Language and Context: Othello and Keats

Shakespeare's Othello- the Moor of Venice, first performed in 1604 is a master tragedy embodying the traditional qualities of severity, magnitude and emotion as defined by Aristotle. It is in Shakespeare's characterization of central character Othello that Elizabethan context truly begins to infiltrate the play. Othello is initially portrayed as an infallible and legendary war hero, a general in the Venetian army. It is during Act Four Scene 1 that Elizabethan prejudice finally controls the course of Shakespeare pen. "How shall I murder her Iago?" is the point at which Othello begins to em…