Nov 22, 2008

Othello | The Use of Humor in Othello

Essay highlighting the conventional comedic elements in Othello, and how these elements appear as a precursor to the tragedy.

By the time Othello was produced, Elizabethan theater-goers were accustomed to the conventional elements of comedy and knew what to expect from a comic play: a story of love and courtship with some deceptive twist of plot, all worked out to a happy ending through good fortune and human ingenuity. But in Othello, comedy appears as a precursor to tragedy. It presented the audience with the expected comic conventions gone awry.

Although Othello is a tragedy, a miniature comedy is played out until Act II, scene i, where the reunion of Desdemona and Othello takes place....