Engaged Imagery of Othello The intricate imagery that punctuates the language of the characters in Shakespeare's play Othello deserves our detailed consideration in this article. It has significant meaning and almost expresses a life of its own. The images of the work often reflect the fortunes of the protagonist. As the Moro's status declines, the quality of the images in the work declines. In The Riverside Shakespeare Frank Kermode explains the relationship between imagery and Othello's jealousy: It is very important to see that Othello's self-esteem - "one not easily jealous, but, being agitated, / Perplexed to the extreme" (V.ii .345 -46) – is, as Bradley says, “perfectly right” and perfectly consistent with the release of an unsuspected coarseness of language and images under the shock of discovering infidelity in the loved one. The peculiar pain of sexual jealousy is deeply connected with the excrementitious aspect of the sexual organs, and the emotion of the betrayal of a supremely intimate trust is involved with painful associations of dirtiness and animality. (1200) A surprising variety of injuries to animals occur during the show, similar to those in a zoo. Kenneth Muir, in the Introduction to William Shakespeare: Othello, explains Othello's conversion through his increased use of animal imagery: Those who have written about the play's imagery have shown how the hold Iago has on Othello is illustrated by the language of Shakespeare. puts it in your mouth. Both characters use a lot of animal imagery and it is interesting to note their distribution. Iago's is found above all in the first three acts of the play: he mentions, for example, the donkey, the paws, the flies, the ram, the hen, the guinea fowl, the baboon, the wild cat, the snipe, the goats, monkeys, monsters and wolves. Othello, on the other hand, who makes no use of animal imagery in the first two Acts of the play, catches Iago's trick in Acts III and IV. Both characters' fondness for mentioning repugnant animals and insects is one way Shakespeare shows his subordinate's corruption of the Moor's mind. (21-22)How strong is the power of the images in this drama? Is it more powerful than the chorus of ancient Greek tragedy? H. S. Wilson in his book of literary criticism, On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, discusses the influence of the play's imagery: It has indeed been suggested that the logic of the events in the play and Othello's relation to them implies Othello's damnation , and that the implication is reiterated with particular force in the images.