Friday, February 1, 2008

FATE in OTHELLO - 1st Essay Rough Draft


Fate is evident in all of the works, but almost most so in Othello. However, in Othello, fate does not mean so much the idea that your destiny is predetermined, like in Oedipus Rex or A Prayer For Owen Meany; fate in Othello is more the idea of how little control we actually have over our own destiny. In the play, Othello's fate is controlled almost entirely by Iago, who essentially plays God; Othello not having control over his fate and accepting that he has no control in the end is part of what makes him noble.

From the moment Iago convinces Cassio to drink at the party to when Iago confesses to all that he has done, Othello does not have control over his destiny. He is bound by his sense of honor and his inherent insecurities to trust Iago and lose his faith in Desdemona. In this lies Iago's genius. Like Oedipus had no choice in in killing his father and marrying his mother, and how Owen had no choice in sacrificing himselffor the Vietnamese kids, Othello has no choice in destroying his life. Shakespeare is playing with one of our greatest fears in Othello - that we have little or no control over what happens to us. The scariest part of Othello is that, unlike Owen Meany and Oedipus, Othello's fate is not controlled by a higher power, which probably has good intentions. Instead, the fate of Othello is controlled by a man, one who most definitely has very bad intentions.

Although Iago's motives are never fully revealed or explained, what he is doing is pretty straightforward: he is playing god. He is basically playing the part of the Greek gods in Oedipus and the Christian god in Owen Meany. By acting as a god, Iago loses his humanity, and thus becomes more evil. In Oedipus and Owen Meany the higher powers are regarded as unfeeling, unknowable forces that lack human compassion but have an unquestionable sense of right and wrong. In both works, the characters have no choice in following the will of the gods, because it is assumed that the gods know what they are doing. Iago, however, is nevertheless still only human, but by attempting to elevate himself to the status of a god he loses his compassion but does not gain a sense of right and wrong. All he is left with is great power and great anger, and that can only mean doom for all those around him.

Because Othello is Iago's counterpart, instead of controlling others he is the one being controlled. Also unlike Iago, he is honorable and compassionate, and, when he realizes the truthabout what has happened, he accepts it. Like Oedipus at the end of his play and Owen throughout his book, accepting that he has no control over what happens to him is what makes Othello noble. Rodrigo, in sharp contrast to Othello, does just the opposite. Instead of accepting that he can never have Desdemona, he asks Iago, the controlling force in the play, to change his fate. Thus Rodrigo, unlike Othello, is generally regarded as weak and dishonorable. All three works show their characters' essential nobility through whether or not they not only accept their fate, but also take responsibility for it nonetheless.

Othello, like Oedipus and Owen Meany, is noble because he has no control over his destiny and he accepts that; Iago is evil because he tries to play the respective parts of the Greek gods in Oedipus and the Christian god in Owen Meany. What we do when we can't control what happens to us and how we try to control what happens to others are essential parts of human nature and thus important parts of Othello, as well as Oedipus Rex and A Prayer for Owen Meany.

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