Hamlet and Othello

All about Hamlet

Plot

Act I
The story is set in the late Middle Ages, in and around the royal castle in Elsinore, a city
in Denmark. Hamlet’s father, the king of Denmark, has only been dead for two months,
but his mother, Queen Gertrude, has already married her brother in law [ = cognato],
Claudius, who has now become king.
A ghost, similar to the late king of Denmark, has appeared at night to sentries at the
castle, so Hamlet and his friend Horatio arrange a meeting one night to see whether the
ghost will appear, which he does. He tells Hamlet he was murdered by Claudius, who
poured poison into his ear while he was sleeping in his orchard [ = frutteto].
The ghost asks Hamlet to revenge him, but to leave his mother’s punishment to heaven.

Act II
Hamlet pretends that he’s mad so that he can carry out his plans for revenge more
easily. Polonius, the king’s counselor, thinks Hamlet’s madness is caused by his love for
his daughter, Ophelia. Hamlet arranges for a troupe of actors, who have come to
provide entertainment for the court, to perform a play where the story is similar to the
one revealed by the ghost.

Act III
Hamlet delivers his famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy. The play is presented: King
Claudius rises and rushes away. Hamlet goes to his mother’s bedroom and, during an
argument with her, kills Polonius who is hiding behind a curtain listening to their
conversation.

Act IV
Hamlet is sent to England to be killed. Ophelia goes mad and drowns herself. Her
brother, Laertes, wants revenge and the king, after receiving the news that Hamlet has
escaped, plots his death in a duel with Laertes.

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Act V
Hamlet returns and the duel follows. The king prepares a poisoned drink and also puts
poison on the tip of Laertes’s sword. Hamlet refuses to drink it and his mother does it
instead. Laertes wounds Hamlet, then the swords switch and Hamlet wounds Laertes.
The Queen dies, Laertes falls and denounces the King, who is stabbed by Hamlet. Both
the King and Laertes die. Hamlet asks Horatio to tell his story, recommending that
Fortinbras, the prince of Norway, be made king, then Hamlet dies too.

A Revenge Tragedy
Seneca set the rules for revenge tragedies:
- they always include a violent crime committed against a family member of the
hero;
- the guilty one cannot be punished for various reasons, so the hero has to carry
out revenge;
- the hero usually has a period of doubt, which brings the relationship with the
audience closer through soliloquies and asides;
- the hero often becomes more isolated as the play progresses, and this isolation
may turn into madness;
- there is bloody action and many deaths.

In Hamlet, Shakespeare followed these conventions and, in addition, the play includes a
lot of psychological insight, through the reflections of the hero, his relationship with
the outside world and his doubts.

Hamlet’s language
Hamlet is very talkative and, in facts, he has the most lines in a single play of all
Shakespearean characters. The characteristic of his language it’s the ambiguity:
everything he says has a hidden meaning, just like the uncertain feelings which drive
them. In fact, everything Hamlet says is communicated through metaphor, simile and
wordplay [ = gioco di parole].

A reluctant avenger
Most critics think that the main cause of the whole tragic train of events is Hamlet’s
habit of delaying things. Hamlet himself is confused by his inability to act quickly. He
says he’s afflicted by a form of depression, which was called “melancholy” in
Shakespeare’s days and it was caused by his father’s death and his mother’s remarriage.
His constant doubt about his role as avenger [ = rivendicatore] also expresses his
rejection of a barbaric way of life, whose corruption, injustice and inhumanity he finds
intolerable. In fact, Hamlet avenges his father, but he does it impulsively because of
anger.

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Themes
Hamlet, other than begin a revenge tragedy, has also a series of themes that are central
to humanity, like:
- family and love relationships;
- madness;
- the corruption linked to power;
- life after death (ex. the “To be or not to be” speech, in which Hamlet talks about life
and death);
- the meaning of the theatre itself;
- appearance and reality;
- honour (justice is reached through the various deaths).

Othello

Background
The Moor of Venice is a tragedy based on the story of the italian Giraldi Cinzio. Cinzio
was an unsympathetic man with no dignity and honour, but Shakespeare represents
him as a character with great qualities as a man caught in a trap of evil as a leader.
The story is set in Venice because of the beliefs of that time:
- Venetian women were beautiful and interested in making love;
- Venetian men were hot-tempered, aggressive and easily jealous;

Shakespeare chose this setting for his tragedy filled with passion, jealousy and sexual
tension.

Characters
The main characters are:
- Othello, the Moor, the black general of the Venetian army;
- Desdemona, who is from a white aristocratic Venetian family and Othello’s wife;
- Cassio, Othello’s lieutenant [ = tenente];
- Iago, the villain. He’s an Othello’s soldier and he’s secretly in love with Desemona
and envious of Cassio;
- Emilia, Iago’s wife;
- Brabantio, Desdemona’s father.

The main antithesis are between Othello, Desdemona and Iago:

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 - Desdemona is a white Venetian aristocratic who represents the purity, chastity
and innocence;
- Iago is a white bishop and he’s the symbol of evil.

The plot
The first part is set in Venice: Othello married Desdemona against her father’s wish,
meanwhile Iago makes a plot to have Cassio dismissed because Othello preferred to
promote him instead of Iago. The second part is set in Cyprus: Cassio is dismissed, so he
seeks Desdemona’s help, so Iago doesn’t miss the opportunity to sow doubt [ = seminare
il dubbio] in Othello’s mind about Desdemona and Cassio’s love affair. To make this
more believable, Iago puts Desdemona’s handkerchief, which was given to her by
Othello, into Cassio’s room.
Othello, overwhelmed by jealousy, kills Desdemona, but when he shows the evidence of
the hypothetical betrayal, Emilia understands the truth and gives the fault to his
husbands, so Othello kills himself near his wife’s body. In the end, Cassio becomes
Cyprus’s Governor.

Themes
Shakespeare deals with many themes:
- Racism, because Othello is not accepted by the society due to the colour of his
skin and his different culture;
- The power of words, for example the words used by Iago to manipulate Othello;
- Jealousy, because this is the reason why Othello killed his wife;
- The relationship between masters and servants.

Style
- Iago’s style is the prose one: it’s intellectual, cynical, full of litotes and linked to
reasons;
- Othello’s style is the musical poetry one: it has an elevated tone, it’s full of
hyperbole and linked to feelings.

The dramatic tension is always present during the whole story. It starts when Iago
reveals his plot to have Cassio dismissed. Shakespeare prolongs the tension even after
Desdemona’s death; in fact, he delays the discovery of Iago’s plot when Othello shows
the evidence of the betrayal (the handkerchief) and Emilya refuses to believe him. In the
end, Iago directs the tension throughout.

There also could be a comparison between Juliet and Desdemona: over the time, their
love grows but there’s a progression that goes from love to death too.