Real Men Cry!

Up until yesterday, I wondered about the emotions of the characters in Othello, who seemingly were not affected emotionally by death. During Act 5 of the play, death after death occurs; however while I read it did not seem like anyone was emotionally affected, as humans usually are saddened by the death of friends and family. Now, this could have been because I was so preoccupied with making sure I understood the dialogue that I could not focus on other aspects; even if that was the case, I never sensed any human emotion from the characters who were losing friends and family at a very fast rate! The language of the play did make it difficult for me to immerse myself in the work, as I am usually able to do when reading works written in the vernacular.
Yesterday, though, I witnessed what I expected to be the emotions of the characters, though not clearly portrayed to me in the written play. I thought the clip of the movie we watched really helped to humanize the characters, especially Othello. The solemn music represented the sadness of the event that was about to happen; the dim lighting emphasized evil of the actions that were not only about to take place, but had been taking place throughout the play; and most importantly the emotional state of Othello showed how truly human he was. While reading the play, I could not understand if Othello was sad about what he would do(I assumed he was, but could not be sure) , if he realized how he would feel, or if he even realized the consequences of his actions. Although this is just one interpretation of the play, Othello was clearly deeply saddened by what he would do, and I think that he realized that there would be consequences; yet, he felt that killing his wife was a necessary evil. Perhaps Shakespeare wanted to give freedom to the directors to choose the exact emotions of the actors; or, perhaps, he was illustrating the importance of emotional strength so often associated with men (how often do you see your dad or brothers cry?). Seeing one interpretation of this film allowed me to relate with the characters much better than just reading the play, and allowed me to go beyond just the written words.