Discuss how Shakespeare presents the way in which character flaws can lead to unhappiness and suffering PDF

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Discuss how Shakespeare presents the way in which character flaws can lead to unhappiness and suffering. (25) Conflict lies at the heart of all Shakespeare’s tragedies, whereas great men are brought low through their own fault because of flaws in their personalities – the unhappiness and suffering are experienced by themselves and others. While in Othello, the main characters’ own fault and flaw is the tragic cause of their unhappiness and suffering, hereby defined as the emotional and physical state of pain and hardship. Shakespeare utilises different presentation techniques of dramatists alongside linguistic, literary devices and leitmotifs to present it. Shakespeare provides the protagonist of the play, Othello with a tragic flaw of inherent trust in others, Iago in particular, making him easily duped and manipulated by Iago, the puppeteer and mastermind behind the scenes. Shakespeare’s subtle details transform seemingly positive personality traits of loyalty and trust into a tragic flaw that resulted in Othello’s ultimate downfall. Throughout the play, Othello often refers to Iago as honest, calling him “honest Iago” in Act II.3 (line 171) and claiming that “Iago is most honest” in Act II.3 (line 5), showing how gullible he is, making him deceived effortlessly by Iago. The dramatic irony of Iago’s “I follow him to serve my turn upon him” at the start of the play in Act I .1 (line 42), makes it significantly obvious to the audience on Iago’s motives, contrasting drastically to Othello’s ignorance to the whole situation. Shakespeare portrays Othello as a well-respected general from the beginning, showing Othello’s confidence in his wife Desdemona, entrusting her to the care of Iago as he goes off to war. In Iago’s first soliloquy in Act I.3 (line 420-1), Othello’s naïve nature makes him susceptible to being undermined by people, allowing Iago to use Othello’s gullibility against him, leading to his unhappiness and suffering later in the play. While he manages to hide his insecurity in Act 1, the way the relationship between Othello and Desdemona is based on Desdemona’s fascination with Othello’s exotic warring stories and Othello’s attraction of her excitement and curiosity sets an unstable basis for a relationship, hinting the tragic end by the end of the play, proleptic that Othello’s fatal flaw of jealousy will lead to pain and suffering ultimately led to the death and destruction in the play, whereas his jealousy and trust has blinded him from seeing the truth. Shakespeare subtly shows how Othello gets easily duped by Iago through the deterioration of the confidence and the lexical choices in Othello’s speech. Throughout Act I and Act II, Othello remains polite, calm and well measured, modestly claiming that he does not speak well, yet goes on to speak fluently in a beautifully poetic manner. However, as Othello is roped deeper into Iago’s machinations, his language starts to become ‘poisoned’, with the use of unpleasant animal imagery in “thou hadst been better have been born a dog” of Act III.3, speaking in an insulting manner and comparing himself to a dog, which is lower down in the chain of evolution. This derogatory tone had also been commonly used by Iago. Furthermore, Shakespeare utilises the changes of the language to signify the way Othello’s flaws can lead to unhappiness and suffering. This is made apparent when Othello claims that he’d rather “the general camp, pioners and all, had tasted her sweet body” so he “had nothing known”, illustrating directly that Othello’s mental stability is deteriorating and the knowledge and images that Iago has masterly planted in his brain, are corroding his mind instead of Desdemona’s supposed infidelity. Shakespeare uses other literary devices,

such as repetition in “O, blood, blood, blood!” and “O monstrous! Monstrous!” in Act III.3, demonstrating that Othello’s flaw of immense gullibility and his strong tendency to jump into conclusions without proper evidence has led to further corruption of the mind, whereas he eventually falls into an epileptic fit and loses his mind in Act IV.1. Shakespeare has made apparent to the audience of Iago’s evil and devilish nature from the start of the play. Despite being a stock character of a malcontent, he has great psychological depth, beyond what other malcontents in plays like The Changeling have. Although he is the villain and puppeteer of the whole wretched situation, his flaws also lead to his own unhappiness and suffering. Despite constantly manipulating Othello and using his flaws against him, Iago is consistently paranoid and insecure as well, making it one of the motives of his acts of revenge against Othello. Iago is jealous of the promotion Cassio received, commenting bitterly “mere prattle without practice is all his soldiership”. He also suspects Othello of sleeping with his wife Emilia, even though he has absolutely no proof, claiming that “it is thought abroad that twixt my sheets he has done my office”. Furthermore, he admits “I fear Cassio with my night cap too” in Act II.1 (line 298), portraying his unnecessary paranoia. Throughout the first three Acts, everything seems to be going immensely well and in accordance to his plan superficially, however his hurt and anger at being overlooked for promotion and possibly cuckolded leads on to an almost psychopathic desire for revenge that eventually backfires, and all his actions eventually catch up to him. At the end of the play, he is the one that does not really suffer in the end, causing all the damage to others and the maintained belief in his honesty from the other characters. It may be argued that he is finally held responsible for his actions and is taken away for a long period of torture, that may have essentially been harsher than the tragic deaths of other characters, however this is yet to be proven. Shakespeare also forges the irony that both the protagonist and villain essentially share the same flaws of insecurity, making it easier for Iago to understand Othello and carry out his Machiavellian plan, leading to Othello’s suicide. Shakespeare seems to portray jealousy in a sexualised manner, whereas Othello’s jealousy eventually prevents himself from confiding in Desdemona, and the love evolves into murderous hatred. Iago’s jealousy seems to possess the same erotic undertone, which again evolves into burning hatred towards Othello. The irony in Act III.3 as Iago kneels before Othello and the two enact a symbolic marriage makes it explicit, whereas the original bond and trust between Othello and Desdemona are symbolically broken, while Iago and Othello are now bound to each other forever. Although Shakespeare does not place soft and sentimental views in the words of Iago, he still has great psychological depth that is often overlooked. It is interesting to note Shakespeare has created Iago’s immense popularity amongst other characters, suggesting that if not for Iago’s own flaws of paranoia and insecurity that have become a significant drive of his actions, a lot of the events may not have taken place. Shakespeare’s usage of Iago’s reputation as “honest Iago” amongst the other characters is also dramatically ironic, since Iago remains honest to the audience in his asides and soliloquies, yet he is anything but honest to the characters, manipulating in the spiderweb of complexity and detail of his plot, while Othello still fails to believe the truth of events at the end, due to Iago’s infiltration of fabricated and unpleasant imageries and thoughts into Othello’s mind. Disregarding his constant acts that has lead to other characters’ unhappiness and suffering,

Iago remains unhappy throughout the play. With Shakespeare’s use of poisonous leitmotifs of ‘poison his delight’ in Act I.1 (line 69) and crude animal imagery in “an old black ram is tupping your white ewe” in Act I.1 (line 89-90), although his suffering is not as explicit as the other characters, and he continues to exploit other characters’ flaws, it can be suggested that his subtle unpleasant remarks and his strong drive for revenge may be a suffering on its own. Desdemona is a kind, loyal and innocent young woman. However, Shakespeare’s subtle details transform seemingly positive personality traits of innocence into naivety, portraying her inexperience in the ways of men. Although all of her accusations of adultery and infidelity are simply a fabrication of Iago’s machinations and she is wrongly murdered by Othello for it, she is partially responsible for it. Despite being groomed from childhood for marriage and being a sophisticated Venetian, she fails to understand how provocative her defence of Cassio is likely to be. Shakespeare makes Desdemona naively remind Othello that Michael Cassio “came a wooing with you” in Act III.3 (line 71), evoking him that Cassio was his love rival, illustrating how Desdemona is hopelessly tactless and naïve. Her naivety is being taken advantage of by Iago, while she remains clueless until her death approaches her and Othello takes her life away. Desdemona has a strong and enduring love for Othello, and due to her naivety, although upset by Othello’s harsh and insulting remarks, and the alteration of his behaviour, she still naively excuses him out of love. Desdemona’s rebellious nature may have also heightened Othello’s insecurity, knowing that the both of them deceived Brabantio by eloping without his consent. Her “doormat” behaviour when Othello starts accusing her is very contextual in terms of how Venetian women were expected to behave. She therefore does not put up a spirited defence and Othello is unable to see the true situation. Even at the end, when Emilia bravely steps into the scene and speaks of the truth to prove Desdemona’s innocence, her tragic death has already taken place and irreversible. Throughout the play, although Desdemona remains loyal to Othello, her naivety had been used by Iago, while she had been clouded by confusion, and blinded by her love for Othello, ultimately leading to her death. In conclusion, tragic flaws are a critical component of Othello, and every character displays a tragic flaw as the play unravels. Shakespeare provides these flaws to the characters to create suspense and dimension, whereas Iago uses deception to encourage Othello’s insecurity and tendency to be jealous, driving him to lose his mind. It is important to note that, if it weren’t for Iago’s web of lies, none of the other characters would have suffered immensely and have such a tragic ending. Nevertheless, Iago’s evil cynicism is still a vital component to the heartwrenching suffering and result of the play. Both Iago’s evil and the characters’ flaws ultimately leads to the tragic downfall of everyone. The tragedy is always more profound if the disastrous end is at least partially caused by the one who suffers it, therefore without these flaws, the characters would be unrealistic, boring and static....