A Comparison Essay On Romeo And Juliet Vs. Othello

Romeo And Juliet vs. Othello Comparison Essay

Romeo and Juliet is one of the many plays written by William Shakespeare. The play is a tragedy about two star-crossed young lovers whose deaths eventually reconciled their feuding families. Romeo, one of the main characters is a Montague and Juliet the other main character is a Capulet. The Montagues and Capulets are two enemy families from Verona whos rivalry play a major role in the development of the plot. Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time in a meeting held at a masquerade ball at Juliet’s house to familiarize Juliet to Paris, a young attractive bachelor seeking her hand in marriage (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 2010). It is love at first site when they (Romeo and Juliet) both lay eyes on each other. This newly found love continues even after they discover that they both are part of rival families. With the awareness of the impending marriage between Juliet and Paris, they arrange a hasty, but genuine marriage, which takes place at Friar Laurence’s house (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 2010). The marriage is a top secret between Romeo friends Friar Laurence and Mercutio, and Juliet’s nurse. However, the marriage is quickly dampened when prince of Verona banishes Romeo from Verona after killing Tybalt Capulet (cousin to Juliet) in a dispute that involved Benvolio Montague and left Mercutio dead. As Paris works hard to wed Juliet, Friar Laurence devises plans to unite Juliet and Romeo again. He gives her a herbal concoction that makes her appear dead for 42 hours (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 2010). These hours coincides with her wedding day morning. She takes the concoction and looking dead the next morning she is taken to the Capulet’s tomb. Romeo is supposed to meet her there when she awakes but unfortunately, he learns about the death before, he is learns about the plan. He buys some poison and heads to Juliet’s grave where he finds Paris, kills him and breaks into the tomb and drinks the poison just beside Juliet’s body (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 2010). Juliet wakes up just in time to find him dead. She kisses him and takes her own life using a dagger. The story moves the two families and becomes the source of agreement to end their feud. 

Othello is also a drama written by William shakes spear. Othello the drama’s vain leading actor is a man of color who wins Desdemona heart with his rollicking stories of adventure and battle, much to her father’s dismay and the Venetian court that they are a part of (Shakespeare, Othello, 2003). Othello is a soldier, ill at ease with circumstance and public pomp. The plot of the play paces up swiftly when Iago, Othello’s subordinate, vows vengeance because Othello promoted Cassio to the lieutenant position instead of him. A series of intrigues follows, in which Iago gradually convinces Othello of Desdemona’s affair with Cassio. Othello’s incapacity to relate to individuals makes his judgment on characters poor and highly vulnerable to the callous Iago’s machinations. Oblivious to Iago’s scheming as well as his lieutenant‘s and wife’s translucent innocence, Othello is an eventual victim of his own implacable ignorance and naivety. The ultimate decree upon Othello’s character, notwithstanding what he alleges in his ending speech, is that he neither loved "wisely” nor "too well” (Shakespeare, Othello, 2003).

Both plays, Romeo and Juliet and Othello have an interesting parallel between their plots. At first glimpse, the plays seem different. Romeo and Juliet revolve around two lovers who cannot be together due to politics. Othello on the other hand, revolve around rage and jealousy planted in Othello’s mind by one conniving character, Iago (Walen, 2007). Conversely, there are warped similarities. For instance, in Romeo and Juliet, both couples lose life in the end because of a miscommunication. Romeo takes his life because he trusts that Juliet is dead and Juliet kills herself after realizing that Romeo is dead (Hager, 1999). On the other hand, Othello takes Desdemona‘s life because he trusts that she has been having an affair with Cassio behind his back. He later kills himself after realizing that he had been misled (Walen, 2007). Romeo and Juliet is footed on true love because even death did not separate the two lovers while Othello is footed on jealousy and how it can rip apart two lovers.
In Romeo and Juliet, as well as in Othello, a woman readily does the unexpected and marries someone of an unlike standard. Juliet marries the son (Romeo) of a rival family something that many will agree is beyond the social norm and in Othello; Desdemona marries a man (Othello) from a different race. Othello and Desdemona unite in love, in spite of their cultural and racial difference. They are bound together by their mutual affection for adventure, which stands as the shaft that propels their courage to stand up against the society (Walen, 2007). The same does not appear in Romeo and Juliet. Their love has no unifying factor such as standing up against society. As matter of factor, the play revolves around a secret love revealed only when both are dead (Hager, 1999). In Othello, Iago is presented as the vice and is clearly seen. In Romeo and Juliet, the driving force of the vice is veiled, behind the undercurrent of unreasonable abhorrence between the two families (Montagues and Capulets). The violence in Romeo and Juliet seems more pointless compared to the one in Othello.
Friendship is one of the most important and intrinsically complex of human relationships. When probing friendships between Romeo and Juliet and Othello, and upon a closer examination of both plays it is apparent that neither Desdemona nor Juliet have friendship equivalent to that of their male counter parts. The families of both women have secluded them from such relationships and cramped them to the life’s domestic spheres. In Romeo and Juliet, her nurse and her mother are the only Juliet's companions and while Juliet and her nurse appear to be closely connected, they are not real friends. Her "friends" appear more maternal than familiar. Her mother seems somewhat distanced from her but still shares a loving relationship with her (Hager, 1999). Although Juliet and her nurse are much closer, there is no perplexity about her class, there exists knowledge that she is a servant. This is proven when she comments; "Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nurs'd" of Juliet (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 2010).
     In Othello Desdemona too is constrained in her companions. When Desdemona and Othello marry, Desdemona has only one friend in the name of Emilia, her servant who is Iago’s wife (Walen, 2007). As in the case of Juliet and her nurse, the separation by class roles between Desdemona and Emilia never seems to be forgotten. In Act IV, Scene III Emilia fulfills her roles as the lady's maid when she unpins Desdemona's garments, however despite this they are capable of engaging in frank dialogue regarding the issue of infidelity in the same scene (Shakespeare, Othello, 2003). The isolation of the two women is similar, but slightly dissimilar for each. Juliet’s relationships with her mother and nurse are life-long and reliable, although they seem more like a parent-child relationship. Desdemona has only Emilia. She remains loyal to her despite Iago’s machinations and despite the disparity in their stations; they seem to enjoy a companionship (Walen, 2007). It is also interesting to note that, the most stable relationships are between women and their servants in both Romeo and Juliet and Othello.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is possible to infer this as a warning in opposition to the participation of men in domestic spheres but it would be impossible to attest this without studying other plays. However, it is evidently the exceptionally secluded lives of both Juliet and Desdemona, until the advent of a their selected husbands, that lead to their premature deaths. From this, we can find a warning, for maybe if the two characters had been permitted to explore more of life and the world they wouldn’t have plunged so deep, fast and hard in love with such devastating consequences.
References
Hager, A. (1999). Understanding Romeo and Juliet: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources and Hitorical Documents. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Shakespeare, W. (2003). Othello. Saddleback Educational Publ .
Shakespeare, W. ( 2010). Romeo and Juliet. Cricket House Books LLC.
Walen, D. A. (2007). Unpinning Desdemona. Shakespeare Quarterly , 58 (4), pp. 487-508.