Othello Act V Dynamic Characters

                A number of characters prove themselves to be dynamic characters in the fifth and final act of Shakespeare’s Othello, including Othello and Emilia. Othello is the first character in the act to reveal his dynamic nature by acting according to very evil impulses and murdering his wife, Desdemona. At the beginning of the novel, he is characterized as a very valiant, honorable, and respectable man who was able to remain calm and composed in stressful or treacherous situations, specifically in battle. As the play progresses, Othello exhibits these personality traits on many different occasions, including when charged by Brabantio of drugging his daughter and when handling the chaos of Cassio’s drunken rage in Act II. However, when the state of his emotions and heart were threatened by the news of Desdemona’s infidelity, he rapidly transformed into a man who did not resemble Othello in the slightest. He had angry fits of rage, threatened to murder Iago, had a couple of seizures, and resolved unabashedly to kill both Cassio and Desdemona. While Othello’s heartbreak at the thought of the infidelity of his wife is certainly understandable, the fact that he actually murders his wife with his bare hands in Act V despite her desperate and honest pleas of innocence is altogether inexcusable. At the beginning of the play, imagining the calm and collected Othello murdering the woman he was madly in love with would have been inconceivable; however, by strangling her despite her gentle protestations in Act V, Othello finally reveals that he has changed in a number of important ways as a result of the action of the play, therefore making him a dynamic character. Although his eventual shame ultimately causes him to kill himself, the fact remains that the novel’s action changed Othello in a number of significant ways.

                Despite Othello’s dramatic change of character of the course of the play, Emilia’s transformation as a dynamic character is the most potent in Act V. At the beginning of the play, Emilia was characterized as being incredibly shy and timid, and she was always accepting of her inferior role as Iago’s wife. Her unrelenting subservience to Iago was proven by the fact that she gave Iago Desdemona’s handkerchief in response to his request. However, Emilia’s entire personality changes entirely in Act V when she finally finds her voice and confronts her husband for all this evil actions. With immense bravery and boldness that would be unimaginable in the character of Emilia, she defies her husband’s orders to be quiet and states firmly that, “I will not charm my tongue, I am bound to speak” (Shakespeare, V, ii, 183) and also that “Good gentlemen, let me leave to speak. ‘Tis proper I obey him, but not now” (Shakespeare, Act V, ii, 194-195). Therefore, in this scene, Emilia proves that she is a dynamic character by changing in the sense that she found her independence and courage over the course of the play.