Othello

Wow, this is one long play. I opened up the text to Othello and realized it was almost a hundred pages.  As for the story itself, it was extremely complex and hard to follow. Othello reminded me of the readings we did on Aristotle and tragedy, more specifically the fact that plot the most important piece of a tragedy, as well as how a tragedy should end.

Shakespeare doesn't give a big background on all the characters and let us get to know them and what their personality is like. Rather, he utilizes his characters to help develop his extremely complex plot. Other than Othello and lago, most of the characters don't have very big parts in the play and only serve to help the plot. Shakespeare needs characters like Roderigo, Cassio, and Desdemona so that he can execute his carefully crafted plot about lago plotting his revenge for Othello promoting a younger man, Cassio, above him. And the story continues on and on for a very long time until the climax where the truth comes out about lago and Othello decides to commit suicide rather than face the consequences of his crimes.

There was another part about tragedies from Aristotle that I remember regarding the ending of a tragedy and what should happen so that it is a good tragedy. If i recall correctly, Aristotle states that the main character should realize his mistake and own up to it. Well, that is just about the opposite of what Othello does. Once he realizes that he killed his innocent wife who never committed adultery, Othello decides to commit suicide rather than go to Venice and face the consequences for the crimes that he committed. I feel the correct ending, according to Aristotle at least, would have been for Othello to realize that what he did was wrong and to go to Venice and face whatever punishment awaits him.