Othello, the Moor of Venice: Psychological Approach

William Shakespe atomic number 18s drama, Othello, the moor of Venice, may be interpreted in both(prenominal) a Freudian and Jungian way within the psychological critical review of literature. There three main characters in the story Othello, the Moor in the service of the Venetian state, his wife Desdemona, and Othellos wicked consideration Iago.From the Freudian point of view, both male characters, Othello ( ensure) and Iago (retainer) have the developed id (the part of the piece mind that seeks pleasure). At the same time, they suffer from a weak self (the part of the mind that controls the ids impulses, letting them go a normal way). The self stinker non stand between the id and the superego (the part of the mind that represses the ids impulses), so the mens instincts are bare and cause them into trouble. Othello kills Desdemona and himself and Iago also murders his wife Emilia and is a few steps from being tortured severely.Iagos superego represses his versed desires as inappropriate for society. His id does not agree with it and is released through betrayal, thi any and lie. completely these in the soula of Iago become a fake turn on intercourse. dim in his soul Iago treats sex as a bad and pitch-dark thing. His code of behavior and the words roughly women make his point clear.For Iago the almost pleasant thing is to talk badly somewhat Desdemona and his own wife. gum olibanum the servant acts as a ready-made sadist, a pillowcase who finds joyfulness and satisfaction only when he makes other people unhappy. likewise he is a piece who is not taught to forgive. His place in life is cut-rate and subordinate so Iago feels good when he oppresses and manipulates the others like Roderigo. It is curious to require closer at the personages skin-color. Good pilot is black and bad servant is white. It creates a very interesting effect so far as Iagos black soul matches Othellos black skin and this makes them equal.From the Freudian point o f view, sexual motives penetrate every through the text. To begin with, sex may be the motivation for Iago to hate his master so much. Othello did not treat Iago as a candidate for the lieutenants position. Iago speaks about his scandalise feelings but that seems a bit unnatural as the man mentions this understanding only a few times.The reader can not then make the idea of what in Othello made Iago so wild. wholeness may even suggest that Iago and Othello are latent homosexuals and Iagos plague for Othello is the perverted form of love. There are some evidences throughout the convey of both master and servant paying attention to women, especially on Iagos side. But is not it a shift of his desire for the Moor onto the female characters if to scan the play through the Freudian lens?The rally female character of the play is Desdemona. She steps out as a victim of 2 suspected in homosexuality males, Othello and Iago. First, let us recall under what circumstances she married to the Moor. It was against Brabantios (Desdemonas father) will. The little girl left home in the night with Othello. He was definitely onetime(a) than Desdemona and seemed to resemble a father to her in age and manners.This is a case of Electras complex, when a female hates her own father and wants to hurt him. Brabantio died of heartache because she married to Othello. Desdemona wanted to find the fathers twin in Othello and killed his good feelings though being unaware of it till the very end. Besides killing her own daddy Desdemona subconsciously wanted to die herself because she mat guilty for hating Brabantio and wishing him die.Othellos attitude to the wife and his mad jealousy short fit into the theory of Oedipus complex, when a man sees his mother in every woman he meets in life. The Moor often behaves as a child, for example when he speaks about his noble parents and high qualities of a spend and does not care to look modest. Like a child he is searching for a acquain tanceship and suspects that other people want to hurt him. To say more, he prefers to socialize with men mostly, because women make him uncomfort adequate.In Desdemona he also wanted to find the substitute for his mother. It is intentionally that he tells Desdemona about the handkerchief his mother had left him. To go further, the story takes place on the island and the personages travel to Cyprus on board of the ship. According to Freudian theory, ship stands for a female symbol and the water usually goes with birth, the female principle, the maternal, the womb, and the death wish. Thus, getting into the storm, the personages are subjects for dying. In addition, Othello wants to join his own mother through the expedition through the symbol of the ship.According to Jungian theories, the conflicts between the personages may be interpreted as the conflicts between the general apparel of a person to neglect or cynically evaluate the surroundings and the opposite habit to see the wor ld through rose-coloured glasses. Othello and Iago act as if they are two halves of a human soul, one is dark and the opposite is light. Iago is the evil creature, who denies all the romantic things around him, whereas Othello represents the type who tries to idealize the reality.Yet you can not say that Iago and Othello are undeniably different, because all through the play they are communicating and spend a lot of time together. The possible reason is that they support and accomplish each other in the world vision. For example, Iago takes from his master the understanding of what should be right like friendship or curiosity with a womans beauty. It is not that the man is not able to see that Desdemona is beautiful or that Othello is a brave soldier. The wicked servant just could not believe that a beautiful woman can be loyal to her husband or Cassio, the lieutenant, is a genuine friend to Othello and Desdemona. On the opposite, Othello easily believed in Iagos roorbacking. It sh ows only that the Moor as an ideal type standing very close to the devil type of Iago.To put it in a nut-shell, from the psychological point of view the master and the servant tensely link together, and Iago may be treated as the repressed side of Othellos consciousness. Desdemona does not let them join and that is why she is cold in the end of the play.