Symbols In Othello

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“Othello” A Literary Analysis Little is known of Shakespeare’s life. According to the short biography written in The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature (Meyer, 2014, pp. 1145-1154), Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon on or about April 23rd, 1564. His father was an important person in the town. He held several town offices and married a woman from a prominent family. However, when Shakespeare was a teenager the financial situation of the family became problematic. There are no records of education, but it is assumed that he attended the Stratford grammar school. At the age of eighteen he moved out on his own and married a 26-year-old woman named Anne Hathaway. They had a daughter in 1583, and then twins, a boy and a girl, in …show more content…
A symbol is defined as a person, object, image, word, or event that evokes additional meaning that just it’s literal definition (Meyer, 2014). They add an underlying meaning to the story or provide additional information into what is going on. Some of the symbols used in the play “Othello” include the handkerchief, war, and the willow song to name of few of the many …show more content…
Setting is defined as the physical and social context in which the action in the story takes place. Setting can be a time, place, or social environment (Meyer, 2014). The settings in “Othello” include Venice and Cyprus. The play starts out in Venice, Italy. The main ethnicity of this land is white which makes Othello, the black moor, stand out among the other Venetians. Venice also happens to be renowned for its prostitutes (Holderness, 2010). When the English thought about Venice, the imagined it to be a city full of promiscuous women. This correlates with the plot hinging on Othello’s suspicions about his wife’s fidelity. Eventually the action moves to Cyprus when the Turkish people invade. Cyprus is an island sacred to Venus, the goddess of love (Bowerman, 2013). On the island of love is when all hell breaks loose and Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona has been cheating on him (Shakespeare, 1604). It is ironic that all of this fighting and death happens in the place known for it’s connection to love.

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