Irregularities in Othello Essay -- Othello essays

Irregularities in Othello The Shakespearean tragedy Othello contains various irregularities of time and occurrence which cause the audience to scratch their head in marvel and doubt. Let us analyze some of these shortcomings in this essay. In the Introduction to The Riverside Shakespeare Frank Kermode explains one of the difficulties in Othello Othello murders his wife on the second darkness in Cyprus. The difficulty, of which Shakespeare was clearly aware, arises from the fact that this leaves no time for her to imbibe had stoln hours of lust, certainly not to have enjoyed them repeatedly, as Iago alleges. In such allusions to frequent criminal conversation as III.iii.340-43 and V.ii.211-12, Shakespeare slides over from Short to Long Time very successfully the audience is not invited to consider that Othello is forgetting that Desdemona was not in the same ship as Cassio, and has had no chance since. We accept it as possible for her to have been unfaithful, though we know s he was not. (1199) Consider the basic plot and what a house of cards it is. Without extremum good luck, such a plot would not be possible. A. C. Bradley, in his book of literary criticism, Shakespearean Tragedy, describes the important accidents that befell the antagonist during his deception of the general The readiness of Iago was extraordinary, but so was his good fortune. Again and again a chance word from Desdemona, a chance meeting of Othello and Cassio, a question which starts to our lips and which anyone but Othello would have asked, would have destroyed Iagos plot and ended his life. In their stead, Desdemona drops her handkerchief at the moment most favourable to him, Cassio blunders into the presence of Othe... ...ally to be moving in the right direction. (329) WORKS CITED Bradley, A. C.. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York Penguin, 1991. Heilman, Robert B. Wit and Witchcraft an Approach to Othello. Shakespeare Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. Rev. E d. Rpt. from The Sewanee Review, LXIV, 1 (Winter 1956), 1-4, 8-10 and Arizona Quarterly (Spring 1956), pp.5-16. Kermode, Frank. Introduction. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston, MA Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Mack, Maynard. Everybodys Shakespeare Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. Lincoln, NB University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Muir, Kenneth. Introduction. William Shakespeare Othello. New York Penguin Books, 1968. Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Canada University of Toronto Press, 1957.