Othello by William Shakespeare | Summary and Analysis

Othello by William Shakespeare | Summary and Analysis Othello, is a very known playwright written by the famous writer William Shakespeare. If you are a person who have read many of his works you would know that his writings are based on love, triumph and tragedy also. Just by reading Othello I can tell that the story is about jealously and betrayal of lovers, and someone ends up dead because of the drama involved with it. Unluckily I will not tell of the summary of the playwright, nor tell about or give an simple analysis of the characters involved in the story. I will give you an examination of the racial connections in the playwright Othello, and relate it to the racial prejudices of Jacobean England. I will be honest, when I first read Othello, I did not quite understood how race was placed into the playwright, and why it had anything to do with Othello, because the theme of the story was basically about betrayal and jealously between two lovers who were separated over jealously. When I did research about Othello and racism, and rea d Othello continuously, I slowly began to realize that race did have some kind of involvement into it. Racism seemed to be a big issued in the days of Shakespeare and others. Some writers wrote their stories based on the society they was in and made it quite recognizable in their story, England and other nations had problems with race just as we did in America Othello is a story that made that obvious, Shakespeare puts in different racial stereotypes into the dialogues, giving them to characters like Iago, Roderigo and Branbantio. In the 17th century, People of England attitudes toward non-Europeans like North Africans and others were said to be shaped by policies and stories by travelers. The term moor came from a country that was used to refer to people from North Africa. People of North and West Africa who was living in the Elizabethan England was put out because of their unusual style of dress, behaviors and culture customs. Moors were also talked about and was put in the category of being sexually overactive and being a more jealous people. Queen Elizabeth gave the moors full recognition out of quick niceness for their help in defeating Spain, but unluckily that was quickly turned over fast and she deported the North Africans or Moors because of bad and unusual behavior and the fear of if she let them stay in England than there would end up being an overpopulation of black people and she seemed to definitely not want that. Back in that time period in England blacks were not associated with the slavery tim e period that we all know of, because the slave time period started late in the 17th century. One part in Othello that opened up my eyes and made me realize that race it was an issue, was when they spoke of different cultures like the Turkish culture and the Vietnamese culture. In Othello it stated that the people in Othello had celebrated the destruction of the Turkish force, I realized that there were some kind of cultural division in the playwright Othello. As I went on with my research and read some of the sources that helped me completely understand the issue, I understood that racism was one of the issues in Othello. One of my sources that I read named Shakespeare and Race discussed that some of the racial issues in Othello also probably had something to do with Shakespeare and the society that he was in, not just the racism acted on the Vietnam society in the play Othello. I also learned that the character Othello who was Desdemonas love was an African or an Moor in the story. A moor is once again defined as an member of a nomadic people, who civilization flourished in North Africa between the 8th and the 15th centuries. Othello seemed to be culturally divided and assorted. In order to answer the question and understand why racism was a big topic in Othello and why Shakespeare incorporated it into Othello, I had to dig deep and go back to the history and the real world outside of the playwright Othello. It also appeared to that the story was written during the time of great racial tensions in England. As I went on I discovered that Shakespeare disguised the white and the black people in Othello. He made the white people seem evil and the black people seem as the good ones. It seemed like Shakespeare was trying to make a point, a point of no matter what color a person is, we are all humans. Mainly because this was true, back then, whites seemed to be over people of color, while people of color was so called inferior under white people. Queen Elizabeth also made contributions to racism in England ,this might have stemmed off to racism in Othello. In the book English Ethnicity and Race in Early Modern Drama it stated that When Queen Elizabeth ruled England she exiled ten Africans from her country, then afterwards Queen Elizabeth traded the Africans for the imprisoned English men held in Spain and Portugal.(pg5 English Ethnicity and Race.) . This was similar to what I stated earlier. After the end of Elizabeths ruling Elizabethan England became Jacobean England and was under the rule of King James. Not like his other works, Shakespeare did not reserve the playwright or story of Othello to an earlier time period. Historians also stated that by the time William Shakespeare wrote Othello, England had already been exposed to Africans or blacks. Terri Vaughn an History Professor of Columbia University stated that by the year 1555, there were books in England describing the Africans or as they say the Moors of Africa.(Vaugh n). I also learned from my research that in the sixteenth century the meaning of the color black was defined as deeply stained with dirt or being dirty. Writers such as William Shakespeare and others referred to any dark person from North African as a Moor or a black moor. I also learned that white people or light skinned blacks that was from Africa wasnt considered an moor because they couldnt tell if they was from Africa or not. When I started to read and understand Othello more I realized that Othello was about a relationship between a black man and a white woman. Usually back in the slavery days if a black man was in a relationship with a white woman he would face some kind of punishment for that. It would have been like an offense or an rule that was broken by the black man. Maybe no connections or association with other nations or countries made it to be that way. England people who went outside of their race were viewed as barbarians. those who fell outside the borders of the know n, white world were viewed as â€Å"barbarians, which means a member of a culture thats uncivilized and its sometimes considered offensive. Michael Neil states in an article that was written by him called Race in Literature†. The term moor probably have existed as a description in terms of color, but not necessarily in terms of its position to the white civilized world .Othello is a play with a lot of racial feeling in it.† writes scholar Michael Neill(1985). In the article called Shakespeare and Race, written by John Stows. it greatly emphasizes that to the Elizabethans the appearance and conduct of the moors was a complete outrage, saying that here was a big difference between themselves and the moors. The article also explained that when William Shakespeare chosed an African or an moor as an hero or general, he wasnt really confused or had lack of knowledge bout racial thought or racism, but was more aware of his society who made the divisions of black and white world a big issue. The character named Iago in the story made races remarks about Othello calling him a black ram. Othello is treated unequally in the story because he is black and not white, if Othello was a white man, Im pretty sure he would have been treated fairly with no names and racial slurs called out at him. Comments of racial remarks are said all through out the story. Emilia also made a racial remark toward Othello, She called him an blacker devil, when she found out that he killed Desdemona. There were other characters who were racist towards Othello like Iago, Emilia, Brabinto, and Roderigo. Iago made the racial comment about Othello, because he simply didnt like the fact that he made lieutenant and that he was married to Desdemona. Iago also made a racist comment to Desdemonas Dad about Othello and Desdemona. He states, Even now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe. Iago had it in for Othello he simply tried to turn every one against Othello, even Desdemonas dad. Many rac ist comments like thick lips was said about Othello. Yet they were very messy because they never said it in his face. It seemed as if Shakespeare wanted race to be known to his readers of his stories, he wanted people to see that there wasnt just whites in the world, there were other races in the world also and that people of other races was good also and people of Caucasian decent made blacks and others look like negative entities. Shakespeare wrote three other plays with non whites and moors in it, They are The Merchant of Venice, Titus Andronicus and of course Othello. Many think that you will find honest straight up racism and racist sayings and language in Othello. Many also consider that many plays like Othello can examine tools of racism and racist views, with thin an historic setting and both within an historical setting and existing context. historic and a contemporary cultural or spiritual context. Some say that Othello is also an very racist play and that it has an racist theme. I think that its not really that racist because Shakespeare shows a woman and a man of enemy races and puts the m together. The only thing racist about the play is the racist comments that the characters say to Othello. It seemed as if racist comments was said when only angered. It seems like it was just depicting the society of that time. Before we had freedom blacks was considered to be under and lower than whites. But jealousy is more likely to be the theme of Othello. Othello is an historical reading that explores race in other countries and in Literature. It portrayed one of the first love stories of an interracial couple who is destroyed and broken up over hatred and jealous by people who didnt want an accomplished black man to survive and make out in a good situation. Even though William Shakespeare might have lived in an racist place and was surrounded by racist people it showed that he personally wasnt an racist person. Maybe William Shakespeare himself did approve of an relationship of an white woman and black man. Maybe he wanted to show that he was a good person and wasnt like others that was around him at the time. Ruth Cowhig wrote in an exert called Othello and Racism. In the excerpt, Ruth Cowhig provides a simple background on blacks in England during William Shakespeares time. She simply states that the character Iagos racism is the main source of his hatred towards Othello. He gives off an prejudice energy toward other characters in the story to turn them against Othello the Moor also (Cowhig, R). Ruth Cowhig emphasize that William Shakespeare continuously examines stereotypes with his story of Othello. I think the opening of the play presents an opportunity to discuss a variety of issues and stereo typing including interracial marriage. Othello gives us a lesson and something to think about, especially in society today and things that seemed to happen in the past.

Shakespeare Theme Essay

A. P. Literature How does Shakespeare express theme through language? Shakespeare, an extraordinary writer, uses many literary techniques which prove his mastery of English. His most fascinating technique however, is displaying theme through language. In his play â€Å"Hamlet†, Shakespeare uses language to address existential dilemma, truth, and death. These themes significantly shape â€Å"Hamlet† into the masterpiece it is. In his play, Shakespeare expresses existential dilemma through Hamlet. Hamlet’s life so far has gone roughly in a negative direction.His father, the King of Hamlet, has passed away; and disappointingly, Hamlet comes back to a crowd that is busy acknowledging the new king, Claudius, and is forgetting about the death of his father. Shakespeare uses language to express theme through Hamlet’s soliloquy, â€Å"To be, or not to be†. In his soliloquy, Hamlet asks himself whether he should kill himself, or keep going. Hamlet illustrate s the strain that many people feel at one point or another, the world is just too much. Another theme that Shakespeare expresses in his play through language is truth. For a â€Å"madman† such as Hamlet, he is pretty intent on getting his facts straight.Hamlet wants to be sure Claudius is his father’s murderer before he takes any drastic action. After being enraged by his father’s speech, Hamlet tries to find out the truth. In Act 3, Scene 2, Hamlet stages a play called â€Å"Mousetrap†, which portrays the death scene his father described. During that scene, Hamlet intends to watch Claudius to see if he expresses guilt. Through language, Shakespeare shows truth. Hamlet goes to great measures of finding out what is true; expressing a view that believing if another is honest is a matter of great trust, or great naivete. Lastly, Shakespeare expresses through language the theme of death.In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet encounters death through his fatherà ¢â‚¬â„¢s ghost, and in Polonius’s and Ophelia’s demises. These run ins prompt Hamlet to look at death through different angles. For instance, the ghost of his father causes Hamlet to think about the spiritual aftermath of death. After Polonius’s death in Act 4, Hamlet compares death to the â€Å"Worm that ate the king’s corpse, that might be used to catch a fish to feed a beggar†. In other words, Shakespeare comments that death is a great equalizer, or as a stepping stone to truth away from an ambiguous dishonest world.Hamlet is a play that strongly represents the themes of the world through the language of art. Shakespeare enforces his views of the world through events that can be decoded into many messages. With just a few characters and occurrences, Shakespeare is able to illustrate themes such as existential dilemma, truth, and death. Through its many ingenious themes, â€Å"Hamlet† can be considered an outline of the treacherous world w e live in. If you take anything for granted, or trust everything you hear, your path will become a difficult one.

Persuasive Speech About Protecting Animals

I am very pleased to be here to address the Animal Welfare Intergroup, and to discuss with you,in particular,the essential rights of animals. Even nowadays, in the most people’s eyes,animals have no consciousness,no thoughts,and no emotions . Therefore,human regard them as inferior species. People empower themselves to imprison the animals,to mistreat them,to eat them, and to kill them. Who gives the rights for human to do that?Human and animals have the same rights to live in the Earth. So today, I should say at the outset that I,like millions of citizens in China will share the view that animal welfare is an issue of very high importance.And I will speak on behalf of our friends, who also live in this planet—the animals. The current condition of many species of animals is very severe and the extinction rate of animals is increasing with an alarming speed. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),it calculated that the percentage of endang ered species as 40 percent of all organisms in 2008. Destructive human activities have led to the current rate of species extinction, which is at least 100–1,000 times higher than the expected natural rate.Although almost every country has their own laws and there are many organizations in the world to work toward the protection of endangered species. However,the work is far from done. Many countries have relatively effective laws and policies,but there is not a good way to enforce them. Therefore,destroying of habitats, killing and trading of endangered animals, eating of wild animals and mistreat of animals are still happen in the world. Do you know how many sharks died every year because people love to eat shark fins? Do you know what is the feeling of animals to be tested by human?Do you know the disasters of eating wild animals.Let me tell you the amazing data about them. There are more than seventy million of sharks died and people only killed them for their fins. Peopl e cut fins of sharks and put them back to sea. Shark can not live without their fins and their blood flow in water,sinking to the sea flow and slowly to be died. Why people are so cruel that killed sharks and only satisfy for their taste. The medical developed very fast in recently years and animals make a great contribution for medical researches. Does animals want to contribute to human medical development?Absolutely not.And why people force them and test them. Do you remember the SARS happened all over the world in 2004?A great number of people died because infected with this disease and the first one to get this disease because he ate one kind of wild animals. What can we so for animals?We can contribute to nature reserves and other wilderness areas. Habitat preservation is one of the best ways to help protect endangered animals. And we also need to buy environmentally friendly goods. Choose non-toxic cleaners and lawn care items that won't pollute streams, rivers or oceans.Avoi d any products that have been made from threatened or endangered animals. Buy foods and goods that are made from materials that do not harm endangered animals or their habitat. As you can see from this speech today, the suffering has not ended. Endless thousands of poultry. I'm sorry. That's really just kind of starting to distract me. And I got the shoe and the music going, and I couldn't concentrate there for a second. Okay. Outrageous cases of animal abuse that's just been a portion of what you've heard about today.I hope that you can see from the speech today how essential it is for the thousands and thousands and thousands of animals who are suffering endlessly, that an action be taken. Boiling alive. Humane? I don't think so. Being kicked and stomped and thrown against the wall repeatedly until you are dead. Humane? I don't think so. It is essential that we take an action to enforce animal slaughter rules and rites and regulations. Something has to be done for this billion dol lar industry will continue to go on and on without recourse. Please let's make a difference.

Argument Research Essay Fracking vs. Offshore Drilling - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 933 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2019/10/10 Did you like this example? Oil and gas are important catalysts of industrialization, economic growth and important household commodities. The method of obtaining these natural products revolves around onshore fracking and offshore drilling (Jackson et al., 2). Fracking is a type of hydraulic fracturing of shale or bedrocks utilizing high pressures of water, sand and additives in order to obtain natural gas and other petroleum products from underground. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Argument Research Essay: Fracking vs. Offshore Drilling" essay for you Create order Offshore drilling involves mechanical drilling of wellbores below the seabed, continental shelf, lake or inshore water body to explore and extract petroleum products (Al-Azani 3). The essay will analyze the similarities of the offshore drilling and fracking methods and their differences detailing the pros and cons of fracking method of drilling. Fracking and offshore drilling share a number of similarities. First, both methods are aimed and exploring and extracting natural petroleum products from underground bedrocks. Petroleum is formed after years of pressure and heat effect on dead organic matter from overlying rock beds (Davis 2). Drilling of oil therefore involves exploration through seismology, scent detection, physical examination, satellite areal pictures and gravitational studies of the land (Oilscams.org 1). Extraction follows through fracking or conventional vertical offshore drilling. Secondly, both methods require some basic equipment such as exploratory equipment, pumps, pipelines, storage units and transport means. Thirdly, both methods share similar economic advantages to a country through sale of the drilled petroleum products. The two methods have differences in the process and other inherent parameters (Davis 3). The differences between fracking and offshore drilling lies on the process, time, equipment, costs and production capacity.   Fracking incorporates horizontal wells which direct liquids under high pressure to fracture the rocks while offshore drilling utilize vertical drills which burrow the ground for many miles to reach the oil and gas deposits (Al-Azani 4)). In this way fracking is able to unravel petroleum products hidden deep in the rocks that vertical drilling cannot achieve. Fracking therefore, has more production capacity than ordinary offshore drilling due to the fact that more oil can be released from fractured rocks and more wells can be made through the horizontal drill lines. In terms of cost, fracking is less expensive because it is usually onshore as compared to offshore drilling which require longer drilling depths, more equipment and harsher deep water conditions.   On average offshore drilling costs $4-8 million as compared to fracking which use $1-4 million (Oilscams.org 1). Offshore drilling takes a longer time to create wellbores across longer depths of water as compared to fracking. Lastly, offshore drilling utilize more equipment as compared to fracking. Offshore drilling require various platforms such as fixed platforms, compliant towers, sea star systems and spar platforms to mention a few. These platforms require a lot of stability since they traverse water bodies and thus need more equipment as compared to fracking onshore where land provide natural stability (Oilscams.org 2). Fracking Fracking involves use of vertical and horizontal drill lines which utilize high pressure pumps to fracture rock beds and extract oil and gas (Jackson et al., 2). Initially, the wellbores are vertical for substantial length and then turns horizontal to infiltrate many oil sites. Fracking offers a higher production capacity since most of the hidden oil and gas can be obtained through fracturing of rock bed, something that is not possible with conventional drilling methods (Jackson et al., 12). A mixture of water, sand and additives are used to fracture the shale and rocks. Fracking has a number of pros and cons. Pros of Fracking Fracking has positive environmental, social, political and economic impacts. Fracking produces natural gas which decreases overreliance on coal hence reduced carbon dioxide emissions and chemical toxicity of the surface (Jackson et al., 6). Fracking enables a country to create jobs in the gas and oil industries since the process requires manpower as well as positive returns on the sale of oil and gas. This has a positive impact on the country’s economic growth as a whole and local communities where major fracking occurs since fracking companies engage in social responsibilities through provision of social amenities, employment and infrastructural development (Jackson et al., 14). Fracking has a number of disadvantages. Cons of Fracking Fracking can lead to environmental pollution especially water contamination since the additives used can penetrate drinking water aquifers such as biocide, surfactant, polymeric lubricants and stabilizers (Davies 2). There is a possibility of hydraulic fracturing additives and wastes which are carcinogenic to escape into the environment. Fracking can also cause lines of weakness on the earth’s crust and cause earthquakes. Since industries are not allowed to disclose the chemical they use for fracking, the political impact is that local leaders, health officers and other community members cannot successfully voice any concerns or health issues which require compensation or stoppage of fracking processes (Mazur 7). Socially, the water wastage due to high amounts of water contents required for fracking can cause water shortages (Wells 12). Conclusion In conclusion, oil exploration and drilling utilize either fracking or offshore drilling methods. Offshore drilling and fracking share various similarities in terms of functionality of drilling oil and gas from underground, basic equipment and socio-economic impact. The two methods differ in terms of time, productivity, process and cost with fracking producing more oil per station at a shorter time and lesser cost (Oilscams.org 2). Offshore drilling require more equipment and time and cost more due to longer depth of water involved. Basing the argument sorely on fracking, the drilling methods has a number of pros and cons. Fracking reduces environmental emissions, creates employment and promotes economic growth of the country. It however has some pitfalls since it can pollute fresh water aquifers, cause earthquakes and create water shortages (wells 12).