Drama essay

“Othello” by William Shakespeare is one of the works created by the great artist. This literary work has an extremely tragic ending that fully reveals the drama of the main characters, raising the theme of vanity, hypocrisy, plainness, love and treachery. Obviously, this work and its ending emphasize the talent and great skills of Shakespeare as a writer. Nevertheless, in order to make the play less dark and tragic I would make the ending of “Othello” more optimistic, though, I am conscious that such a change would lead to the profound change of the entire work that is inevitable since the different outcome implies the different complications.

In order to make the ending of the play more optimistic, it is necessary to leave all the positive characters alive while the negative characters, namely Iago should be punished severely. Briefly speaking, I suggest a kind of happy end, which though would be more suitable for aHollywoodblockbuster than for a Shakespearean tragedy. Nonetheless, I would suggest the ending in which Othello, instead of murdering his innocent wife, Desdemona, exposes the deception and realizes the extent to which Iago is treacherous and hypocrite person before he commits the terrible mistake that eventually leads him to a tragic end. As a result, instead of killing his wife and committing suicide, Othello releases his rage and send him in prison for stabbing Roderigo. As for his wife, he is reassured in her love and innocence and together they rest to live as a happy family, while Cassio makes a successful career and becomes a friend of the family of Othello and Desdemona.

Obviously, such a happy ending implies considerable changes that have to be done throughout the play. For instance, as the main reason for the terrible mistake Othello had made was the handkerchief which he assumed Desdemona gave to Cassio than, taking into consideration the new ending, it would be logical that Othello reveals the true about the handkerchief before he commits the crime. This means that Emilia could have warned Othello that it was Iago that had stolen the handkerchief. To make this discovery more natural, it is necessary to present Emilia as an extremely honest person for whom stealing is the terrible sin or even crime. In such a situation, it would be quite logical that she tells Othello as a man and a husband of Desdemona about such actions from the part of Iago.

At the same time, the new ending and such development of the plot inevitably leads to the change of the personality of Othello. He needs to become more suspicious, attentive, less affectionate and emotional but more rational and logical so that he could clearly and objectively view the situation and analyze the behavior of Desdemona and his environment, including Iago and Cassio. Being more rational and less emotional, Othello can acquire certain traits of character and model ofoHoHo

 behavior of Hamlet, another famous character created by Shakespeare. What is meant here is the fact that Othello, on revealing the schemes of Iago, could pretend that he totally believes him, even though Othello may be viewed as a silly person. Playing such a role of a plain and unintelligent man, Othello can fully reveal the schemes of Iago and his treacherous nature and create a kind of trap for the schemer. For instance, he can pretend that he is so stupid that the handkerchief is not a sufficient proof but he needs some more precious thing that Desdemona could present to Cassio, such as some diamond or bracelet. Othello should intentionally mention this thing while talking to Iago making him wanting to steal it and as he attempts to steal this bracelet Othello catches him and than publicly accuses in the crime he committed and the legal process may also reveal another crime ”“ the murder of Roderigo.

However, the changes of the ending leading to the changes of the entire plot of the play inevitably affect the theme of the entire literary work. First of all, the play would not be as tragic as it originally was. Secondly, instead of the theme of jealousy which eventually led to the tragic end, the play would be focused on the intelligence and resourcefulness of the main character. Moreover, instead of a disastrous power of treachery and lie, the central theme of the play would reveal the power of love ”˜armed’ with rationalism and logic which could defeat all the schemers. Overall, the new ending refers to the eternal theme of the victory of good over evil that is quite different from the Shakespearean ending of the play.

Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that the efforts I made to change somehow the tragic ending of the play led to the necessity to considerably redo the entire play. Moreover, the change of the ending inevitably leads not only to the change of some points of the plot but also to the entire change of major themes of this literary work. This means that “Othello” is a skillfully written play when all events, actions, and words of the characters are closely interlinked and lead to the ending Shakespeare chose for this play.