Типология мотива самоубийства в трагедии У. Шекспира «Отелло»

Abstract

The article analyses the character of Othello through the concepts of Otherness, wholeness, honesty, the Renaissance concept of Virtu and the idealistic worldview. We are apt to view these features in their unity as the bases of Othello’s suicide. Moreover, the same set of features predetermines the suicide of some other Shakespearean heroes such as Lucrece, Antony, Cleopatra, Romeo, Juliette, Cassius, Titinius, Marcus Brutus, Eros. The Renaissance mentality is heavily emphasized as the necessity to coordinate Christian ideology and ancient ideals. We see their contradictory influences incorporated in many literary works of that time, e.g. in the representation of suicide in tragedies.