The Abnormal Aspect of Othello :: Othello essays

The Abnormal Aspect of Othello Let us in this essay discuss the abnormal outlook on life found in Shakespeargons tragedy Othello. Is a distorted view on life expressed only by the villain? Iago is generally recognized as the unrivalled character possessing and operating by abnormal psychology. But Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeares Tragic Heroes tells of the time when the hero himself approached fierceness Othello himself cries thou hast set me on the rack. I swear t is better to be much abusd Than but to know 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 time on, Othello has become the slave of passion. As he cries farewell to the tranquil mind, to content, to war 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 almost to the verge of madness . . . . (165) Fortunately the protagonist regains his equilibrium, and when he does kill, it is for the noble reason of cleansing the world of a strumpet. On the other hand, the baseness of the villain Iago never alters. David Bevington in William Shakespeare quaternary Tragedies describes the irrationality and self-destructiveness of the ancients behavior Emilia understands that jealousy 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 wholly irrational and agonizingly self-destructive. I do suspect the lusty Moor / Hath leaped into my seat, the thought thereof / Doth , like a poisonous mineral, jaw my innards (2.1.296 298). (223) Blanche Coles in Shakespeares Four Giants affirms the Bards commitment to abnormal psychology, an d 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 personality is not new. . . . Even a casual scrutiny of a book on case histories of psychopathic patients will find Iago peeping out from many of its pages.