Othello’s Universality of Appeal :: Othello essays

Othellos Universality of Appeal The Shakespearean play Othello has enjoyed popularity on the stage and in print for cd years. What are the features which enhance this quality among readers? And what detracts? Does the playwrights use of triplex time contribute to its universality of appeal? In The Riverside Shakespeare Frank Kermode explains the advantages of double time to Shakespeare Double time is a classical topic of Othello criticism one of its uses is to remind us that the play, more largely considered, is characterized by a physique of imaginative duplicity. Thus one can isolate a plot of monumental and satisfying simplicity without forgetting that the text can be made to frequent very different interpretations. The richness of the tragedy derives from uncancelled suggestions, from latent subplots operating in terms of imagery as well as character, even from hints of large philosophic and theological contexts which are not fully developed. (1200) Additional agreeme nts exist for such a broad appeal. Kenneth Muir, in the Introduction to William Shakespeare Othello, explains in broad terms the pedestal for the plays universality of appeal If, however, the interpretation offered above is sound, Othello is clearly not without universal significance, for, apart from its dramatization of the difficulty of discovering reality behind appearance, its cardinal main characters exemplify opposing principles which together constitute the human psyche. Othello believes in love, in complete commitment, in nobility, in vocation, and in absolutes. Iago believes in nothing, and least of on the whole in other human beings. (39) More reasons for the plays popularity appear. A. C. Bradley, in his book of literary criticism, Shakespearean Tragedy, describes the modernity of the drama as a reason for its popularity One result of the prominence of the element of intrigue is that Othello is less unlike a story of private life than any other of the great tragedie s. And this persuasion is strengthened in further ways. . . . But Othello is a drama of modern life when it first appeared it was a drama almost of contemporary life, for the date of the Turkish attack of Cyprus is 1570. The characters come close to us, and the application of the drama to ourselves (if the phrase may be pardoned) is more immediate than it can be in Hamlet or Lear. Besides this, their fortunes affect us as those of private individuals more than is possible in any of the later tragedies with the exception of Timon.