Othello Feature Article

William Shakespeare’s play Othello is one of his four most great tragedies. This play is “widely known as being one of the most moving and most painful with the fall of proud, dignified man, the murder of a graceful, loving woman, and the unreasoning hatred of a "motiveless" villain”. Othello is an esteemed general respected and honoured for his position despite the fact he is a moor. After promoting the Florentine Cassio, his “friend” Iago despises Othello’s decision as he believes it should’ve been him who deserved it. Othello later elopes with Desdemona, which was looked down upon due to Othello being a black man. This is where Iago, the protagonist, begins his malicious plan to bring down Othello. Using Rodrigo, who loves Desdemona, to do his dirty work for him.

This play was written in 1604; new versions have been made into film with modern day altercations, for example, “O”, directed by Tim Blake Nelson. Each of these show similarities and differences.

Many of the themes shown in Shakespeare’s original play Othello use the same themes.and

The movie "O" shows a great deal of parallels to the book. Director Tim Blake Nelson stayed true to Shakespeare's original cast, plot, and sequence of events, but he set his movie in modern times. It takes place in a primarily white high school where Odin, playing the part of Othello, is a basketball star who leads his team to many victories. His right-hand-man, Michel (playing Cassio) is always there for him, helping in any way he can. Hugo plays the part of Iago. He shows a lot of jealousy towards Odin and Desi (playing Desdemona) being in a relationship as well as all of Odin's skills.

The characters that create this play show one theme all throughout this play, Deception and Illusion vs. Reality.

RACISM:
Iago says many things that show his racism clear as daylight. Iago refers to Othello as `thick-lips' and `sooty-bosom', also he calls him an assortment of animals including `an old black ram',...