Othello Imagery of Heaven and Hell

Shadrach Ogbomo

Ms. Boyce

ENG3U1-03

Friday, October 27th, 2017

Othello: Imagery of Heaven and Hell

The imagery of heaven and hell in Shakespeare play Othello is predominant. The use of heaven and hell imagery is significant in conveying meaning to help establish the purpose for the use of heaven and hell imagery and to reinforce the fight between good and evil. The use of heaven and hell imagery shows emphasis on how the actions one chooses to take depict the person they are. The Imagery of heaven is suggested to be a good place to be or a source of help and comfort for those who chose to call on it. Heaven imagery shows the life that most Elizabethans tried to live by. The imagery of hell in the play shows a lifestyle that is not healthy or beneficial. Those that are upset towards certain conditions use hell imagery; they behave in a hellish manner. Desdemona displays the imagery of heaven; she puts on heavenly manners that she can be referred to as a Mother Mary. Iago, on the other hand, is a person who is a wolf in sheep clothing, he comes as a good person but the intent of his heart is wicked. Othello is a different case from the two; he is between the fight of his instincts whether to choose good or evil. Images of heaven show the life we strive to reach, images of hell depict the forces that keep us from reaching the life that we long for in the end. That suggests that we must try to trust our instincts and strive to do good to create a healthy life.

The imagery of heaven is used to show the life that majority of the people enjoy to live by to be able to achieve a healthy and good life.  That even at the point of death you will leave the earth with a happy heart. Living a heavenly lifestyle is not easy to reach. Your faith may be tempted and tested, but you need to take strong hold to your beliefs. “By heaven, you do me wrong // No as I am Christian/ If to preserve this vessel for my lord/From any other foul unlawful touch.” 4.2.81-85. Desdemona is clear when she says that she is a Christian and that her body is preserved for her husband only. She is demonstrating the lifestyle of a person with a knowledge of the bible that commenting adultery is found as a great sin. She stays firm in her beliefs even though Othello her husband is testing and trying her, she stands strong in her belief that preserving yourself for your spouse is right. The imagery of heaven also shows that in order to live a healthy life, you must know that a heaven is a place of purity, forgiveness, and a place to intercede on behalf of others regardless of what they have done to you. “Heaven keep the monsters from Othello’s Mind.” 3.4.55. Calling on heaven can bring a sense of comfort knowing that you’ve done what you can. Othello has been treating Desdemona his new wife wrongly, but Desdemona still looks at Othello as her husband and can sense that Othello’s mine set is not in its place of origin. She has tried to talk to him but notices that she cannot reach to Othello herself, so she calls on higher powers to help speak with Othello to return him to his normal self. Desdemona can now be at rest knowing that her help is coming from above. Heaven is a place for those who try to seek the truth and they must be truthful themselves. “This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven/And fiends will snatch it.” 5.2.288-289. Othello has just found out that Desdemona is innocent and faultless; he is also aware that his actions have caused him to fall from his race to achieving a healthy life. He is now seeking for forgiveness because the choice that had no evidential proof. It is now that Othello sees that what he has done is a hellish action. He did not only ruin his heavenly race toward a godly lifestyle, but he lost his wife as well and his supposed final destination is hell, where he will be torn into pieces. The Imagery of heaven shows that it is a way of life that is tried the most. It is a journey for the strong in mind, heart, and action.