The Lost Identitiy of Othello Essay -- GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Oth

The bewildered Identitiy of Othello Othellos identity in the Venetian union is his role as the tie up. Few people use his veridical name when talking nearly him. When speaking the given quote, Othello is telling the Venetians how he won Desdemonas heart by telling her the story of his life, and he now retells it to the Venetians. This tale-telling is a way of employing the linguistic system to reshape for himself a new identity with more haughty connotations than the Moor can offer. The Moor is an expression the Venetians connect to other expressions in the linguistic system which all have a negative value. Examples be such expressions as old black ram... The above excerpt is provided as reference only. The complete essay begins below. When considering the identity of Othello, in Shakespeares play Othello, it is in effect(p) to ponder the quote I am not what I am.. mayhap Othello finds his identity threatened by Desdemonas reaction to his tales. In order to figure this bett er, it is useful to note a quote from Pam Morris Literature and Feminism, (Blackwell, 1993) where she discusses the resolution of the Oedipal crisis. For Freud the upshot of the childs fear of castration is its submission to the reality principle and hence its insertion into the social order. For Lacan this must coincide with the childs entry into the language system.....Language is thus the natural law of the father a linguistic system within which our social and grammatical gender identity is always already structured. (p. 104) Othellos identity in the Venetian society is his role as the Moor. Few people use his real name when talking about him. When speaking the given quote, Othello is telling the Venetians how he won Desdemonas heart by tel... ... in himself he found it unsurmountable that anybody else should do so. This insecurity proves his undoing. His positive self-image gone, he is left a resource between the Moor or nothingness. The moment Emilia realizes Othello is the murderer she reverts to avocation him expressions connected to the negative image of the Moor And you the blacker devil...thou art a devil. (V, ii, 129, 131) He cant stand being this person, the only one society and the symbolical order can offer him. To construct his own identity has turn out impossible. To be without an identity, a non-personn implies death. He chooses to free himself of this unwanted identity by stepping out of the social order and the language system by actor of suicide. Works CitedShakespeare, William. Othello. The Complete. Moby (tm) Shakespeare. Online. Mass. Institute of Technology. Internet. 16 Nov. 1996