Theme Of Persuasion In Othello

An abundant amount of examples of persuasion are displayed inside William Shakespeare’s Othello and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”. As well as persuasion aspects, the diction, the time period in which each piece was written, and the relation of characters are also in common between the two pieces. The convincement and persuasion that goes on within a story and with the audience of a work can hold deep meaning. An author’s role to give the reader power of interpretation plays a huge role in the reader’s understanding of any work; each character’s dynamic characteristics and the ability to relate each character to one of another piece helps readers in gaining their own understanding of a piece. Othello takes place in Venice, where

Both the play and the poem were written within the same one hundred year time frame; although many factors of life change within one hundred years, styles of writing and speaking did not change significantly. By Marvell writing the poem in a vocabulary that is more easily understood by someone of the seventeenth century, interpretation by modern citizens varies, due to words being understood and thought of in different ways. Marvell’s style of writing used within “To His Coy Mistress” allows readers of the twenty-first century to interpret the poem in ways that make sense to them; the old English writing style leaves more room for readers to read between the lines. In lines five through seven, the speaker compares his mistress to the Indian Ganges, a sacred and holy river, and himself to the Humber, a river of everyday use that holds no spiritual significance (Marvell 5-7). By the speaker comparing the mistress to a river of importance to the Hindu culture, the reader can assume that his feelings for her are strong and spiritual. Shakespeare’s writing style within Othello is a style not often seen used by twenty-first-century authors. By the reader using their own background knowledge and interpretation, they may miss context clues and hints of irony that are presented throughout the play. Due

Iago in Othello can be compared to the speaker of “To His Coy Mistress” due to their similar thought processes, characteristics, and motives. Iago used manipulation of facts and mind-altering tactics in order to get to Othello. Iago also used the tactics of appealing to reason and appealing to emotion, as did the speaker. Iago kept providing facts, that were not all of the truth, to Othello in order to make Othello believe him. By putting ideas of Desdemona cheating on Othello with Cassio inside of Othello’s head, Othello started imagining situations and having hallucinations. The speaker used pathos, an appeal to emotion, more predominantly than he did an appeal to reason. Whether the speaker’s convincing techniques only be ones of sexual desires or ones of love, the lovers will lose at death both her “Beauty” and his “ecchoing song”, which is a male impulse embodying the mistress in preservable form (Halli 61). The speaker will never be able to get her back after death, and that scares him; Othello also felt the same fear when he thought he was losing Desdemona to Cassius. Othello’s naiveness and numerous doubts are comparable to the mistress because both are torn between what they believe and whom they love. Othello’s love for Desdemona is one that is not questioned. Although Othello loves Desdemona, his doubts of her loyalness lead him to be naive to