Theme Of Loyalty And Betrayal In Othello

Throughout Shakespeare 's plays he does a good job at blending multiple themes in his plays. This blend of multiple themes throughout Shakespeare 's plays keep his audience intrigued by portraying dramatized version of issue the audience might understand from real life issues. One common theme Shakespeare displays in his plays is the his usage of loyalty and betrayal. What I find interesting about Shakespeare 's use of loyalty and betrayal is what seems to always seems to happen to most the characters in his plays. In most of Shakespeare 's plays whether the character is trusting a loved one or a friend, or sneaking behind a family or friends back, the end result always seems the same. This result always seems to end in the downfall of the …show more content…
The two plays show two spectrum of main characters one being that Richard III is also the antagonist of the story, as he is the one doing most of the betrayal. While on the other hand Othello was never a bad guy just a man that was caught between loyalty between his own wife and a man he himself trust his life with being Iago. ”To entertain these fair well-spoken days, I am determinèd to prove a villain” (1.1.29-30) From the beginning of Richard III we know that Richard wants to be a villain by deceiving the people that are supposed to be closest to him. An interesting aspect I think that Shakespeare does different between these two plays when it comes to the use of loyalty and betrayal is who is on the receiving end of these actions. In Othello besides Desdemona and Othello, most relationships in the play are not family member relationships. “I fear no uncles dead. Nor none that live, I hope. An if they live, I hope I need not fear.” (3.1.149-151) As shown in this quote Richard seems to betray his own family more than anyone else even when they trust him. We continuously see this when ends up killing his mother, both brothers, nephews and more. I find it interesting that Shakespeare may be commenting on the fact that you may never be able to trust some people whether they are a loyal friend or someone that is blood related to you. To further add to the difference between the two plays use of this theme is that one play is a tragedy and the other is a historic play. I think in most historical plays it 's quite common that betrayal is usually used against family due to the constant power struggle between family members. While on the other end in a tragedy it feels much more tragic because we are watching someone who not necessarily a villain commit terrible crimes due trying honor his own loyalty to