Human Experiences In Othello And Oedipus Rex
In both "Othello" and "Oedipus Rex" to a great extent, the emotions provoked by familiar human experiences are acceptable to all people of all times. It is a fact that "Human nature remains the same (Kiernan Ryan 1989)." Both plays explore issues surrounding emotions like love, envy, jealousy and pride provoked by life experiences such as racism, fate, rifts between parent and child, a quest for position through deception or for justice or an intoxicating sense of being all powerful which transcend time. Most importantly they all are familiar to traditional and contemporary time periods.
Love, that is unconditional love, a universal emotion, is said to transcend all barriers. Desdemona falls in love unconditionally with the idea of a bold, courageous, romantic adventurer who is black and her heart fully consents. Othello confirms this, "She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd." (I.iii.167). She boldly professes her love and devotion to Othello before the Duke and an already angry father when she says, " That I did love the Moor to live with him Othello's visage in his mind, And …show more content…
Where fate is the catalyst for the events in human lives, there is nothing one can do to change the course of one's life. In Oedipus Rex one sees that Oedipus's pride and fate robs him of a control he thinks he has. He runs away from Corinth to Thebes to change the prophecy of the oracle only to afford him the opportunity to kill his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. In Oedipus Rex, the King and Jocasta try to ignore the prophecy of the gods. Ironically, they like Oedipus play into fate's hands by trying to escape it. Jocasta thinks that she has killed her son which is the act that brings him to her later as her husband. When Oedipus for example, hears that his father is still alive, ironically, he like Jocasta feels that the oracle has failed and he has escaped his
Love, that is unconditional love, a universal emotion, is said to transcend all barriers. Desdemona falls in love unconditionally with the idea of a bold, courageous, romantic adventurer who is black and her heart fully consents. Othello confirms this, "She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd." (I.iii.167). She boldly professes her love and devotion to Othello before the Duke and an already angry father when she says, " That I did love the Moor to live with him Othello's visage in his mind, And …show more content…
Where fate is the catalyst for the events in human lives, there is nothing one can do to change the course of one's life. In Oedipus Rex one sees that Oedipus's pride and fate robs him of a control he thinks he has. He runs away from Corinth to Thebes to change the prophecy of the oracle only to afford him the opportunity to kill his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. In Oedipus Rex, the King and Jocasta try to ignore the prophecy of the gods. Ironically, they like Oedipus play into fate's hands by trying to escape it. Jocasta thinks that she has killed her son which is the act that brings him to her later as her husband. When Oedipus for example, hears that his father is still alive, ironically, he like Jocasta feels that the oracle has failed and he has escaped his