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Brittni Shoup-Owens

Professor Berry

ENG 332

2 October 2017

Themes in Othello

William Shakespeare is a playwright and poet, born in 1564. He is considered one of the

most famous writers in the history of literature, and academics across the world still study his

works today. Shakespeares most popular works include: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet,

and Othello. These plays have two things in common: they are tragedies and they all entail

strong themes. Most importantly, this paper will discuss the themes in Othello, and will walk you

through the Prezi presentation.

When generating an idea for this assignment, I really wanted to do something that would

touch on the multiple topics discussed throughout Othello. I thought discussing the various

themes would be the perfect way to do that. Although there are many themes one may find while

reading this play, I have narrowed it down to four themes: prejudice, manipulation, jealousy, and

love. These themes are recurring, strong, bold, uncomfortable, and heavily evident throughout

the whole entire play.

The themes, as well as the quotes in the play, were all chosen at random. There were a

few that I found extremely blunt in relation to the theme, but there were also a few that might

have needed more digging. After the slide with the theme, the next slides found shows

characters that have been directly impacted by this theme. A lot of the characters are associated

with each theme, but there are some that arent. Moving on, you will find that there are quotes

pulled from the play, and after each quote, there is a Thematic Relation. I decided to put the
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thematic relation for audiences who may not see how this specific theme is relevant to the play.

Finally, you will find my sources tab.

Othello has a lot of themes pertinent to society. These themes include: prejudice,

manipulation, jealousy, and love. Othello is a great play when it comes to discussing these

themes and the interpretations for them are vast and various. However, they hold themselves

relevant in Shakespeares society and todays society.

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Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. Othello, Folger

Shakespeare Library, www.folgerdigitaltexts.org/html/Oth.html#line-3.3.0.