are general savage and barbarian, though Othello is an exception to them. It seems that Othello commands the Venetians’ respect by his unquestionable inclination to follow the Venetians’ order. Referring to Othello’s obsession with how he is perceived by others, Edward Berry says, “Othellos ‘Africanness’ is crucial to his tragedy not because of what he is, innately or culturally, but because of how he is perceived, by others and by himself” (318). As a man of minor race, he has to undergo a greater level of scrutiny of the people around him. So, the General’s modesty is, indeed, “his inability to freely go into conflict with the people of superior race” (McCloskey 14). Throughout the most part of the play, he seems to be confident, calm and credulous. Most often he believes in Iago’s words without any question. In the beginning, he once demands proofs of Desdemona’s infidelity. But he soon starts to believe in Iago’s words because of his subconscious predisposition to obey without any question the men whose orders he is supposed to follow at the risk of his life. During the first half of the play, Othello behaves calm, cool and confident. Iago attempts to instigate a brawl by telling Othello that Brabantio has arrived at the court in full armor with a bad intention. Without being the least agitated, he receives Brabantio politely and confidntly: “Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them. / Good signior, you shall more command with years / Than with your weapons.” (Shakespeare I.ii.59-61). He shows the highest reverence to Brabantio because of his old age. Even in the face of Brabantio’s racial insults, Othello maintains his graciousness. It seems that one can expect such self-control from a brave General like Othello. Indeed, Othello’s calm politeness towards Brabantio can be perceived as his self-restraint which a man of inferior race is supposed to show those who are racially superior to him. In other words, his extreme politeness and confident behavior are the results of his inferiority complex, which never allows him to question the men of the superior society face to face. Works Cited Berry, Edward. “Othellos Alienation”, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 30.2 (1990): 315-333. Print. Hamlin, William M. Tragedy and Scepticism in Shakespeares England. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Lazarus, Richard. S., & Lazarus, Berkeley. N. Passion and reason: Making sense of our emotions. New York: Oxford University Press. 1994 McCloskey, John C. “The Motivation of Iago.” College English 3:1 (Oct, 1941). 29 April 2008. . Parrott, W. Gerrod. “Implications of dysfunctional emotions for understanding how emotions function”. Review of General Psychology, 5.3(2001): 180–186. Shakespeare, William. Othello. New York: Della Classics, 1993 Siler, Matthew. “Racial Insecurity: Othello’s Bane”, Academia.edu. 19 Feb. 2012. Web. 05 April 2014. Available at Read More