Soldiery Values In Shakespeare's Othello
Othello, Cassio and Iago are soldiers, how important are soldiery values to the confiding tragedy?
Amongst the play soldiery values deeply affect the personality traits and subsequent actions of the characters involved. Soldierly camaraderie plays a big part in affecting Othello’s irreversible loyalty towards Iago. This false trust makes Iago able to twist the truth and lie about Desdemona’s adultery with another soldier, Michael Cassio. Soldierly reputation also is an overriding theme in the story. It creates a sense of paranoia and insecurity for Iago to work on. It creates a weakness in the soldier characters of Cassio and Othello for another soldier, Iago to work on. Soldiers also naturally aren’t able to be in contact in the opposite sex as much as a civilian would do. This creates a sexual timidity which again Iago emphasises and highlights to lead to Othello’s downfall and making the play into a tragedy. In the play these soldierly values seem to be of a disadvantage to Cassio and Othello whom suffer for their values, whereas in the case of Iago, it seems to be an advantage, as he highlights them to bring about his plan to break down Othello’s ties with his wife Desdemona …show more content…
This explains the soldierly camaraderie between Iago and Othello, which makes Othello trust Iago as much as he does. As Iago states in Act 1 Scene 1 Othello and Iago were together “At Rhodes, at Cyprus”, showing a bond which may not be between Desdemona and Othello; after all, Othello believes Iago’s truth above Desdemona’s which leads to the tragedy. Othello uses the epithet of “honest” to refer to Iago which is in fact an oxymoron; he however holds this trust from all these years in the army together with Iago as Othello’s ensign. If it weren’t for this overpowering trust, Iago would not be able to act out his duplicitousness with such ease and success. This therefore shows how soldierly values add the plays drama and
Amongst the play soldiery values deeply affect the personality traits and subsequent actions of the characters involved. Soldierly camaraderie plays a big part in affecting Othello’s irreversible loyalty towards Iago. This false trust makes Iago able to twist the truth and lie about Desdemona’s adultery with another soldier, Michael Cassio. Soldierly reputation also is an overriding theme in the story. It creates a sense of paranoia and insecurity for Iago to work on. It creates a weakness in the soldier characters of Cassio and Othello for another soldier, Iago to work on. Soldiers also naturally aren’t able to be in contact in the opposite sex as much as a civilian would do. This creates a sexual timidity which again Iago emphasises and highlights to lead to Othello’s downfall and making the play into a tragedy. In the play these soldierly values seem to be of a disadvantage to Cassio and Othello whom suffer for their values, whereas in the case of Iago, it seems to be an advantage, as he highlights them to bring about his plan to break down Othello’s ties with his wife Desdemona …show more content…
This explains the soldierly camaraderie between Iago and Othello, which makes Othello trust Iago as much as he does. As Iago states in Act 1 Scene 1 Othello and Iago were together “At Rhodes, at Cyprus”, showing a bond which may not be between Desdemona and Othello; after all, Othello believes Iago’s truth above Desdemona’s which leads to the tragedy. Othello uses the epithet of “honest” to refer to Iago which is in fact an oxymoron; he however holds this trust from all these years in the army together with Iago as Othello’s ensign. If it weren’t for this overpowering trust, Iago would not be able to act out his duplicitousness with such ease and success. This therefore shows how soldierly values add the plays drama and