Othello’s Diversity of Imagery Essay -- Othello essays

Othellos Diversity of Imagery The diverse imagery found in Shakespeares drama Othello represents a humans alone by itself. And this world of imagery contributes to the prevailing sentiment of pain and suffering and unpleasantness. There is no shortage of imagery in the play this is for certain. Critic Caroline Spurgeon in Shakespeares Imagery and What it Tells Us sorts through with(predicate) the plethora of imagery in the play The main image in Othello is that of animals in action, preying upon one another, mischievous, lascivious, cruel or suffering, and through these, the general sense of pain and unpleasantness is much increased and kept constantly before us. More than half the animal images in the play are Iagos, and all these are contemptuous or repellent a plague of flies, a quarrelsome dog, the recurrent image of bird-snaring, leading asses by the nose, a spider transmitted a fly, beating an offenceless dog, wild cats, wolves, goats and monkeys. To these Othello adds his pictures of foul toads breeding in a cistern, summer flies in the shambles, the ill-boding raven over the infected house, a toad in a dungeon, the monster too hideous to be shown, bird-snaring again, aspics tongues, crocodiles tears, and his reiteration of goats and monkeys. In addition, . . . . (79) The plays imagery is oftentimes reflective of the fortunes of the protagonist. As the Moors status declines, the quality of the imagery in the play declines. In The Riverside Shakespeare Frank Kermode explains the relationship between imagery and Othellos green-eyed monster It is very important to see that Othellos self-estimate one not easily jealious, but, being wrought, / Perplexed in the extreme (V.ii.345-... ...rizona Quarterly (Spring 1956), pp.5-16. Kermode, Frank. Othello, the Moor of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. 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. Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http//www.eiu.edu/multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos. Spurgeon, Caroline. Shakespeares Imagery and What it Tells Us. Shakespearean Tragedy. Ed. D. F. Bratchell. New York Routledge, 1990. Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Canada University of Toronto Press, 1957.