Othello is one of Shakespeare's tragedies; originally written as a play and performed before an Elizabethan audience. Since then, Othello and many of Shakespeare's other plays have been performed before diverse audiences and have been adapted into opera, ballet, film and television productions. Othello has survived the centuries to the present day; and continues to fascinate and remain relevant to a modern audience; Othello is certainly a timeless classical work of art. “The object of tragic imitation is men in action.” As Aristotle states in his work Poetics. Othello is made up of men in action, in more than one sense; Othello (titular character and protagonist), Iago and Cassio are "men of action" and furthermore, throughout the play we can observe men and women fighting nothing less than life itself. The work deals with various themes and issues, however, this essay will focus on jealousy and race. Othello is considered one of the infamous (if not the most important) literary works focusing on jealousy and the consequences it entails. In the play, besides Othello, several characters are victims of jealousy and are subjected to different forms, for example, sexual suspicion, lust, and even promotion disputes. It can be said that jealousy is the essence of the “tragedy” that takes place in Othello. Shakespeare uses the literary technique of dramatic and tragic irony in these lines spoken by Iago, addressing Othello: “O beware, my lord, of jealousy! He is the green-eyed monster who mocks the flesh on which he feeds…” , It is ironic because although on the surface Iago plays an advisory role against jealousy, he actually intends to make Othello lean further towards it. The audience is aware of Iago's plots and plans, although Othello is not... the center of the card... he uses motifs in the "black hawk" that represent O. Several times we have a shot of the hawk and a shot of O following. Hugo's caging of the hawk mascot foreshadows Hugo's entrapment of O's heart and soul. At the end, Hugo's voiceover is repeated and added to: "But a hawk doesn't fit in with normal birds, he can't fit in..." Hugo essentially describes O's situation at school, with him as the black hawk , dark and proud. but in an all-white school that is hesitant to treat him the same. Shakespeare and Nelson both used appropriate techniques to highlight to their respective audiences the issues of jealousy and race, which are still present in society and will continue to be, as long as humans are humans. Works Cited Othello, Act I, Scene I Lines 81 - 94Othello, Act I Scene III Lines 288 - 290 DVD, Dir. Tim Blake Nelson. Entertainment at Lions Gate, 2001