Othello Essay :: essays research papers

act upon i. sc. i.ADMIRABLE is the preparation, so truly and peculiarly Shakspearian, in the introduction of Roderigo, as the dupe on whom Iago shall premiere exercise his art, and in so doing demo his own roughage. Roderigo, without any fixed principle, but not without the moral notions and sympathies with honour, which his clan and connections had hung upon him, is already swell fitted and predisposed for the purpose for very want of character and strength of passion, like wind loudest in an empty house, constitute his character. The first three lines happily state the nature and foundation of the friendship amidst him and Iago, the purse,as also the contrast of Roderigos intemperance of mind with Iagos coolness,the coolness of a preconceiving experimenter. The mere language of protestationIf ever I did dream of much(prenominal) a matter, abhor me,which falling in with the associative link, determines Roderigos continuation of distemperThou toldst me, thou didst hold him in thy hateelicits at space a true feeling of Iagos mind, the dread of contempt habitual to those, who raise in themselves, and have their keenest pleasure in, the expression of con-tempt for others. Observe Iagos high self-opinion, and the moral, that a wicked man will employ real feelings, as well as assume those most alien from his own, as instru-ments of his purposesAnd, by the combine of man,I know my price, I am worth no worsened a place.I think Tyrwhitts reading of life for wife A fellow some damnd in a fair wifethe true one, as fit to Iagos contempt for whatever did not display power, and that intellectual power. In what follows, permit the reader feel how by and through the glass of two passions, disappointed vanity and envy, the very vices of which he is complaining, are made to act upon him as if they were so many excellences, and the more appropriately, because cunning is always admired and wished for by minds conscious of inward weaknessbut they act only by half, like music on an inattentive auditor, swelling the thoughts which prevent him from auditory sense to it. Ib. Rod. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,If he can carryt thus.Roderigo turns forth to Othello and here comes one, if not the only, seeming justification of our blackamoor or negro Othello. Even if we supposed this an uninterrupted tradition of the theatre, and that Shakspeare himself, from want of scenes, and the experience that postcode could be made too marked for the senses of his audience, had practically sanctioned it,would this arouse aught concerning his own intention as a poet for all ages?