Othello’s Copious Imagery Essay -- Othello essays

Othello’s Copious Imagery  Ã‚        Ã‚   Let’s look into Shakespeare’s drama Othello and admire the proliferation of imagery with which the playwright has decorated the play.    In the Introduction to Shakespeare’s Othello: The Harbrace Theatre Edition, John Russell Brown describes some â€Å"splendid images† in the play:    The elaborate soliloquy spoken by Othello as he approaches his sleeping wife (V.ii.1-22) contains some splendid images, such as â€Å"chaste stars,† â€Å"monumental alabaster,† â€Å"flaming minister,† and â€Å"Promethean heat,† but its key words are simple and used repeatedly: cause, soul, blood, die, light, love, and weep. In his last sustained speech (V.ii.338-56), the images are fewer and approached through the simplest words (â€Å"Speak of me as I am†) and most blatant antitheses (â€Å"loved not wisely, but too well†). (xiv)    H. S. Wilson in his book of literary criticism, On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, discusses the influence of the imagery:    It has indeed been suggested that the logic of events in the play and of Othello’s relation to them implies Othello’s damnation, and that the implication is pressed home with particular power in the imagery. This last amounts to interpreting the suggestions of the imagery as a means of comment by the author – the analogy would be the choruses of Greek tragedy. (66)    The vulgar imagery of Othello’s ancient dominates the opening of the play. Standing outside the senator’s home late at night, Iago uses imagery within a lie to arouse the occupant: â€Å" Awake! what, ho, Brabantio! thieves! thieves! thieves! / Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!† When the senator appears at the window, the ancient continues with coarse imagery of animal lust: â€Å"... ...ore Evans. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974.    Kernan, Alvin. â€Å"Othello: and Introduction.† Shakespeare: The Tragedies. Ed. Alfred Harbage. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1964.    Mack, Maynard. Everybody’s 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. â€Å"Shakespeare’s 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.