William Shakespeare’s book, Othello

Othello: A Tragic Play by William Shakespeare

Othello, a play by William Shakespeare published in 1603, is based on the novella A Moorish Capital. Most of the action takes place on the island of Cyprus and centers on four major characters: Othello, Desdemona (Othello’s wife), Cassio (Othello’s lieutenant), and Iago (Othello’s ensign). Love, racism, vengeance, betrayal, jealousy and envy, and repentance are some of the topics addressed. Othello is a tragedy because it meets the criteria that Aristotle established for what constitutes a tragedy. The author uses drama to discuss a person who was previously in a better position falling. Both internal and external factors could be to blame for this fall. It is a tragedy that explains what happens when people let emotions get the best of them.

Plot

The play opens with Iago and Rodrigo arguing about the recent marriage of Othello to Desdemona, and Iago is paid Rodrigo an amount to help him win the love of Desdemona. Iago assures Rodrigo that Desdemona will soon become bored with Othello and it will then be the chance of Rodrigo to have her all to himself. Othello, who is a military commander, promotes Cassio to the position of Lieutenant, and Iago is upset with him since he feels that it should have been him in that position because of his military experience, and this drives him to plot revenge on him.

Iago and Rodrigo are determined enough that they tell Desdemona’s father that she is under a spell cast on her by Othello, and this is the reason she married him. Desdemona’s father then goes to the local governing body to complain to the Senate, and Othello defends himself by saying that he won Desdemona’s love through telling her of his military escapades, and Desdemona affirms this. Meanwhile, Cyprus is being invaded by the Turks, and they are all called to defend the state. The Turks, however, face a massive storm in the sea, and they are thus out of the way for their invasion mission. Iago uses this opportunity to concentrate on an elaborate plan to have Cassio demoted and paid back Othello for not promoting him in the first place.

Othello, on the other hand, throws a party to celebrate the fact that the Turks can no longer invade. It is from this party that Iago gets Cassio drunk and has Roderigo start a fight with him, and Cassio stabs the Governor of Cyprus inadvertently. This automatically causes Othello to demote him immediately, and he goes to Iago who advises him to talk to Desdemona, who would, in turn, talk to Othello and pardon him. Desdemona does as Cassio had requested upon Othello’s return, and Iago goes around and tells Othello that there could be an intimate relationship between his wife and Cassio. Othello gets jealous and angry, and he then accuses Desdemona of adultery. Iago’s wife (Emilia) convinces Othello that his wife has not cheated on him and this causes Iago to kill her out of anger. Out of guilt, Othello kills himself. Iago’s plot to ruin Othello is realized, and he is sentenced to execution.

How to Turn it into a Sitcom

Shakespeare wishes to turn this story into a sitcom since the agents he reached for claimed that it was too bleak, and audiences wanted more of comedy. To accommodate a modern audience, a few things are to be added, and the characters and plot maintained at the same time. While a tragedy focuses on an unfortunate event that has an unhappy ending, comedy has some sense of humor and misfortune is not seen as such.

For one, the heroes could have been in a more flexible state, where their life was messier, diversified and with unexpected twists and turns, rather than straight forward, and in simple binaries. Practically, this can be applied or the case of Desdemona, when she was defending Othello before his father. Out of fear, she would have instead of facing his father confidently, chosen to let the matter die out of silence. In Cyprus during the party, Othello would have rushed home, without leaving the party in control of Cassio. More humor could come when Othello has no one to blame for the disturbance during this absence.

Rather than having a stressed order and process with an end that follows the beginning, it could have been more random, with some loose ends. As a tragedy, Iago’s motives were never known to the last scene of the book. This was made possible because he killed Rodrigo, his accomplice. For it to be a sitcom, Rodrigo would have stayed alive so that humor can be found in Iaogs’ feeling of guilt and fear of being exposed. In the book, Ro pays Iago so that he can help him have Desdemona. In a comic setting and to add more value, Iago should have been selfish enough as to want both the lieutenant position and Desdemona as well. This would then make Rodrigo furious, and he would choose to spill the beans, by reporting to the authorities all they had always planned and why.

The emotions would have been more disengaged, where Othello chooses to respond to Iagos’ allegations about his wife with wit and cynicism, rather than believing him and respond with the strong, overpowering emotions which lead to extreme reactions. Othello should have abstracted himself from this allegation and fond a better way to solve it with his wife. As for Iago, instead of killing his wife, he would have done better than that so that the audience has a reason to react with a sense of humor out of this.

The aspect of forgiveness, which rather lacks, would make it a sitcom. Instead of Iago having his way in planting the seed of doubt in Othello about his wife’s infidelity and having Othello kill her, Iago’s plan would have surfaced sooner than it did after the tragedy befell Othello, and he would have confessed before the whole team. For the case of Othello and Cassio, Othello listens to his wife and pardons Cassio and gives him back his position in the military. Instead, the play is mostly about vengeance. This is seen in Iago, who happens to be the villain in the play, and his desire for revenge and hate that grows in him when Othello chooses to promote Cassio when he feels that Cassio is no better a soldier than he is. This particular play revolves around Iago who happens to be the villain, and his endeavors to pay back and get what he wants.

Militarism is vivid in the play, and this makes it more of a tragedy. On the other hand, it is required of it to be Pacific in the sense that characters question warrior value where they would rather lose their dignity and at the same time save their lives. Militarism is seen when Othello chooses to kill himself due to guilt. He says that he should be remembered as ‘one who loved not wisely but not too well’. He feels that there is nothing he can do to make it up to his wife for having baseless and false accusations against her but to take away his life.

The play ends with Othello committing suicide, Iago killing his wife and Rodrigo, and Iago facing a sentence in prison when it should have ended with Othello making things up with his wife and becoming a once happy family, and Iago would reconcile with Othello by asking for forgiveness, and everyone else as well.

Another aspect that should have been put into consideration for it to be a sitcom is social integration. Instead of focusing on individuals and the consequences of their actions, the play should have revolved around the larger community and paid attention to the interaction between groups of people.

Divergent thinking, which is more of imaginative and playful thinking and has the tendency to look for answers but finds no solution to anything, lacks in the play. Being an aspect of the comic, the evidence for Desdemona’s infidelity would have not been there. Instead, Iago would have tried to defend his allegation and find no proof to show for Othello to believe him. This would create room for a high tolerance for ambiguity to make humor possible.