Othello

Reading the end of this tonight just about made me cry.  Maybe because it's late and I'm tired, or maybe because Shakespeare's tragedies are, well, tragic.  And beyond that, timeless.  Part of me feels bad for Othello; his wife's father didn't exactly approve of him in the beginning, and he probably was always unwelcome, maybe even used.  I can only imagine how awful it would be to constantly have that thought in the back of your mind, then start believing your spouse was cheating on you.  If it were me I would probably feel worthless.   This thought brewing in the back of his mind was probably what made Othello turn into a loose cannon.  On top of that, it was a close friend who told him about the cheating.  If one of my girlfriends was confronting me about news like that,  I would believe her above my boyfriend because why would she have any motive to lie?  Either way- I would probably go crazy dwelling on it and feel like I had no one.  

Many of Shakespeare's plays rely on miscommunication and misunderstanding as the basis of the tragedy.  It's what separates us from animals.  Because we have a conscious and an imagination, it seems almost easy to go mad.  Shakespeare uses this notion to truly grab his audience.  We get so angry with the antagonist and feel such sorrow for the protagonists.  My getting emotional at the end of this play proves Shakespeare's timelessness.  Or that I'm a softy.