In Shakespeare’s tragedy, “Othello” many characters are duplicitous to the extent that how they are perceived in public is not how they behave in private. With the character of Othello, his appearance seems to be successful and proud however the reality of it is that he struggles to balance his personal life and professional life. His reputation, furthermore, is tied closely to that of his military career and his wife’s fidelity and in Act 3, it is obvious that his military career suffers due to the problems in his marriage. Towards the end of Act 1, Othello denies that his marriage will distract him from military matters, however this reputation he is holding on to causes a later fracture in his relationships with Cassio and Desdemona, evident in act 2 scene 3.
Othello is concerned with his reputation and upholds a strict code of honour both privately and publicly. While he admits his love for him, he dismisses Cassio as soon as he discovers his officer’s drunken actions. In Act 2 Scene 3, he says ‘Cassio, I love thee / But never more be officer of mine’ keeping up his status although clearly disheartened by Cassio’s drunken state. Attributes of a powerful Moor are clear when Othello says, ‘Though he had twinned with me, both at a birth, / Shall lose me,’ highlighting his willingness to lose even the closest people to him, over his reputation. The comparison of ‘though,’ highlights the lengths Othello will go to in order to uphold his status. However ‘passion[ate]’ he becomes, Othello keeps up his strong, quiet dignity in contrast to Iago’s flurry of manipulations.
As a public leader, Othello experiences delight and success amidst the ‘pride, pomp and circumstance of the glorious war,’ clear in Act 3 scene 3. The imagery commonly associated with Othello is suggestive of power and bravery; images of the sea and military heroism abound. In Act 1 scene 3, Desdemona echoes Othello’s dignified description of his eminent career, in military terminology, with the declaration that her ‘downright violence […] may trumpet to the world’ as her ‘heart [is] subdued’ by ‘her lord’. By using the terminology of war to describe her love it is clear that the heroine is ‘well tun’d’ with her husband but his language, and the violence that is explicit in sea and military imagery, acts as dramatic irony for Othello’s ‘bloody thoughts with violent pace,’ which contain similar natural imagery. It is this inability to separate his public and private life in the name of his romance with Desdemona, that proves to be his downfall.
In the extract taken from Act 2, it is particularly evident that Othello is just as decisive as he was in earlier scenes, but now he, too, has been tricked by Iago and his actions only further Iago’s plot. Desdemona arrives, awakened by the noise and is quickly led back to her bed by Othello. This could be perceived as him protecting her from violence and drunk Cassio, however it is more likely that he doesn’t want to reveal his private feelings while keeping up his public appearance. Desdemona’s arrival (‘What’s the matter, dear?’) and then exit (‘go back to bed’) with Othello, shows her continued obedience to Othello, and, more importantly, his confidence in that obedience. He replies to her inquest with ‘Everything’s fine, now, sweetheart’ which emphasises his effort to keep her away from his ‘appearance.’ Later in the play, we find out that his military career has begun to fracture their relationship therefore this scene foreshadows Othello’s inability to keep his marriage from military matters.
Othello’s public quality, his military ethic of magnificence, pride and bravery, does not equip him for more private problems. When he meets those, ‘Othello’s inner timbers begin to part at once the stuff of which he is made begins to at once deteriorate and show itself unfit’ (F.R Leavis). As one of the biggest critics of the Moor’s nobility, it is a clear example of how Othello struggles to balance his appearance and reality. In Act 4 scene 1, when this inner man emerges under pressure, we see the savage Othello; the barbarian stripped of his wishful thinking, who gives himself up to jealousy black magic and cruelty. We see the man who coarsely announces of his wife that he will ‘chop her into messes’ and significantly, the man who degrades his oratory by borrowing from Iago’s lecherous vocabulary. His gradual adoption of Iago’s type of language is one of the most effective graphs of his deterioration as a person, but also as a lover. Othello’s fractured sense of self outside of his role as military commander is conveyed through lexis, previously referring to himself with the nobility of third person but reverting to personal pronouns filled with passion and oaths of ‘zounds!’
Othello’s lack of understanding of his personal self and emotions leads to his downfall and tragedy within the play. Shakespeare uses Othello to illustrate that one’s public reputation holds no merit if he is unable to understand and confront his emotions and personal actions. The outer world becomes insignificant as the hero becomes monomaniacal, obsessed with a single private concern. Cassio’s loyalty is dismissed after being unjustly punished for his drunken fighting. It is Othello’s strict code of honour both publicly and privately that leads to his unjustifiable judgement against Desdemona.
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