The Abnormal Aspect of Othello :: Othello essays

The Abnormal perspective of Othello Let us in this essay discuss the deviate arithmetic mean on life found in Shakespeares tragedy Othello. Is a distorted view on life expressed only by the scoundrel? Iago is generally recognized as the one character possessing and in operation(p) by abnormal psychology. But Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeares Tragic Heroes tells of the snip when the hero himself approached madness Othello himself cries thou hast set me on the rack. I predicate t is better to be much abusd Than solely to be a little. And then we find him torturing himself with the thoughts of Cassios kisses on Desdemonas lips, and he reiterates the property idea in his talk of being robbed. From this sentence on, Othello has become the slave of passion. As he cries farewell to the tranquil mind, to content, to fight and his occupation, as he demands that Iago prove his love a whore, as he threatens Iago and begs for proof at the same time, he is finally led close to th e verge of madness . . . . (165) Fortunately the protagonist regains his equilibrium, and when he does kill, it is for the noble sympathy of cleansing the world of a strumpet. On the other hand, the baseness of the villain Iago never alters. David Bevington in William Shakespeare Four Tragedies describes the irrationality and self-destructiveness of the ancients expression Emilia understands that overjealousy is not a rational affliction but a self-induced disease of the mind. Jealous persons, she tells Desdemona, are not ever jealous for the cause, / But jealous for theyre jealous. It is a monster / Begot upon itself, born on itself (3.4.161 163). Iagos own testimonial bears this out, for his jealousy is at once all in all irrational and agonizingly self-destructive. I do suspect the lusty tie up / Hath leaped into my seat, the thought thereof / Doth , like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my entrails (2.1.296 298). (223) Blanche Coles in Shakespeares Four Giants affirms the Bar ds commitment to abnormal psychology, and his employment of same in this play That Shakespeare was keenly interested in the study of the abnormal mind is commonly accepted among students. . . . The suggestion that Iago may have been intentionally drawn as a psychopathic constitution is not new. . . . Even a casual scrutiny of a accommodate on case histories of psychopathic patients will find Iago peeping out from more of its pages.