Compare how flaws are shown in Othello and a range of poetry you have studied

In this essay I will be comparing the way that flaws are shown by analysing the language and structure of Othello and several Browning poems. These poems include Porphyria’s lover, The Laboratory and The Spanish Cloister. The link between all of these poems is that they all share similar flaws in character and this leads to some form of tragedy.

Shakespeare uses a lot of language devices to present his characters and their personalities including flaws. In doing this he is able to create a story where the flaws of his characters affect the events created such as the downfall of Othello. Shakespeare uses metaphors and personification to present jealousy and anger in Othello for example when Iago warns Othello of his wife’s unfaithfulness and her flirtatious behavior around Michael Cassio, which in itself is a form of dramatic irony, when he tells us…
‘O beware , my lord, of jealousy. It is the green-eyed monster that doth mock the meat it feeds on’ we can see a clear metaphor for the representation of jealousy, Iago refers to jealousy as a green-eyed monster. The colour green is often linked with the emotion jealousy. Iago describes jealousy as a monster because he knows that Othello can be quite a wrathful character and may get angry or even violent if he becomes frustrated with the situation he has been put in. By describing jealousy as a monster it personifies it, it is now something to beware whereas if it were just an emotion, you may not be physically able to fear it. Iago then goes on to say that it ‘doth mock the meat it feeds on‘. I think that this is a metaphor for Othello, and that the ‘meat’ is his reputation or status, if he is not careful, his reputation will be ruined because of his new status as a cuckold.

Later in the play Iago’s comment on Desdemona’s faithfulness affects Othello and to express this Shakespeare uses another metaphor. Othello describes Desdemona when talking to Iago.
‘O curse of marriage, that we call these delicate creatures ours and not their appetites!‘ Here we can see that a metaphor is used to describe Desdemona’s accused lust and flirtatious nature towards Cassio. Othello describes Women as ‘delicate creatures‘. He says that they are ‘ours‘ in which he means the possession of a woman in marriage. He then goes on to say that their ‘appetites‘ are not ours. By this he means that all women are compelled by lust for other men, which is a generalisation, when they have already given themselves to another. This was a common view in the 1600’s. In that period of time women were treated as a possession and they didn’t have many rights, if any at all. Once a woman was married, all of her possessions were her husbands. Men also thought women to be devious, unfaithful, and flirtatious. Many thought that their wives were cheating, as does Othello. But on the other hand many men also had Mistress’, women that they could go to and have an affair with when they were away from their wives. I think this is evident in Othello because he now believes that his wife is having an affair which shows other traits. Insecurity and Pride.

Shakespeare also uses a lot of dramatic irony throughout Othello. This is evident in the way that Othello acts towards Iago. When talking to Iago, Othello thinks very highly of him and trusts him to the point where Iago can manipulate him into believing a lie. Dramatic Irony is shown when Othello says ‘I think thou dost; and for I know thou’rt full of love and honesty‘ This is a clear use of dramatic irony and also brings out another flawed trait in Othello. First of all we know Shakespeare has used dramatic irony because of the line ‘thou’rt full of love and honesty’. Iago is lying to Othello about Desdemona and Cassio’s relationship , but we as readers already know this and therefore know that Iago is not a truthful character. It also brings out an unusual flaw in Othello, his trusting nature which can be a virtue and a flaw because in this instance he is trusting Iago and also not trusting his wife’s innocence and love.

In class we have studied a range of Robert Browning poems. One of these is Porphyria’s lover in which I think that Browning uses small metaphors and repetition to present the protagonists flaw of obsession. The character is obsessed with Porphyria and is also jealous that she can never be properly his. This can be shown when he says ‘That moment she was mine, mine, fair‘. Browning uses this repetition to show his obsession with Porphyria, the repeating of the word ‘mine‘ means he may be jealous of Porphyrias husband, that maybe he will never be able to truly own her. The protagonist then goes onto strangle Porphyria with her own hair which the author describes as ‘yellow string‘. This shows that the protagonist has no consideration for his actions and doesn’t care about how he kills her or even that he killed her. This shows another flaw within the speaker which is his wrathful nature. He kills Porphyria because he thinks she is lustful and also out of his own jealousy. I believe that the protagonist thinks that she is lustful because of her flirtatious nature, the way that she ‘glided’ into his house and undressed for him when she wasn’t truly his. I also think this yet another example of the way that women were thought of in the past. Porphyria has her lover, the speaker, and her husband which means that Browning must have a certain view on women and their lustful nature. Porphyria’s lover also has a strong link to the way that women are portrayed in Othello. Not only that the protagonist and Othello have similar flaws. Both the protagonist and Othello show strong signs of being wrathful, jealous and obsessed with their lovers. Both Porphyria and her lover have strong flaws that are represented with language devices in the text.

Another poem that we have studied in class is ‘The Laboratory’ by Robert Browning. Browning uses a set of language devices to portray the flaws of the protagonist. One of these language devices is alliteration and is used to show the frustration and wrath of the character. It is displayed as ‘ Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste, pound at thy powder!‘. The alliteration in this quote shows that either she is enjoying herself in watching the poison being made or she is frustrated that he is having to go to such lengths to fulfill her anger and revenge. Both of these reasons would show that one of her flaws is her wrathful nature. The way that she repeats the letter ‘P‘ and ‘M‘ shows how the pace of the text has sped up and how she is now starting to enjoy the idea of the death of her husbands mistress. I also think that she has a jealous nature. Browning presents this in the metaphor ‘What a drop! She’s not little, no minion like me!’. She describes the woman that her husband is having an affair with as a strong, powerful and independent. Which means she must think of herself as unimportant and weak. She even describes herself as a ‘Minion‘. This metaphor shows that she is insecure and jealous of the woman. Another detail that I noticed when analysing  the poem was that Browning has used a lot of exclamation marks to make the text read more dramatically. I feel by using these exclamation marks he has created a loud, eccentric personality to the speaker. An example of this would be ‘And Pauline should have just thirty minutes to live!… should drop dead!’ While reading this poem I noticed something in the structure of the overall text. There are 12 stanzas and I thought about how if each stanza was an hour we could be reading something similar to a diary in a way. If each stanza is an hour we can see how her emotions change over each hour. I think that this poem is very similar to the other two texts I have analysed. I feel that there is a very strong link in similar flaws, wrath, jealousy and insecurity. Othello’s jealousy and insecurity are comparable to the speaker in ‘The Laboratory‘. I also feel there is a strong link between the way that women are treated in all of the texts and the way that murder is almost justified in these poems.

For my last text I will be comparing the way in which Browning and Shakespeare both portray flaws. In the Spanish Cloister we are introduced to what I at first thought was a Monk. Browning uses quite strong language to show us the personality of the character. He uses religious references to show the anger and wrath of the Monk against one of his Brothers. For example the monk starts off with ‘ G-r-r-r – There go, my hearts abhorrence’ The word ‘Abhorrence’ is a very strong word which shows that the character is angry or envious of another character. The word abhorrence means the feeling of revulsion which starts the poem off at a very negative pace. The Monk then goes onto talk about another character called Brother Lawrence. He describes his feelings by saying ‘If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence, by Gods blood, would mine kill you’. Again we can see very strong emotive language to describe what the monk is feeling towards Brother Lawrence. This shows the emotion that the Monk is feeling and also brings out a few questions. Why is the Monk so angry at Brother Lawrence? I think that the Monk thinks that Brother Lawrence has sinned in some way and maybe broken the rules in a way.

In conclusion I think that all of the texts show forms of flaws in their characters. There are very strong links between all of the poems in flaws, views on women and events. In Othello, Porphyria’s lover and the Laboratory there is a very clear link between language devices and views on women. All of the poems showed insecurity, wrath and jealousy. In Othello he is quite an angry, violent, insecure man especially when he learns from Iago of his wife’s unfaithfulness. In Porphyria’s lover there is a strong link because of the events, in both Othello and Porphyria’s lover there is death and murder. There is also a strong link in flaws. The protagonist in Porphyria’s lover is violent, jealous and obsessive just like Othello. In the Laboratory there is clear links with the other two texts in flaw and views on women.
Finally I think that both Browning and Shakespeare use language devices such as metaphors, personification, repetition and alliteration to show the flaws in character in a similar way.