Some would argue that this excellent tragedy is a Five Act
drama of Othello's struggle to be accepted, and that the true tragedy is his own moment
of self-knowledge and awareness, when he realises that he can never be accepted into the
society that he has called "home." Of course, there are other major themes that must not
be ignored, but it is interesting to consider this theme of outsider in the play and, in
particular, to look at the moment where it is perhaps referenced most directly. Consider
Othello's dying words, before he plunges a dagger into his own chest, and how the the
theme of outsider is developed:
readability="18">Then must you speak
Of one that loved
not wisely but too well,
Of one not easily jealous but, being
wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base
Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued
eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the
Arabian trees
Their medicinable gum. Set you down this,
And say
besides that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turbaned
Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by th’ throat
the circumcised dog
And smote him thus.
(V.ii.341-354)Note the way
that this farewell speech includes Othello's self-identification as a paradoxical
figure, one who is excluded from yet a part of Venetian society. The reference to his
war-like qualities remind us of his value to Venice, whilst at the same time he
describes himself through the description of the killing of the "malignant" Turk,
classifying himself as a danger to the state. Thus the way in which he is an "outsider"
is something that he dies fully knowing. He seems to recognise in himself that he is
something of an excluded outsider, a threat, and thus paradoxically ends his life whilst
simultaneously vanquishing the last enemy he has to face, which is, of course, himself.
His final words therefore remind us of the strange in-between position that Othello has
occupied throughout the entire play, accepted on the one hand, yet not accepted on the
other, and we reflect that at least in death he will finally find peace with regard to
this tension.
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