Othello

Personally, I am not a huge fan of William Shakespeare. Even with footnotes, I really don't understand very much of what I'm reading. And I find a lot of what Shakespeare writes to be extremely depressing. Two people fall in love and one or both of them ends up dying. That seems to me to be the plot of most of Shakespeare's works.

The character of Othello is meant to be portrayed as a hero; someone who is brave, powerful, well-respected by those in his community, and someone who is deeply in love with his wife Desdemona. While Othello admits that he has not had a great education and therefore is not as intelligent as some, I feel as though Iago convinced him way too easily that Desdemona was cheating on him with Cassio. Iago never actually presented Othello with concrete evidence to back up his accusations simply because he did not have to. Othello just completely trusted him, something that I feel should have been obvious that he should not have done. So I feel as though the praise put on Othello by everyone around him was not always warranted.

I also feel that the way that people treated Desdemona was not warranted. People, especially her father, treated her as if she were a piece of glass unable to make any decisions on her own. I think that that perception of Desdemona is not true. I think she is a strong woman, capable of forming her own opinions and making her own decisions. I admire her spirit, refusing to back down and wanting to go with Othello to Cyprus. I like that she did not let her father push her around.