What is the role of Eurydice? Is her presence essential to the ...

[DelorasTo]

What is the role of Eurydice? Is her presence essential to the story? Whatwould be the effect of removing her from the drama?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What is Othellos position in society? How is he regarded by those whoknow him? By his own words, when we first meet him in Scene ii, what traits of character does he manifest?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[wshriver]

Answer to Question 1

• Eurydices role in the play is, to say the least, an extremely limited one. She makes her only appearance very near the end of the play, to hear the messengers account of the deaths of Antigone and Haemon; she then returns without a word to the palace, where she takes her own life, cursing her husband with her dying breath. Whether her presence is essential is debatable. The messengers account could have been just as easily delivered to the chorus, and Creon is already destroyed with grief and guilt before being told of his wifes bitter suicide. Even if not strictly essential, however, her presence in the drama adds another measure of pity and terror, a further twist of the knife in Creons heart, a final blow in the fulfillment of the tragic fate that he has brought upon himself by his willfulness and defiance of the gods.

Answer to Question 2

• Othello is the general of the Venetian army; it is all the more remarkable an achievement, given his status as a foreigner. He is highly esteemed by all (save Iago and Roderigo), including the Duke, who calls him Valiant Othello, and even Brabantio, about whom Othello says, Her father loved me. When we first meet him, we see a man of great pride, dignity, noble bearing, and calmness of temperament, who is nonetheless disinclined to boast of his merits.