The Legal Dimension Of Othello Written By Shakespeare

"Law and literature" which is known as a kind of inter-disciplinary study has made great development both in China and the world. The research process from early exploration to achieving the academic consciousness shows that the study of "law and literature" has a strong vitality. Today this study has had quite a completed and comprehensive system. With the clash of ideas and the discussion of theory, this study is expanded in greater scope and depth and it is predicted to continue in future.As one of the most important playwriters and poets in human civilizations, William Shakespeare belongs to the time of Renaissance.Shakespeare is synonymous with the term "greatest writer". Othello, one of the Four Great Tragedies, is the immortal masterpiece of Shakespeare. This tragedy tells a story that how a hero who is instigated to murder his innocent and loyal wife by a man full of turpitude degenerates into a criminal.This paper gives a new interpretation to Othello from the perspective of "law and literature". The nature of behave and mental motivation of major characters are further explored by means of law thinking so that the inner causes of characters’ conflicts and misunderstanding can be discussed more effectively. The dislocation in the tragedy is another main content of this paper. Through the view point of law, the process that how characters’relationship breaks up shall reveal itself clearly.The first chapter of this paper analyses the structure of the world of law in Othello. There are two main geography scenes in the play:Venice and Cyprus. The two place and the symbolic meaning of them are the vital components of the law world in Othello. Moving from Venice to Cyprus means the process of transition from order to chaos. The law is running well when it begins but it gets worse step by step.Along with the case that Othello murders his wife, the process contributes to one core question that whether the act of Othello is moral turpitude. A man who support the Venice law firmly at first turns into a cruel criminal at the end of the play. Although we can see the ghost of the former hero with his repentance and suicide, the felony murder he committed breaks the baseline of justice as well as morality. This is legally and morally unforgivable. The legal ethics is helpful to make readers realize this. The second chapter focuses on Iago, the most evil character in the play. This chapter reviews Iago’s act by introducing the criminal law theory of criminal motive, criminal purpose as well as criminal intent and then makes the judgment on the nature of his act.As the initiator of evil, Iago commits many horrible crimes.Meanwhile, the influence of his act is so depraved that innocent people die. The crime is the core of the criminal law which devotes itself to dealing with the constitution of offences. In the face of terrible crimes, the criminal law play a vital role on finding out the truth of the crime. To understand Iago’s personality and why he is so evil we must pay more attention to what he actually have done. The most direct and easiest route to ascertain his criminal act is using the criminal law.The third chapter tries to figure out the procedure that how Othello is entirely convinced of his wife’s guilt.In this procedure, Othello regard himself as the only judge but the "evidence" he relies on can not get legal support. The incompetent evidence, however, is confermed by the crazy husband. To analyse the misplaced belief of Othello makes us close to the procedural justice and impels us to introspect how the human bias and social pressure affects our decisions and causes the non-free of choices.The last chapter answers to the final question that why Othello abandons the faith of law and moves towards the path of destruction in the end. There is no doubt that the law has its limitations. Not only the lag nature,rigescent articles and the violence of power, but the misunderstanding and dissevering about love in the world prove it. Othello experiences this kind of misplacement. His only hope to release from this morass of despair lies on Desdemona’s love. Othello becomes a compeleted and real person more than a war machine only in the presence of Desdemona. But that is just his Achilles’heel which is used by Iago.His ideal uniting law and love in harmony can not be realized through being with Desdemona, so he chooses to abandon the law and destroies his love.