Shakespeare`s Othello: Psychoanalytical Approach

Abstract

This article demonstrates African-American criticism deal with racial issues in Shakespeare`s Othello, from a psychoanalytical approach. This issue of race is also one the most significant themes that have a huge place in worldwide literature. In this tragedy, Shakespeare expresses racial issues by Othello who is a black man and tragic hero of this play.

Othello is a supposedly normal person who descends into jealousy by Iago`s poisoning the seed of suspicion in the mind of Othello that leads to four deaths at the end of the play. Hybris and jealousy are tragic flaws of Othello that cause blindness and ignorance towards reality. Othello`s ego, representing reason and common sense is defeated by his Id which contains the passions.

This paper elaborates the psychological theory in Shakespeare`s Othello with racial issues and examines the activities of Othello, Iago, and Roderigo that makes a bloody ending, by killing Othello`s pure wife Desdemona and three other people.

Introduction

Racial issues is not only the main matter of the recent century but also was the momentous point of the past, that people deal with. This issue become the cause of many novels and dramas that the writers write about them and many of their plays were performed, such as the best tragedy Othello, the Moor of Venice by Shakespeare significantly reveal African-American criticism dealing with racial issues.

By the marriage of Othello who is a black man with a beautiful white woman, this issue becomes more obvious and most of the people who are around him want to represent this discrimination and their point of view of black people to Othello.

Racism with the associated of Iago`s poisoning the seed of suspicion make Othello mad and also jealous. This jealousy and hybris are tragic flaws of Othello that cause blindness and ignorance towards reality. The destructive and unavoidable effects of racism change lives of Othello and Desdemona deeply. Also, suspicion, madness, and jealousy lead to four deaths at the end of the play three of them are murdering and one of them is suicide.

Jealousy is like a green-eyed monster and feeds on the person, it destroys that person. Jealousy makes the person lives in the illusion of reality and it is a wrong vision and sight, it takes a person over and causes to see what is not there, and they are the same sequence that happens to Othello. Moreover, Iago is completely successful in poisoning the mind of Othello and he begins to trust Iago rather than trusting his own wife.

Desdemona`s insistence only suggests the wrong kind of attachment to Cassio. While at first Othello is apparently not alarmed by the insistence with which Desdemona argues in Cassio`s favor, after Iago shapes Othello`s thoughts to doubt her honesty and faithfulness, Othello begins to suspect her.

Iago infects Othello with jealousy and controls his perspective. Iago puzzles Othello, he provokes him and hooks him like a fish so later Othello becomes ready to accept whatever Iago says. He speaks as a friend and protector till he infects him with the idea that Desdemona is unfaithful and loves Cassio. As soon as doubt about Desdemona`s faithfulness creeps in, Othello loses his sense of manhood and begins to be affected by racial prejudice that he had formerly shrugged off.

These racial issues and jealousy that create by Iago`s poisoning the seed of suspicion in the mind of Othello, all together are the points that can be evaluated and demonstrated by the psychoanalytical approach.

According to Freud`s psychoanalytic theory, personality develops through a series of stages, each characterized by certain internal psychological conflicts.

Our personality develops from the interactions among what he proposed as the three fundamental structures of the human mind: the id, ego, and superego. Conflicts among these three structures, and our efforts to find balance among what each of them desires, determine how we behave and approach the world. What balance we strike in any given situation determines how we will resolve the conflict between two overarching behavioral tendencies: our biological aggressive and pleasure-seeking drives vs. our socialized internal control over those drives.

Also, Sigmund Freud represents three levels of consciousness:

• Unconsciousness: exist outside of awareness at all times.
• Pre-conscious: all information not currently aware of but could be recalled.
• Conscious: current state of awareness.

The Shakespearean play Othello is one of the many plays whose characters dramatically display this theory of personality by Freud. Characters such as Othello and Iago are major characters who undergo the complex theory the most.

Othello the protagonist in Shakespeare`s play is forced to make a decision to execute his wife, Id, because he believes she deceived him, but his conscious, superego, makes him think twice about making this decision. Iago is a character who is driven by his Id, pleasure principle. In the play, he is motivated by his jealousy and he is one compound character who is able to play with other characters' minds as well as them being unconscious about it.

According to Freud`s theory, Id is the first part to develop and Iago perfectly demonstrates this. Unlike other characters though, Iago does not seem to show the superego part of this personality. It`s almost as if he does not have one, due to his thoughts in his soliloquies. Overall, Iago is a character whose Id gets the best of him. Shakespeare`s characters all have the traits of Freud`s theory of personality.