Othello has long been recognized as one of the most powerful of Shakespeare's tragedies. It is an intense drama of love, deception, jealousy and destruction. Desdemona's love for Othello, the Moor, transcends racial...Othello has long been recognized as one of the most powerful of Shakespeare's tragedies. It is an intense drama of love, deception, jealousy and destruction. Desdemona's love for Othello, the Moor, transcends racial prejudice, but the envious Iago conspires to destroy their lives. In its vivid rendering of racism, sexism, contested identities, and the savagery lurking within civilization, Othello is inarguably the most topical and accessible tragedy from Shakespeare's major phase as a dramatist. Productions on stage and screen regularly renew its power to engross, impress and trouble the imagination. A good adaptation can neither remain confined to the theatre stage nor abandon that intrinsic theatricality which beats in the heart of Shakespearean drama. Of different adaptations of Othello, the American director, Oliver Parker's is one of those which reconcile very well the theatrical drama with cinematic elements. This paper, based on Shakespeare's play, will make a brief analysis on Oliver Parker's film and then focus on a comparison between the characterizations of the evil character, Iago, in Shakespeare's play and in Oliver Parker's film.展开更多
文摘Othello has long been recognized as one of the most powerful of Shakespeare's tragedies. It is an intense drama of love, deception, jealousy and destruction. Desdemona's love for Othello, the Moor, transcends racial prejudice, but the envious Iago conspires to destroy their lives. In its vivid rendering of racism, sexism, contested identities, and the savagery lurking within civilization, Othello is inarguably the most topical and accessible tragedy from Shakespeare's major phase as a dramatist. Productions on stage and screen regularly renew its power to engross, impress and trouble the imagination. A good adaptation can neither remain confined to the theatre stage nor abandon that intrinsic theatricality which beats in the heart of Shakespearean drama. Of different adaptations of Othello, the American director, Oliver Parker's is one of those which reconcile very well the theatrical drama with cinematic elements. This paper, based on Shakespeare's play, will make a brief analysis on Oliver Parker's film and then focus on a comparison between the characterizations of the evil character, Iago, in Shakespeare's play and in Oliver Parker's film.