Othello

Rating:
Summary: One of Shakespeare's many "best" plays.
Review: When I rate this at four stars, I'm rating it against other Shakespearean plays; against the general run of literary work, it would certainly rate five. I dock it one star simply because I find the concept, which seems to be accepted as a given in the play, that if a man finds that the woman he loves is cheating on him, it's okay to kill her, and that it's only a bad idea because he might be mistaken, to be, shall we say, a less than enthralling idea which I hate to see perpetuated.

Some other random comments on the work, in no particular order:

1) The racial angle is exaggerated. Yes, Othello is black, and there are a few racial epithets thrown around by his detractors, but really, there is less sign of racism inherent in the characters of this play than one might expect in your average modern person. The main point to making Othello black was to make him an outsider; the play could as easily have been set in England, and Othello made French. (But then, since the target audience was English, they'd have been more likely to get defensive about the portrayal of their prejudices as unreasonable.)

2) The main point of the play is not the evils of racism, but the evils of jealousy.

3) Iago is unquestionably the "best" villain in all of Shakespeare, and one of the best in all of literature, in terms of being a well-portrayed "subtle" villain. It's rare to see a portrayal of a lying, manipulative scoundrel that is actually plausible and successful; usually, the audience finds itself having a hard time believing that the manipulator's victims could possibly be so dumb as to not see through him; certainly, there's a large dollop of that sentiment in "Richard III". But in this play, Iago's lies are remarkably plausible, and it is very easy to see how he is successful in his plan; his machinations were excellently managed.

Rating:
Summary: This sucks
Review: Look, here it is. I know everyone says how great and everything Othello is and that this Shakespeare guy is like a genius. But what it comes down to is it is just like this white guy from Ireland who never went to Italy and stuff and like all his plays all take place there and stuff. I mean, did Shakespeare actually know someone named Romeo? But that's not the point. This whole play sucks. I didn't get involved at all and I couldn't relate to none of the characters. Plus when my teacher said that Othello is actually black, I, as a white person, took offense to it. So to all you out there in cyber space, just avoid this no matter what. And if you were like assigned it for class say that you won't tolerate racial prejudice. Or read the Cliff Notes, like I did.

Rating:
Summary: Good great book except English
Review: Othello has a great intricate plot and would keep you entertained if it weren't all written in old English. The English it's written in will make you pull your hair out.

Rating:
Summary: The ultimate tale of jealousy
Review: Jealousy is perhaps the ugliest of emotions, an acid that corrodes the heart, a poison with which man harms his fellow man. Fortunately for us, Shakespeare specializes in ugly emotions, writing plays that exhibit man at his most shameful so we can elevate ourselves above the depths of human folly and watch the carnage with pleasure and awe.

In "Othello," the "green-eyed monster" has afflicted Iago, a Venetian military officer, and the grand irony of the play is that he intentionally infects his commanding general, Othello, with it precisely by warning him against it (Act 3, Scene 3). Iago has two grievances against Othello: He was passed over for promotion to lieutenant in favor of the inexperienced Cassio, and he can't understand why the Senator's lily-white daughter Desdemona would fall for the black Moor. Not one to roll with the punches, he decides to take revenge, using his obsequious sidekick Roderigo and his ingenuous wife Emilia as gears in his transmission of hatred.

The scheme Iago develops is clever in its design to destroy Othello and Cassio and cruel in its inclusion of the innocent Desdemona. He arranges (the normally temperate) Cassio to be caught by Othello in a drunken brawl and discharged from his office, and using a handkerchief that Othello had given Desdemona as a gift, he creates the incriminating illusion that she and Cassio are having an affair. Othello falls for it all, and the tragedy of the play is not that he acts on his jealous impulses but that he discovers his error after it's too late.

It is a characteristic of Shakespeare that his villains are much more interesting and entertaining than his heroes; Iago is proof of this. He's the only character in the play who does any real thinking; the others are practically his puppets, responding unknowingly but obediently to his every little pull of a string. In this respect, this is Iago's play, but Othello claims the title because he -- his nobility -- is the target.

Rating:
Summary: low self esteem
Review: the tragedy of othello is the tragedy of a man who, despite his great success, at bottom doubts his own self worth. othello's problem is that he really doesn't believe he's loveable. deep down, he doubts that a young white woman from the upper classes can really love an older black man who has spent his life in the military. it's this self doubt that iago exploits to destroy the moor.

a good play with one of the great villains in literature, iago. the third scene where iago 'unbends' the moor is classic. to see a grown, self-assured man so completely undone is just incredible.

Rating:
Summary: Iago undeniably the most likeable Shakespearean villain
Review: Despite his Machiavellian and snakelike nature, Iago strangely and inexplicably endears himself as the most likeable villain in all of Shakespeare. It can be argued that Iago was unduly wronged in that the noble & educated, yet untested Cassio achieved the promotion of lieutenant over the common & uneducated, yet more battle-proven Iago. Iago also asserts that his blunt and disrespectful wife Emilia has slept around and made a cuckold of him with Othello. Although there is no proof as to the latter charge, Iago is nothing short of the embodiment of a veritable myriad of rage, fury, jealousy, and a relentless and all-encompassing passion for vengeance on The Moor.

Upon reading Othello the first time, I found myself empathizing with the honorable, yet naive General Othello, and even moreso with the innocent and untainted Desdemona, whom Othello "loved not wisely, but too well." After reading Othello the 3rd time, I've come to a greater appreciation for the convoluted and diablolical genius that is Iago - and how masterfully Shakespeare constructed this great character and the storyline of Othello with so fewer characters than is typical of his other great plays. It is with fewer characters that the ingenuity of Shakespeare is allowed to shine. With the likes of Iago, The Bard is able to achieve as great and superior characterization in Othello as in any of his other masterpieces. While he may be the last guy on the block you might invite to dinner, you would be a knave to deny the incomparable surreptitious cunning and genius of Iago nonetheless. As far as the many Othello movies go, I must state that Kenneth Branagh is absolutely masterful and convincing as the sinister Iago. I wholeheartedly recommend Othello to any and all readers who have a flair for both wisdom and entertainment achieved as one.

Rating:
Summary: Great Edition of a Great Play
Review: Shakespeare's play, "Othello" is usually recognized as one of his "great" tragedy's (with Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth). It certainly has a quite exciting plot and great poetry. If you have not yet had an oportunity to read this great work, I recomend it strongly. It is still an intelligent treatment of race, family and civic duty, and sex. It also has one of the most interesting bad guys around - Iago.

I read it in the Arden edition, edited by Honigmann. Honigmann argues that Othello has a strong claim at being Shakespeare's greatest tragedy and makes a strong case for the work. He has a good introduction that gives a quite balanced and clear overview on many topics regarding this play, from the "double" time method Shakespeare uses, overviews of the various characters, as well as a the stage history. Amazingly, he can be remarkably balanced, even when he is talking about his own views. While he is a decent writer, Shakespeare is better... In the text itself, he gives quite ample footnotes to help explain the language, why he picked particular readings, as well as where themes came from...

Like all scholarly Shakespeare editions, the notes are in danger of overloading the text. This reader, however, recognizes the distance between myself and Shakespeare and so I find it comforting to be able to look at the notes when I have questions. At times his "longer notes" were awkward, but there is no easy way to handle this amount of material.

Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Best
Review: I'm not a person who enjoys reading books so when I was assigned to read Othello I wasn't thrilled. Othello became the best book I have ever read in my life. I would recomend this book to anyone. I was shocked at how entertaining this book was being that it was written so long ago by Shakespeare. I could relate to the book because people are still just as devious today. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, it showed the difficulties in having a relationship with a person your family doesn't agree with but also shows how tragic it can turn out by someone elses lies. Many movies are comming out that have the same plots as William Shakespeare's plays. The movie "O" has some what of the same plot as Othello. I read Othello first and then when I saw the movie I was dissapointed. The book was much better and alot more realalistic. If any one was dibating on reading this book there should be no question, get it and read it!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting & Intriguing
Review: At first, when I saw this book I was upset someone would try to remake a great Shakespeare play in another written form. However, Lester thoroughly explains himself and his reasons for wanting to make this play a novel. 'Othello: a novel' explores a different face of the play that has been hidden. It adds new characters, removes others, and places them in England instead of Italy but the plot and all of the deceitfulness it entails remains intact. Shakespeare had a way of using common themes that live today but still eluded boredom and cliche. And Lester continues this tradition in his novel with his beautiful and unique use of simile and metaphor. It's a great book to read that should not be overlooked!

Rating:
Summary: Greatest Tragedy ever
Review: Othello is the greatest tragedy I have ever read! Usually, it is hard to relate Shakespearean stories to modern times, as in Hamlet. But Othello is both a story possible in the Renaissance, and the modern era. Normally, it would be a very difficult read as I learned in reading Romeo and Juliet. But in this edition there is a column explaining some words that are strange and/or using pictures. At the beginning and the end of the book there are lots of helpful tips in understanding the Shakespearean language. Though I still didn't understand with so much help there was a small summary explaining a chapter and the significance, which helped me a lot. Basically the story is of a black Moor, Othello and his lover, Desdemona, and how Iago turns love to hate. Iago is probably Shakespeare's best villain. How Iago manipulates Othello into destroying himself is very cunning. I personally think that instead of Romeo and Juliet, Othello should be taught in schools, and if you liked this as much as I did, then you'll love Hamlet.