Another great story written by William Shakespeare “Othello” is about true love which comes amongst two different race both black and white. As of gathering information on this topic, there is little evidence on why people should feel sympathy for Othello.
The better question should be should we still feel sympathy for Othello for the cause of his own tragic ending? Nonetheless, People always say that love is more of a powerful thing and that true love can endure even the greatest obstacles. True love is when you love one another dearly despite the hardships that can come within a relationship; However, when jealousy gets in the way, love can go in a whole different direction. In can lead in to a dark situation.
In Othello, the Moors love for his wife Desdemona has been taken by his own jealousy and crave for power. Many people believe that Iago is the main reason for the play’s downfall which leads Othello to kill himself and his wife. Othello stands out as a sympathetic character due to his weakness for Iago’s tricks. However, this is not the only case as he led himself to believe Iago’s lies of Desdemona’s unfaithfulness. Instead, Othello is a character who becomes gullible and believes any lies told to him. This, in fact, is what sets Othello apart from someone who is a victim but instead a gullible foolish man. After looking closely at Othello’s sympathetic character and how he views himself, we find that the character is just as at fault for his own death because of his imagined cuckolding, being a gullible hero, and his acts without reasoning.
Furthermore, Othello is shown as a sympathetic character throughout the play. Throughout the play, Othello has been tricked in thinking that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. The cause of Othello being manipulated is due to the fact that Iago along with several other characters in the play hate Othello as they simply want to ruin his life. The main reason being that he is black. They don’t care who gets hurt in the process and are motivated by nothing but sheer selfishness. As mentioned, Iago is able to fool Othello and Othello actually trusted him.
The audience begins to feel sorry for Othello because he is severely deceived, tricked, and persecuted.. He seems like a decent individual, too, in spite of the tragic ending of the drama. Othello stays strong throughout most of the play, defending himself gracefully in front of the court and only losing his temper at the end. He might not be aware of Iago’s plot but he might sense the persecution. He becomes weak at the end mainly because he felt that Desdemona deceived him tremendously even though it was Iago who deceived him all along. Without seeing any evidence with his own eyes, Othello is able to believe Iago on every single lies told upon him causing the huge downfall and ruin his relationship with Desdemona.
When he commits suicide it is because he cannot live with himself after killing Desdemona; he does not kill her out of cruelty but out of anguish. This was one of the main reasons why the audience felt sympathy for Othello. More so, another reason the audience feels sympathy for Othello is because of his skin colour. Iago shows racial slurs by saying “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise!Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, or else the devil will make a grandsire of you.
Arise, I say!” (1.1.97-101). Iago uses racial slurs when he wakes up Brabantio with the news that his daughter, Desdemona , has eloped with Othello . When Iago says an “old black ram” (Othello) is “tupping” (sleeping with) Brabantio’s “white ewe” (Desdemona), he plays on Elizabethan notions that black men have an animal-like, hyper-sexuality. This seems geared at manipulating Brabantio’s fears of miscegenation (when a couple “mixes races” through marriage and/or sex). Adding to this, Iago knows he will be able to easily fool Othello because he is a man that does not have trust issues for anyone which is why Othello is already shown to be a sympathetic character.
This is said by Iago by saying “The Moor is of a free and open nature/That thinks men honest that but seem to be so” (1.3.435-447). More so, Iago is able to test Othello by asking him questions on Desdemona’s unfaithfulness. This was what led Othello to make the choice on murdering his wife Desdemona rather than tell Othello to murder her. Throughout the play, Othello transforms from a strong and confident character to the complete opposite. More so, because of how poorly Othello sees of himself, he simply cannot understand why Desdemona loves him and because of this, this is shown as to how their relationship is based on promise and trust. When reflecting on his own race and reveals his belief of being an outcast, Othello pleads, “She’s gone.
I am abused, and my relief/Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage” (3.3 267–279). Since feeling abandoned by his wife Desdemona, Othello finally explains that he feels helpless and a fool for simply believing that Desdemona could love someone like him, stating she is out of his league. Othello lacks of confidence which also led him to murder Desdemona.
Thus, Othello’s motivation to seek revenge on Desdemona is due to the fact that he does not see himself as someone who deserves her love. If Othello was not gullible in believing Iago’s lies and lacked confidence, he would not have come to such a tragic ending which why the audience feels of sympathy for Othello. As mentioned previously, Othello could not believe that Desdemona had been unfaithful to her. He never confronted her about manipulating lies that Iago told him.
Instead, Othello being gullible as ever waited to see if until the handkerchief incident happened to confront Desdemona, however; by then it was too late and Othello was already convinced of her unfaithfulness stating, “By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in hand/O perjured woman! thou dost stone my heart/And makest me call what I Harris 6 intend to do/A murder, which I thought a sacrifice/I saw the handkerchief” (5.2 62-66). This shows that Othello is convinced of Desdemona’s unfaithfulness, although she pleads that his accusation is not true. Othello, who waited too long to confront his wife about his accusations, has no patience or belief in Desdemona’s claims.
However, if Othello confronts Desdemona earlier in the play, the ending may not have ended so tragically. For instance, when Emilia is talking to Desdemona and claims “who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch?” (Act 4.3 74-75) Desdemona’s innocence is shown.
Here, Emilia is explaining to Desdemona that she would cheat on her husband if she were to gain something from it. However, Desdemona disagrees with Emilia and explains that she is faithful to Othello. In other words, Desdemona loves Othello so much that she admits she wouldn’t cheat on him for anything. Therefore, Desdemona remains loyal to Othello throughout the play, which makes her death in the end more tragic.
