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  • Essay / The importance of act 5, scene 1 of Shakaspeare's Othello

    The first scene of the fifth act of Othello, unlike those which preceded it, is dominated by physical violence, with Iago at the center playing the “puppeteer”. This scene reminds the audience of Iago's abilities to control the most malleable characters, namely Roderigo. Shakespeare also relies on the theme of proof with regard to his protagonist, who, satisfied with his "ocular proof", now finds himself confronted with the auditory proof: the cries of Cassio, which "allow" him to try to put end of Desdemona's life. It is widely believed that the beginning of this act shows Shakespeare departing from the intellectual patterns and techniques common to pre-Renaissance theater; here he turns to more medieval “action scenes,” an intentional regression that gradually draws the audience toward the climax. This scene is one of rapid transition: Iago's words are no longer empty threats, they now come to fruition quickly. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"? Get an original essay In the first dialogue between Iago and Roderigo, the audience sees a return to the early, perhaps more "innocent" stages of the room. There, we now realize that Shakespeare's "villain" planted the seeds of this moment in Roderigo's "love-stricken" mind. The conversation now has a more sinister connotation; take, for example, these dramatic words: “And yet he gave me satisfactory reasons:/'He is only a man gone. Forward, my sword: he dies. This statement, with its childish resonance, shows Shakespeare suggesting the true extent of Roderigo's metaphorical blindness and Iago's keen sense of manipulation. The former is an archetype, a la Falstaff, of an "honorable fool", but, unlike Falstaff, he is also a vessel for emotion and, ultimately, an intentionally one-dimensional character, used to fulfill a single goal : the murder of Cassio. However, instead of allowing the above technique to exist solely in the audience's perception, Shakespeare has Iago announce it bluntly throughout his "mini-soliloquy": "I have rubbed this young quarter almost to 'in the sense/And he gets angry. Now, whether he kills Cassio/Or Cassio himself, or whether they each kill each other,/Each means pays me. A profound clarity of emotion now dominates Iago's speech: gone are the props of erudition, a simplistic vocabulary and a corresponding train of thought now come to the fore. The audience is not surprised by Iago's disregard for human life here, only by the newfound expression of his jealousy, even self-contempt: "If Cassio stays/ He has a daily beauty in his life/ That makes me ugly. This may be a reference to Cassio's relatively polite manners, or a sign of Iago's jealousy of Bianca, but Shakespeare leaves this in doubt. What it symbolizes, however, is the rapid "humanization" of Iago, a process, although predominant in the preceding sections, which is barely perceptible so far: an Iago very different from the original of “Un Capitano Moro” by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio, who remains subhuman throughout. Following Othello's assumption that Cassio's murder was successfully carried out, Shakespeare presents the audience with a sign that Iago's plans are having the desired effect through a small, but very respectful, outburst from his protagonist: ""It's him. O brave Iago, honest and just,/Who has such a noble sense of your friend's wrong!/You teach me. The irony of this statement, particularly the last line, is not lost on the audience. A total reversal of.