Good and Bad in Othello Essay -- Othello essays

Good and Bad in Othello  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   A huge battle between good and evil is waged the William Shakespeare’s drama Othello. In this essay let us study the many facets of these two dimensions as presented through the words and actions of the characters.    Can the protagonist, who has committed a double killing in the last scene, be saved? In William Shakespeare: The Tragedies, Paul A. Jorgensen discusses the theology of the final scene:    It is better not to look too anxiously into the theology of the outcome. Othello has no doubt that he is damned. But better theologians than he would place more credence and hope in the genuineness of his final passion. From the stern general who had, as his first line, the cold â€Å"’Tis better as it is† (1.2.6), he has traversed a pilgrimage of known and feeling sorrow. And, it must be repeated, it will depend upon the beholder whether one judges or rejoices in the transfiguration of loving not wisely but too well. (66)    Unquestionably the most immoral, the most evil and sinister, character in the play is the ancient. Totaling the lies which he tells to everyone about him would require considerable effort and time. In Shakespeare’s Four Giants Blanche Coles comments on the lack of veracity in Iago’s speech:    The story that Iago tells Roderigo about the promotion of Cassio over him is not true, although it has been accepted by many discriminating scholars. Careless reading alone can account for this misapprehension, careless reading which for the moment dulls their alertness to one of the most essential requirements of Shakespearean character analysis. That requirement is that the reader must never accept, or must always be ready to challenge, the word of any charac... ...rdered mistress, resuscitates morality in this play. Emilia refutes the untrue notions which Othello says motivated him to kill; she counters Iago’s lies (â€Å"She give it Cassio? No, alas, I found it, / And I did give’t my husband.†) and lays the guilt for Desdemona’s murder on his shoulders. And she sacrifices her very life for the truth; she dies a martyr, stabbed by evil Iago. Othello also is a martyr in a sense, voluntarily paying in full for the crime that he committed.    WORKS CITED    Coles, Blanche. Shakespeare’s Four Giants. Rindge, New Hampshire: Richard Smith Publisher, 1957.    Jorgensen, Paul A. William Shakespeare: The Tragedies. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985.    Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.