Othello Comparison

Essay by cdrew April 2004

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Othello Comparison

Shakespeare's "Othello" was a wonderful play that can be compared closely to the movie "O". Although "O" is set in the twenty-first century, it has many similarities to "Othello", including relations to the character's names. The order of events that take place in both the movie and the play are almost exactly alike, from the meeting between Desi (Desdemona), her father and Oden (Othello), all the way to Oden killing himself. Hugo also plays a very close part to Iago from the play. He plots to make Oden think that Desi is cheating on him and he succeeds in that. He gets the handkerchief from his girlfriend, Emily (Emilia), and gets Oden to agree to killing both Desi and Michael (Cassio).

In the play, Iago has to dirty his hands near the end by killing Rodrigo because Rodrigo didn't succeed in killing Cassio. The movie reenacts this because Roger doesn't complete the task of making it look like Michael killed himself, so Hugo has to kill Roger and make it seem as if he saved Michael.

The movie of course is set in earlier times, so it uses guns while the play uses knives. However, Desi is killed the same way that Desdemona was, which is by being strangled to death. These two are even exact to the point that Emily was killed by Hugo.

This movie does a wonderful job of portraying "Othello" in a more recent setting and helping many understand Shakespeare's play a little better. AS most movies, there are a few differences, but the entirety of the stories compare directly, showing that these things can happen, no matter what time period it may be.