"O" Mirrors Othello

           “O” brings Shakespeare into the 21^st century. This movie is based on the dramatic tragedy known as Othello. But unlike most teen spin offs of Shakespeare’s plays, I find this movie to be almost identical.

            The biggest difference between the movie and the play is the setting. No longer is the scene of Venice and Cyprus but instead a southern boarding school, and the Turkish war has been replaced by a basketball court. With the changes in setting come changes in language. To modernize the play, profanity and slang are very dominant. And for the soundtrack, the melody of rap plays as Hugo plans his evil scheme.

            Symbols that are present in both play and movie are the handkerchief and the Willow. The handkerchief has identical symbolic meaning in the play and the movie. The handkerchief symbolizes different things to different characters. Since the handkerchief was the first gift Desi received from Odin, she keeps it about her constantly as a symbol of Odin’s love. Hugo manipulates the handkerchief so that Odin comes to see it as a symbol of Desi’s faith and chastity. By taking possession of it, he is able to convert it into evidence of her infidelity. The handkerchief originally was in the possession of Odin’s mother and is supposed to stay in the family, which represents him making her apart of the family and of their  trust. The Willow is represented differently but does maintain the same meaning for Desi in the play and the movie. In the play as Desdemona prepares for bed in Act V, she sings a song about a woman who is betrayed by her lover. She was taught the song by her mother’s maid, Barbary, who suffered a misfortune similar to that of the woman in the song; she even died singing Willow. The song’s lyrics suggest that both men and women are unfaithful to one another. To Desdemona, the song seems to represent her alienation from Othello’s affections. In the movie, Willows is the hotel that Odin and Desi spend a romantic night. During the night, Odin becomes forceful to Desi and in this moment in the relationship Desi feels disconnected from Odin and questions their relationship.

            Themes such as betrayal, infidelity, love, passion, romance, death and manipulation are all problems that even today’s world is faced with. Therefore these modernized versions are often very applicable and relatable to our lives when the setting and cultural restraints of the Renaissances era are removed.