Shakespeare Othello - Essay Example

Shakespeare – Othello William Shakespeare is one of the most notable play of all time. Shakespeare is well known for his works especially on tragic plays. Some of his notable works include, King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet and Othello. Most of Shakespeare’s works were tragic comedies that reflected the things that went on in his society. The works of Shakespeare are still relevant in the study of literature and plays. In recent years, filmmakers have put Shakespeare’s works in new contexts to make them relevant to the contemporary society. Stuart Burge 1965 and Oliver Parker have come up with their own versions of Shakespeare’s play, Othello. This paper is a systematic inquiry into comparative cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare’s Othello. It features Stuart Burge`s adaptation and Oliver Parker`s adaptation. The paper will also reflect on the impact of these adaptations to our understanding of Shakespeare’s relevance in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare’s Othello by Burge and Parker feature different characters, settings and plot but maintain the central theme in the original play Othello by Shakespeare. Stuart Burge’s Othello is a modified version of Othello, who is the moor of Venice. It was staged by John Dexter featuring people like Maggie Smith, Laurence Oliver and Frank Finley among others. The plays states, “…Shapes on the screen are less and less easily recognizable: compositions are tense, full of diagonals and faces are obscured, crossed with shadows, or bars, harshly side-lit, or set askew in the frame. Often we see not human figures but their shadows, which distort as the figures move…” (Jackson 180-81). The action takes place in the battlefield and the scenes are the same with the original Othello (Fischlin and Fortier 233). The film is presented in the same environment featuring the violent, catching and emotional story of friendship, love and betrayal. In Burge’s film, this quality is intensified and told in a passionate manner. In the film, Othello compares to the original Othello in Shakespeare’s play. Olivier plays the role of Othello in Blackface. Burge makes Olivier adopt an exotic accent, introduce a special walking style and speak in a deeper voice incomparable to his normal voice. He shows excellent leadership skills and a bright future. He dates Maggie Smith who acts as Desdemona (Fischlin and Fortier 234). In one interview Burger said, “…I found the strength of the movie is that you play the plot and situation as straight forward as you can. Essentially it's an action thriller, but you've thrown Rowan Atkinson in the mix…” (Shakespeare, Bate and Rasmussen 33) Just like the original play, Othello by Shakespeare, the heinous villain is a person who is a very close friend to Olivier. Frank Finley, representing Lago has gained trust and loyalty from Olivier as his best friend. The fact that Olivier has trust from the people makes Hugo feel bad because of the praises he gets from the public. This makes Lago develop a desire to destroy Olivier. Lago manipulates Olivier and makes him doubt the love and fidelity of Maggie smith towards him. When this gets out of hand, Olivier decides to murder Maggie and commits suicide after that. Othello, as directed by Oliver Parker has almost the approach towards the play. The setting is fifty percent of the original play and involves a black police officer who has gained praise in his department because of his integrity, competence at work and valuable principles. The main difference involves lopping of Shakespeare’s original text from the actual screenplay. Laurence Fishburn acts as Moor Othello. He is the commissioner responsible to confrontation of the Turkish army at Cyprus. Nathaniel Parker acting as Cassio and Iago are always the right-hand man men of Othello. Iago is not as faithful to him as Othello thinks he is. Because of his rage, hatred and jealousy, Jago decides to plot an issue that would cause Othello’s downfall. He also plans to make Othello doubt his wife’s faithfulness and consider her as adulterous. Irene Jacob has taken the place of Desdemona. This plan succeeds and ends in a tragic manner. othello’s jealousy makes lago exploit him to his downfall (Jackson 303). This shows the similarity in the themes of the two plays; one being an adaptation of the other. This is despite the fact that the plays happen in two different settings involving different characters and different issues. Burge’s O takes place in United Kingdom in a work setting the same way parker’s Othello takes place in a work-related setting. Othello involves mature adults who are already married while Burges’s Othello involves characters who are put as married. However, there are certain similarities in the two plays. Olivier is the main character in Burges’s play the same way Othello is in Shakespeare’s play (Shakespeare, Bate and Rasmussen 159). Both of them are leaders in their own territories. Olivier is the leader of an army troop while Othello is the leader of the Venetian army. Burge adapted certain features from Shakespeare’s original play so that his play could fit in the contemporary world while reflecting Shakespeare’s play. For example, Burge presents Olivier and married to Maggie. This was representative of the marriage between Desdemona and Othello is Shakespeare’s play. Burge’s Othello is appealing to contemporary readers because of its adaptation to fit that kind of age because of the use of contemporary characters who identify with them (Shakespeare, Bate and Rasmussen 160). The river that is near Othello’s apartment is a symbol of the Venice setting in the original play. The setting of Othello by Parker is placed in Cyprus confronting a Turkish army. It helps it the embodiment of the military force applied in the play. Othello is the head of the army meaning that he has power over the whole unit. Parker incorporated his own ideas to come up with his own adaptation of the original play by Shakespeare. He combined his ideas with the ideas from the original Shakespeare tragedy. The beginning of the play in the two adaptations takes place differently. Parker wanted to create the film for the audience to relate to and enjoy. The viewer can see through the mirror that the couple is having sex. This shifts onto violence on the black man, an aspect that shows racism. On the other hand, Burge’s Othello features Olivier. The camera shifts to the battleground. Iago is sited alone showing rage and jealousy rising in him. He is distant from the group enjoying the victory. Shakespeare’s Othello depicts a theme of jealousy with characterization and imagery. He has used characters that are jealous to show its destructive nature that devalues honor and trust. The protagonist, Othello has been made to appear a general with respectable high social status. However, the moor contrasts this view towards the end of the play. Shakespeare expressed illusion versus reality through Iago through dramatic irony and soliloquies. However, Blake makes use of music, superimposition and different angles of camera shots to convey the theme of jealousy. Cinema and register have been used to suit contemporary audience especially teenagers. The use of register includes slang, profanities and colloquial language. Burge used non-diegetic sounds in several scenes including the sex scene and the willow scene. Burge introduces the reader/viewer in to the tragic end by including the lyrics, “…the sun goes down heroes eventually die…” (Jackson 77) in the music. Burge used dramatic irony and characterization to bring out the theme of reality versus illusion. For instance, Hugo says, “…all my life always wanted to fly…” (Shakespeare, Bate and Rasmussen 70) this shows his desire for people’s attention towards him the same way Odin gets the attention. In one interview Parker said, “…"Part of the reason I do those things is to make sure I'm stirring it a little bit," the director says in defense of his admittedly audacious alterations. A veteran of the London stage, he's confident in his right to rewrite when scripting for a film, but clearly has respect for Wilde's material. "(I have) a passion to deliver what I feel is the essence of these pieces, and if you do them without making any alteration to the new medium you're working in, I think you're doing the pieces a disservice…” (Fischlin and Fortier 456) Shakespeare had relevance in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The adaptations of his play Othello can ascertain this fact. The times that Shakespeare lived might not have relevance to contemporary world. This is not different to the richness of his language. However, human nature does not change because of this (Fischlin and Fortier 84). The plays of Shakespeare are about human nature irrespective of their setting. This means that the themes of his plays are relevant to the contemporary world. Therefore, if the language and setting of the plays form a barrier to understanding the great works then adaptations has to be done. Shakespearean plays touched on human issues such as leadership, integrity and jealousy. These aspects do not change with progression of time. Therefore, the adaptations of Othello by Burge and Parker served to show the relevance of Shakespeare in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The adaptations simplified the language and modified the setting to fit in the audience needs while maintaining the themes created by Shakespeare in the original play, Othello (Fischlin and Fortier 90). In conclusion, this paper has covered a systematic inquiry into comparative cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare’s Othello through Stuart Burge’s adaptation Othello and Oliver Parker adaptation. It has also reflected on the impact of these adaptations to our understanding of Shakespeare’s relevance in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The change of characters and setting of the play have captured audience needs and created relevance. They have harmonized the language so that the intended audience, for instance, Burge’s contemporary audience to understand the themes in Shakespeare’s Othello. The use of character, style and cinematic adaptations has contributed to the harmonization process. Shakespeare was relevant in the beginning of the twenty-first century. This is evident in the fact that several writers and directors adapted Shakespeare’s Othello to fit the twenty-first setting and audience. This shows the relevance of Shakespeare’s works irrespective of difference in time and his presence. His ideas lasted even after his death because his themes revolved around human nature that is unchangeable. Works cited Fischlin, Daniel and Mark Fortier. Adaptations of Shakespeare: a critical anthology of plays from the seventeenth century to the present. London: Routledge, 2000. Jackson, Russell. The Cambridge companion to Shakespeare on film. London: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Shakespeare, William, Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen. Othello. NewYork: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Read More