Othello and Different Senses of Abnormal :: Othello essays

Othello and Different Senses of Abnormal As inconsequential as they may initi completelyy seem, the various types of abnormalities in William Shakespeares tragic drama Othello do impact upon the audience. Let us explore this subject of the deviant in this play. In the es interpret Wit and Witchcraft an Approach to Othello Robert B. Heilman discusses the abnormal side and plans of the ancient as manifested in his verbal imagery If we take all the lines of angiotensin-converting enzyme share out of context and consider them as a unit, we have always a useful body of information tho if, when we study Iagos lines, we find that he consistently describes himself in images of hunt and trapping, we learn not only his plans of action but something of his attitude to occasions, to his victims, and to himself and beyond that there is fixed for us an image of barbarous one of those by which the drama interprets the human situation. (331) And how about epilepsy? In Act 4 the evil Ia go works up Othello into a frenzy regarding the missing kerchief. The resultant illogical, extra raving by the general is a prelude to an epileptic ecstasy or entranced state Lie with her? lie on her? We say lie on her when they belie her. Lie with her Zounds, thats fulsome. Handkerchief confessions hanky To confess, and be hanged for his labor first to be hanged, and then to confess I tremble at it. . . . (4.1) Cassio enters right after the general has fallen into the epileptic trance. Iago explains to him IAGO. My lord is falln into an epilepsy. This is his second fit he had one yesterday. CASSIO. Rub him about the temples. IAGO. No, forbear. The lethargy must have his quiet course. If not, he foams at mouth, and by and by Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs. Do you strike yourself a little while. He will recover straight. (4.1) Epilepsy on the die of the protagonist is unusual and physically abnormal. But the more serious abnormalities in the play are psy chological. Iago is generally recognized as the one character possessing and operating by abnormal psychology. But Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeares tragical Heroes tells of the time when the hero himself approached madness