Introduction:
general overview of the research project;
outlining of the main objectives of the work.
Project 1: Theoretical part.
Examination of Aristotle’s theory of tragedy, represented in his treatise “Poetics”;
outlining the main points delivered by the authors;
giving definitions to the philosophical concepts of Aristotle’s theory
explaining their essence in artistic context.
Project 2: Practical Part.
Matching the main principles of tragedy to the play written by the great Shakespeare;
analyzing the congruence of the tragedy principles delivered by the philosopher of the Antiquity to the tragedy produced be the Medieval playwright;
the researches own speculation about the concept of tragedy its main features in the modern world.
Conclusion: determination of the truthfulness of falseness of the thesis.
The main objective of this work is thorough acknowledgement of Aristotle’s theory of tragedy and its application to certain classic patterns of plays. While ancient Greece is well known for the first classical tragedies, Shakespeare certainly added to this number. One of his great tragedies is – Othello, the Venice Moor.
The choice of the play is founded upon a belief that “Othello, the Venice Moor” is the sheer pattern of a Classical tragedy. William Shakespeare does not only deal with the tragedy of family relationships, ruined by jealousy. The author relates to the tragedy of personality of Othello, which proves completely destroyed by the ruining power of betrayal.
Before we start our speculation upon the tragic characteristics incident to the play, we should address the theory of tragedy and tragic hero in principle.
The most vivid pattern of theoretical acknowledgement of tragedy traces its origin to the antiquity, as it was delivered by Aristotle, the imminent Greek philosopher. He was the first one, who rendered an academic, substantially indorsed and generalized definition of tragedy.
Attaching Aristotle’s interpretation of tragedy to the historical background of the theory, it is to be mentioned that Aristotle formed his definition of a tragedy based on Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Thus, it is not surprising that the theory outlined by Aristotle fifteen years after the death of the great Sophocles, perfectly fits the structural, artistic and logical content of the play.
Besides the concept of action, Aristotle paid emphatic attitude towards the introspective nature of tragedy (Aristotle. and Lucas 1968). Some argue that a tragedy, as any of plays is no more than a simple story. However, Aristotle emphasizes that a tragedy does not only show a story (i.e. the facts that have already happened), but also highlights the facts that may happen in the future, thereby dramatizing the entire impression of the scene.
Thus, a tragedy is supposed to reveal some universally significant ideas, which are not meaningful in this particular situation alone, but are widely important for a number of future generations. That is why each tragedy is assumed to contain a so-called cause-and-effect chain, which enlightens the action on the stage, all the facts imbued in the scenario, making them logically linked to some particular causes. Those causes are not usually easily identifiable and are enshrined in some seemingly insignificant details of the characters’ behavior.
The major feature of a tragedy, as compared to a narration, is the feeling of fear and pity infused in the content thereof and instilled to a viewer when acted. The cause-and-effect chain, mentioned thereupon, far more emphatically exaggerates the feeling of fear and embarrassment. Indicating the logical coherence of the facts and their link with some particular causes, a viewer can easily project those causal links upon his own life that is how the feeling of fear and embarrassment becomes more realistic and material form.
The material principle of Aristotle’s tragedy theory is the meaningful role of the plot in the general impression of the play. Indeed, the plot forms the framework of facts, actions and circumstances, which are, supposed to determine the emotional motives and incentives of the characters. That is mainly how the cause-and-effect chain is formed.
In a classic tragedy, there should be two main parts of the characters – protagonist and antagonist. The distinguished characteristic of a classical tragedy is that those two heroes can be easily determined. Moreover, as a rule, a protagonist does not have any negative features and is posed as a sheer ideal of a character, whereas an antagonist is pictured absolutely contrarily summing up all the negativity infused in the play.
Having overly examined the main points of Aristotle’s theory of drama, we can enlist them as follows:
Tragedy is primarily embodied in action.
Tragedy has an introspective nature, fitting not only the actual and particular situation, but having universal meaning for a range of generations.
Cause-and-effect chani as an indefeasible element of a tragedy, which makes the ideas of the tragedy more realistic for a viewer.
Feeling of fear and pity are infused in the general content of the tragedy.
Now our task is to mate the theoretical point given before with the artistic and literature nature of Shakespeare’s “Othello, the Venice Moor”.
First of all, it is reasonable to deliver a general identification of the tragedy in this play. There is a distinct feature of “inevitability” in a tragedy. A tragedy always implies something inadvertent, imminent, irrespective of someone’s anticipation. Moreover, a tragedy always carries with it something that cannot be helped or deterred.
Attaching this line of thought to the tragedy outlined by Shakespeare’s in “Othello”, one can argue, that the tragedy revealed in this play is the tragedy of meanness of jealous people. The main problem of Othello’s character is not that he is too jealous, but the fact that he is too credulous. Othello easily trusted his meaningless emotions, having given himself up to the hatred. Othello also proved very credulous to the people surrounding him. It goes without saying, it barely justifies Othello’s sinful action. However, finding out where the hatred takes its origin, we can easily project this link upon our own relationships with other people; measure our own tendency to trust unreasonably, and our own slavery under emotion.
There is a number of theatrical performances of Shakespeare’s “Othello” in a wide range of interpretations. It is to be mentioned, that different directors place their artistic focus upon different points, paying a viewer’s attention upon different ideas. This is what expressly contributes to Aristotle’s theoretical conclusion, that action is the most appropriate form of demonstration of a tragedy.
Construction of an action allows an artist (a director) to make an accent upon the most vivid facets of the play, giving him power to interpret the lines of the great and brilliant playwright. For instance, the fact that Othello is by his nature rather a controversial personage arouses ambiguous opinions and feelings of a viewer. In one theatrical work, Othello may be posed as a negative personage, which arouses the feeling of hatred. In some other performance, Othello is on contrary justified and atoned by the director, who focused all attention upon the positive features of Othello’s character.
However, it does not mean that there is no room left for a viewer to think, analyze and produce his own understanding of the play. As it was contended by the great Aristotle, a tragedy is supposed to show, not explain. Therefore, a non-indifferent viewer is supposed to give his own interpretation of the action represented by a director.
The next facet to be examined on the basis of Shakespeare’s “Othello” is the introspective nature of a tragedy. It goes without saying, that the concept of betrayal highlighted in the play, is not attached in the particular situation of Othello. Moreover, it is left for the speculation of a viewer – to determine where the betrayal really took place: whether it was a betrayal of a beloved woman or whether it was a betrayal of a close friend. At any rate, the tragedy of betrayal will always accompany the humanity, and every other living human.
The fact is that no one can live aloof of the society, which requires definite participation in the life of others. Sometimes we can make really significant contributions in the life of others, blindly trusting others’ honesty. That is why each social human is a priori vulnerable to the tragedy of being betrayed by the closest person in his surroundings. That is why Othello’s major tragedy was not the fact that he was jealous, but the fact that he was too trustful.
As far as the cause-and-effect element is concerned, this point is always about some details expressed in the way actors do their play. In some theatrical interpretations, the actors’ playing was so dainty and sophisticated that it lets a viewer catch the most implicit details of the characters, making up their own causal chain. That is what makes the perception of the play more realistic. It also makes the viewer more engaged in the process of watching and besides that, gives them a wide room to practice their analytical skills complemented by the artistic understanding (Ikezawa and Flanagan 2005).
As for the emotional facet of the play, it expressly involved the feeling of fear and pity in relation to the main characters. The tragedy of the innocent death, which happens at the climax of the play inevitably arouses the feeling of sympathy and infinite pity towards Desdemona. It is to be mentioned, that the character of Desdemona is the most protagonistic and pure in this play. Unfortunately, the young and beautiful woman falls victim to the cruel self-deceit of Othello. The tragedy of Desdemona is undoubtful.
As for the feeling of fear, it inevitably occurs in a viewer, when it gets clear to him that no one is secured from deceit or a mistake. There are no norms, legal or even moral which could identify and forecast a mistake in romantic relationships. Especially when we talk about a sheer pattern of pure and sincere love. This very point can be considered as the essence of the inevitability of tragedy which may unprecedentedly happen in the life of every other human being.
The pureness of Othello and Desdemona’s love is proved by the following words of Othello: “When I did speak of some distressful stroke That my youth suffered. My story being done” (Shakespeare), which can be more easily interpreted as follows: She said she loved me for the dangers I’d survived, and I loved her for feeling such strong emotions about me. She gave me for my pains a world of sighs.
As for the prevailing role of the plot in the tragedy, there may be a different point of view than Aristotle’s when talking about the tragedy of Shakespeare’s “Othello”. hakespeare’s “Othello” is about emotions and feelings, and all the actions produced by the characters are originally incited by the strong emotional incentives going on inside of the characters. The deathful dead conducted by Othello is due to the boundless and uncontrolled feeling of jealousy, hatred and abjection.
Characters. In general, the artistic images of the heroes are vivid and lifelike. In each of them both positive and negative traits can be found. It may seem that Desdemona is the purest hero.
However, according to the English literature analysts, she is not devoid of the tendency to cheat, which is expressed in the following moments. Desdemona deceives her father - at the moment when she leaves her father's house and runs into the arms of the Moor; she cheats upon Othello when she does not admit to having lost the handkerchief; she deceives Emilia, when she proves that the murderer is herself (Marotta 2000).
The character of Iago is a combination of ingenious cruelty and incredible logic that accompanies all his actions. He calculates every step in advance, guided in his manipulations by accurate knowledge of the psychological characteristics of the people whom he cheats. He catches Rodrigo with his passionate love for Desdemona, Othello with the fear to lose the harmony, which he had found in a relationship with Desdemona, Emilia - on weakness (Marotta 2000).
Immorality of Iago finds no obstacles because in communication with people, who are morally clean and who do not imagine that someone (especially a close friend) may come to lie and betray. In addition, each of the characters periodically tries to make sense of the words and actions of Iago. Rodrigo repeatedly suspected him of treason to one's word. However, Iago suppresses every attempt to bring him to clean water. At his disposal Iago has: fictional stories (a story about how Cassio spoke in his sleep with Desdemona), the stolen items (the handkerchief, taken away from the wife of Othello), playing other people's passions, the construction of a conversation by oversights and omissions, the physical elimination of people who represent a danger to his wishes.
Conclusion. We may surely assume the tragic nature of Shakespeare’s “Othello”, which was represented at the beginning of the essay. Shakespeare’s “Othello” serves as a sheer pattern of classic tragedy, which is proved by the fact that all the principles of tragedy delivered by the eminent Greek philosopher Aristotle meet the features attributed to the play.
Bibliography
Aristotle., and D. W Lucas. 1968. Poetics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Ikezawa, Satomi and William Flanagan. 2005. Othello. New York: Ballantine Books.
Bradley, A. C. 1905. Shakespearean Tragedy. London: Macmillan and Co.
Crichton, Paul. 1996. "Did Othello Have ‘The Othello Syndrome’?". The Journal Of Forensic Psychiatry 7 (1): 161-169. doi:10.1080/09585189608409924.
Ikezawa, Satomi and William Flanagan. 2005. Othello. New York: Ballantine Books.
Marotta, Joseph. 2000. "Shakespeare's OTHELLO". The Explicator 58 (2): 69-71. doi:10.1080/00144940009597011.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy Of Othello, The Moor Of Venice. Champaign, Ill.: Project Gutenberg.
