The Importance of Love and Respect
In the year 1603, William Shakespeare wrote Othello. More than three hundred years later, in 1958, Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart. The main characters of each literary piece share many similarities, despite coming from such different times in history. Othello of Shakespeare’s Othello and Okonkwo of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart explore all aspects of the human personality.
The similarities between the two men are very prominent. Pride is a tragic flaw in both Shakespeare’s Othello and Achebe’s Okonkwo. Likewise, both characters are African-American, subjecting them to racial discrimination and categorization. Othello and Okonkwo are easily angered and often blow up entirely. This gives them a unique style of leading, especially in battle, where they are both great …show more content…
The character of Othello is loved by nearly everyone, but not really respected. His judgment is questioned and people are very disrespectful toward him at times because of his race and his relationship with Desdemona; the lack of respect from Iago ultimately led to Othello’s downfall. On the other hand, Okonkwo is respected and even feared throughout his village, but he is not loved. When he tries to get his people to battle the white men at the end of the novel, they do not follow him, but they also do not stop him; this is the prime example of the lack of love and excess of fear and respect toward the character. These two feelings, and the lack thereof, speak volumes to the nature of society. There is a fine line between love and respect that people walk in everyday life. Too much or too little of one or the other creates a problem, as we see in both of these literary works. The years between the publications of these two works goes to prove that this is a universal struggle that has been going on for hundreds of years, not just a modern
In the year 1603, William Shakespeare wrote Othello. More than three hundred years later, in 1958, Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart. The main characters of each literary piece share many similarities, despite coming from such different times in history. Othello of Shakespeare’s Othello and Okonkwo of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart explore all aspects of the human personality.
The similarities between the two men are very prominent. Pride is a tragic flaw in both Shakespeare’s Othello and Achebe’s Okonkwo. Likewise, both characters are African-American, subjecting them to racial discrimination and categorization. Othello and Okonkwo are easily angered and often blow up entirely. This gives them a unique style of leading, especially in battle, where they are both great …show more content…
The character of Othello is loved by nearly everyone, but not really respected. His judgment is questioned and people are very disrespectful toward him at times because of his race and his relationship with Desdemona; the lack of respect from Iago ultimately led to Othello’s downfall. On the other hand, Okonkwo is respected and even feared throughout his village, but he is not loved. When he tries to get his people to battle the white men at the end of the novel, they do not follow him, but they also do not stop him; this is the prime example of the lack of love and excess of fear and respect toward the character. These two feelings, and the lack thereof, speak volumes to the nature of society. There is a fine line between love and respect that people walk in everyday life. Too much or too little of one or the other creates a problem, as we see in both of these literary works. The years between the publications of these two works goes to prove that this is a universal struggle that has been going on for hundreds of years, not just a modern