Othello Swan Song Essays

Othello Swan Song Essays Othello Swan Song Essay Othello Swan Song Essay In William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice he presents his character of Othello as having all the great qualities of a true leader, but also a man who lacks any type of reasoning power. Othello being the ideal hero has strength, prowess, and battlefield knowledge. However these ideas of leadership do not translate well into situations in the real world and in this case, situations dealing with the heart. The battlefield and senate are where Othello feel most comfortable. They are places of truth where men go to be honest about matters of war. As well, these matters of war and state are relatively simple and are subjects in which Othello can relate. This simple view that Othello has, does not bode well for him on the subject of true love and passion. His marriage is one based on stories and he never really examines who his true friends are. In Othello’s mind he is loved by everyone he knows. This examination of Othello’s character would show that he means well and leads even better, but he lacks judgment skills and common sense. This is most evident in his final speech before he commits suicide, where even though his end is proper, he never fully realizes what he has done, or takes responsibility for what has just happened. It is clear that Othello loves Desdemona, and the quote â€Å"One who loved not wisely, but too well† (Shakespeare V. ii. 353) is directed mainly at her. When he does come to realize the truth behind Desdemona’s innocence, Othello is legitimately tortured. â€Å"This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven / And friends will snatch at it† (V. ii. 283-284) It is obvious that he tormented by the fact that he has just killed his wife. It is now for the first time seen that maybe Othello is at a loss of what to do with his power â€Å"Do you go back to dismayed? Tis a lost fear: / Man but a rush against Othello’s breast, / And he retires. † (V. ii. 279-280) This is not Othello’s usual hard grit style, but this is how the way a man of nobility should react when he has mistakenly taken the life of his wife. Yet Othello’s words in his speech give a deeper thought into how he still doesn’t seen to fully understand the situation. â€Å"Who can control his fate? † (V. ii. 274) he asked, which shows he is not taking full responsibility, placing the responsibility on the heavens. It is beyond a doubt that Othello is in fact the one to blame, though he still cannot recognize his failure at reasoning. Though the final words of Othello are excellent, they like Othello himself, are flawed. Every sentence seems to reveal a character flaw or personal problem. When he says he â€Å"loved not wisely, but too well† this is also true in terms of Iago. Othello’s marriage is based solely on stories and on pity. Othello objectifies his wife and shows no trust in her. It is debatable whether Othello is gullible, but he does buy Iago’s deceitful tale of Cassio’s affair. This is where the quote comes into play. Until Iago, Othello was never betrayed by anyone. He puts so much love and trust into Iago that he is blinded by his cunning ways. In his final moment Othello truly believed that he was being possessed and blames his hand for the sin he commits â€Å"of one whos hand, / threw a pearl away. † (V. ii. 255-256) He still does not see that his faults were exploited by Iago and used against him. Although killing himself could be seen as a dignified action, Othello truly thinks that he was forced to do this action by some unseen evil, not by his trustworthy ally Iago. It is not until Iago’s plan came to light by Emilia that Othello realized Iago is truly evil, but still holds on to the idea that a noble man such as he must have been possessed by demons to do such an evil crime. It is almost as though at this point Othello cannot believe that he is capable of such a deed. So if one were to go deeper, it could be seen that Othello in a certain way is guilty of loving himself too well. He is recognized as having such a high reputation as a military leader, which is supported by the fact that he never in the play shows off his fighting skills, but no one objects to him being a qualified general. Therefore he must have the qualities needed to reach such a rank. He speaks well, and is widely respected. However these skills as a general only cause problems in his life as a civilian. Othello has it in his head that he is such a noble man, (because up until this point he has had no reason to think other wise) that when his nobility is put in jeopardy, he does not put the responsibly on himself but on outside forces that are out of his control. It is possible to observe Othello as a good, kindhearted man who is never betrayed until he is by Iago. He is a strong soldier who falls from glory only because Iago is so cunning and so evil. In Jeff Statts character review of Othello he defines â€Å"tragic† as â€Å"something very unfortunate, even or person not likely to win love of the surrounding world†(Statts) It is as well possible to say that maybe Othello does not die as a tragic hero, but as someone who is destroyed by evil. But the fact that his marriage could be seen as shallow and that if Othello had only been honest with his wife and his lieutenant then he would have found the truth himself. Jeff Statts article says it quite nicely, â€Å"The combination of blind love to his wife without rational thinking is the main problem that will lead our hero to his tragic ending. † (Statts) Othello could lead, but when it comes to reasoning, he cannot. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. Literature A Pocket Anthology. Ed. R. S. Gwynn, Wanda Campbell. Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Longman, 2005. Print. Statts, Jeff. Character Review. 1888articles (2007): n. pag. Web. Dec 2010. lt; 1888articles. com/character-review-othello-0152t57ezz2. htmlgt;. Bibliography Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. Literature A Pocket Anthology. Ed. R. S. Gwynn, Wanda Campbell. Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Longman, 2005. Print. Christie, M. J. Othello: Notes Toronto: Coles 1976. Print Crowther, John, ed. â€Å"No Fear Othello. † SparkNotes. com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 15 Nov. 2010. Hunter, Britany. O Proves to Have Long Shelf Life. Carillion 44. 5 (2001): n. pag. Web. 1 Dec 2010. lt; carillon. uregina. ca/01. 09. 13/o. htmlgt;. Othello is a play that has been studied quite thoroughly. It is hard now a days to understand Shakespeare’s English because it is almost an entirely differ ent language then what we speak today. I defiantly believe the most useful source when studying Shakespeare is Spark Notes. This gives you an accurate translation into modern day English and can help those who are lost understand the magic of Shakespeare’s plays

To Website or Not to Website

To Website or Not to Website Received a very sweet email this week from an author who begged to know if an author really needed a website. Short and sweet, the answer is YES. These days, when someone hears your name, and might be interested in whatever it is you offer, they Google you. Yes, Google has become a verb as well as a noun, and its because weve become so accustomed to grabbing a keyboard on some device and learning more. Instant intelligence, I call it. If the public cannot find you, they instantly wonder if you are worth their time. Sounds harsh, I know, but it is the truth. The only thing that can overcome that mentality is a strong word of mouth campaign, and we all know how hard that is to create. So how do you establish a website when you dont understand squat about it? 1) Hire a webmaster. You may pay several hundred to a couple thousand, but webmasters deserve to be paid for all that knowledge. They grab the domain name for you, set you up with a site to include hosting, and update it for you on command. Or have them create it and leave it up to you to update and omit the monthly updating charge. Some webmasters specify websites for authors. Take a look at these babies. They have some gorgeous sites: http://author https://xuni.com/website-design.php http://smartauthorsites.com/author-websites/ authorsontheweb.com/ http://smartauthorsites.com/ dreamcodesign.com/ clockpunkstudios.com/ webdesignrelief.com fausga.com/ myhouseofdesign.com 2) Teach yourself how to do WordPress.org and get a domain name like www.chopeclark.com instead of www.chopeclark.wordpress.com. Set up your own hosting on Hostgator.com or GoDaddy.com. 3) Go to Blogger.com or WordPress.com and teach yourself how to do a basic blog/website. You may have Blogspot or WordPress in the domain name, but when youre starting out, thats not a detriment. People are becoming accustomed to seeing such URLs. No domain name, no hosting, no monthly or annual fee. You just have a learning curve. 4) Compromise and get someone to design item 3) above so the set up charge is much less. 5) Commit to a great Facebook fan page and make sure the graphics are superb, the updates regular. Cost = nothing. 6) Commit to a great Tumblr page. Cost = nothing. 7) Commit to a great Author Central page on Amazon. Cost = nothing.   Ive fallen into the habit of hearing a name of an author, or receiving a pitch from a writer, and instantly flipping into their website to decide whether Im interested. Its like a quick phone interview, or an instant resume. To have no online presence tells a reader several things whether you intend to or not: 1) Youre testing the waters with this writer business. 2) You dont want to invest THAT much time into your presentation. 3) You dont want to connect to readers. 4) Youre new to either the computer or writing. 5) You are older.Face it . . . younger people want that online presence. The answer is yes you need an online presence. The question is just what kind?