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Essay - An Excerpt from Othello

            In this excerpt from William Shakespeare's tragic play "Othello ", the protagonist Othello mourns his actions towards his wife whom he murdered just moments before. The excerpt here given takes place in the very end of the play in act V, scene II. He curses himself for having been tricked into believing that his loyal wife had an affair with his friend Cassio and therefore murdered her. The excerpt takes place shortly after realising this and therefore provides deep insight into Othello's feelings and personality. In this passage Shakespeare attempts to show Othello at his weakest point and therefore finalises Othello's characterisation as a tragic hero. He uses multiple techniques such as imagery or repetition to emphasise his idea of Othello having degraded himself from an honest man to a tyrant in a matter of hours. In this passage Shakespeare uses Othello in order to create an almost sad and desperate mood by making him use a remorseful tone in his voice which is able to make it seem as if he is condemning himself to hell. .
             Othello's soliloquy can be split into four parts, during which different ideas and emotions are expressed. The first part is from line 2-7 and is dominated by Othello talking about how he always thought of himself as a man that can control his tempers and is able to live an honorable life. He concludes that this is not so now. Shakespeare presents this part as being extremely hypotactic as Othello greatly exaggerates what he did and what is happening to him. Shakespeare makes this visible to the reader when Othello says that "I have made my way through more impediments than twenty times your stop "(5-6) and by that is making himself grander than he actually is. This is in contrast to the situation that he finds himself in, having been deceived and therefore being as little as he could be. This has the effect of making his downfall seem even more extreme as he had such a high perception of himself.


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