Revenge tragedy fits best into act II because it is the act where Iago puts his plan into action with Roderigo in how to get Cassio sacked and Othello to not trust Desdemona. It is seen as a revenge tragedy because it involves complex disguises, and usually some morality of revenge. (Iago shown to be loyal and honest to everyone but in his soliloquy’s we see his true side).An eruption of general violence at the end, which (in the Renaissance) is often accomplished by means of a feigned masque or festivity, (Roderigo provoking Cassio and fighting with him). We also see Iago doesn’t care who he hurts while bringing down Othello and he has no morals and respect for women. We see Iago quickly takes the opportunity to criticize women in general as deceptive and hypocritical, saying they are lazy in all matters except sex: “You rise to play and go to bed to work” (II.i.118). Cassio takes Desdemona away to speak with her privately about Othello’s arrival. Iago notices that Cassio takes Desdemona’s hand as he talks to her, and, in an aside, Iago plots to use Cassio’s hand-holding to frame him so that he loses his newly gained promotion to lieutenant. “With as little a web as this I will ensnare as great a fly as Cassio,” he asserts (II.i.169). This shows that Iago will use any situation to bring Othello down and we see this throughout act II.
Monday 12 March 2012
Monday 5 March 2012
Act 2's multiple genres of tragedy
Shakespeare not only masterfully crafts tragedy but in act 2 makes the enhancement of tragedy and tragic hero distinctly unclear by implementing three types of tragedy simultaneously:
Bourgeois tragedy:
The second act to the final act could be examples of bourgeois or domestic tragedy. We are kept in rooms and corridors where affluent but certainly not kingly citizens such as Cassio and Othello are slowly damned despite their characteristics of honor which defines them as a higher status.This greatly enhances the tragedy because from the start of act 2 the bourgeois is obvious, raising expectation of both melodrama and an archetypal redemptive last act to leave audience happy and have learnt a moral message from the play. Our expectations soon become unfounded, Shakespeare cleverly supplements in bourgeois genre to make the subversion of our expectations more bleak and more potent. Iago's evil has no moral foundation behind it to teach us a lesson like "look both ways when you cross the road" or "eat your greens" and the ending is hopeless as you can get. This almost romantic, positive expectation confounds in how the rest of the play will unfold. This is bourgeois written by Nietzsche if you will.
Greek tragedy:
We can see Shakespeare creating this through his symbolism in character. The Greeks represented their characters as ciphers or metaphors for bigger ideas rather than personal tragedies.The idea was to become attached to a great idea rather than a sympathetic character and make the tragedy stem from your attachment to an overridden ideal instead of a character falling from grace. Despite bourgeois elements these characters are are also ideas. It is a argument that in act 2 Othello symbolises the bastion of honor and trust honorably firing Cassio even though "I loved thee" and Iago cowardice and bigotry. This genre is more tragic because after act 2 these two characters seem to swap characteristics due to Iago's machinations, Shakespeare's message being when Iago's lies tell of Othello's weakness in mind and his strength eventually Iago's wishful thinking will come to it's grotesque fruition.
Revenge tragedy:
Despite Iago's characterization as being clearly motivated by malicious thought driven by vitriol and bigotry we as the audience are asked to be empathetic toward Iago by Shakespeare. This can be exemplified by the fact that he talks in prose to the other characters, a mark of a low status character, and blank verse in his soliloquies at the end of scene 3 and 1 of act 2. This direct address is in a more sophisticated manner to how he responds to characters. This proves that not only is he capable of meta-narrative but because he speaks to us in a more intellectual manner and the characters less so we subconsciously insinuate that he believes the reader is on a higher intellectual level of himself rather than the other characters lower status. This minor change in rhythm makes us side with Iago and his revenge genre-esque plot because he is the only one in the play representing the audiences higher level of intelligence so he deserves to have his cruel revenge on Othello because Iago seems most similar and therefore to the audience.
Bourgeois tragedy:
The second act to the final act could be examples of bourgeois or domestic tragedy. We are kept in rooms and corridors where affluent but certainly not kingly citizens such as Cassio and Othello are slowly damned despite their characteristics of honor which defines them as a higher status.This greatly enhances the tragedy because from the start of act 2 the bourgeois is obvious, raising expectation of both melodrama and an archetypal redemptive last act to leave audience happy and have learnt a moral message from the play. Our expectations soon become unfounded, Shakespeare cleverly supplements in bourgeois genre to make the subversion of our expectations more bleak and more potent. Iago's evil has no moral foundation behind it to teach us a lesson like "look both ways when you cross the road" or "eat your greens" and the ending is hopeless as you can get. This almost romantic, positive expectation confounds in how the rest of the play will unfold. This is bourgeois written by Nietzsche if you will.
Greek tragedy:
We can see Shakespeare creating this through his symbolism in character. The Greeks represented their characters as ciphers or metaphors for bigger ideas rather than personal tragedies.The idea was to become attached to a great idea rather than a sympathetic character and make the tragedy stem from your attachment to an overridden ideal instead of a character falling from grace. Despite bourgeois elements these characters are are also ideas. It is a argument that in act 2 Othello symbolises the bastion of honor and trust honorably firing Cassio even though "I loved thee" and Iago cowardice and bigotry. This genre is more tragic because after act 2 these two characters seem to swap characteristics due to Iago's machinations, Shakespeare's message being when Iago's lies tell of Othello's weakness in mind and his strength eventually Iago's wishful thinking will come to it's grotesque fruition.
Revenge tragedy:
Despite Iago's characterization as being clearly motivated by malicious thought driven by vitriol and bigotry we as the audience are asked to be empathetic toward Iago by Shakespeare. This can be exemplified by the fact that he talks in prose to the other characters, a mark of a low status character, and blank verse in his soliloquies at the end of scene 3 and 1 of act 2. This direct address is in a more sophisticated manner to how he responds to characters. This proves that not only is he capable of meta-narrative but because he speaks to us in a more intellectual manner and the characters less so we subconsciously insinuate that he believes the reader is on a higher intellectual level of himself rather than the other characters lower status. This minor change in rhythm makes us side with Iago and his revenge genre-esque plot because he is the only one in the play representing the audiences higher level of intelligence so he deserves to have his cruel revenge on Othello because Iago seems most similar and therefore to the audience.
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