As a Renaissance playwright, Shakespeare wrote within a tradition that included ancient classical theories of tragedy, themes and character types from early English medieval plays, and popular Elizabethan and Jacobean perceptions about the relationship between the theater and the world. This theatrical tradition clearly illuminates aspects of Othello. The main theme of the play's plot is another important influence. Shakespeare borrowed a simple Italian murder story and reshaped it by developing more psychologically complex characters, incorporating stage conventions, and adding details from recent history. Finally, considering Othello as a text reveals rich poetic and structural patterns that indicate the play's merit not only as a stage script but also as a literary work of art. The examination of traditions, conventions, themes, and poetic and thematic elements aims to increase awareness and understanding of the many factors and conditions that influenced Shakespeare's dramatic craft and specifically the composition, performance, and publication of Othello.
Identified by many scholars as one of Shakespeare "great" tragedies, along with Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear, Othello follows a traditional tragic pattern, tracing the central character's fall from greatness and bringing together qualities of nobility with choices that lead to inevitable suffering. Othello is also, however, one of Shakespeare's most emotionally compelling plays. The momentum with which the devastating series of events unravels creates a breathless sense of chaotic turmoil that captivates viewers almost as much as it drives the characters. Iago's revelations beginning in the first scene and recurring throughout the play provide the audience with a disturbing burden of foreknowledge from which there is virtually no relief.
Perhaps this combined intensity of dramatic action and audience involvement explains Othello's widespread, enduring appeal. Records from the play's first performances in 1604 to the present indicate its ongoing popularity over centuries of changing cultural fashions, political assumptions, and social expectations.
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