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Act One Scene 3 of William Shakespeare's Othello Essay

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Act One Scene 3 of William Shakespeare's Othello

Referring to the passage in page 155, I have analysed several points in conjunction to background knowledge, in attempt to answer the task set above. Initially, I feel that it is very important to relate to the character of Iago. As a character, Iago has the potential to be a man of extreme power but he does not have the tool that we refer to as money. All that he has is ambition; and he remains malcontent until he attains his aspirations. He pretends to be doing tasks but refrains from them, showing us a strong sense of corruption. The most important role that he plays is that of an extreme racist, words like "black ram", "moor", "thick-lipped", …show more content…

The 28 year old man, "four times seven years…", is not self critical. Iago has no restrictions on himself, backed up by "I never found a man that knew how to love himself…". The beginning of his speech, concentrates on the philosophical aspects of life, and that we are what we choose to be. Furthermore, we can understand from line 330 that Iago does not believe in love. "But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted…". This shows the contrast between him and Othello. Iago becomes very jealous of Othello because of his position in the Venetian Army. Iago feels that black men cannot rise above him because they are black. Iago frequently refers to Othello as the "Moor" and the "Black Ram", with these statements Iago is implying that Othello is worse than white people and because of his race he should not hold the position he does in the army. Out of this racism also extends the jealousy of Othello's wife, Desdemona. He is sexually attracted to her but that is not a real reason for hating Othello, his mind devises stories which he believes are true and thus making himself think that it is right to take revenge on Othello by intentions to overcome Desdemona via plans with Roderigo. Iago is also jealous of Othello's sexual power, as it was well known in those times that black

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