Comparing Jealousy In Othello And Glaspell's Tri

In the play, Othello, jealousy and envy are prominent themes from the beginning to the end. As the play starts to unwind, you can see jealousy is the major cause of all the drama in the play. Jealousy or envy is a feeling of discontented or resentful longing by someone else’s possessions , qualities or luck. Iago becomes engulfed by jealousy and it causes him to corrupt Othello. They are two men that cause similar crimes but we sympathize for Othello and hate Iago because they have different attitudes towards their crime.

Trifles, written in the early 1900’s by Susan Glaspell, is a one-act play illustrating how women can overreact to their own emotions, allowing these emotions to cloud their judgment. This is shown by describing the feelings of two women who are willing to defend a suspect, blame the victim, and go so far as to hide evidence, to protect another woman from being charged with murdering her husband. Mrs. Wright is the suspect in the murder of her husband, who was strangled in his sleep, found with the rope still around his neck. The sheriff and an attorney are examining Mrs. Wrights home for evidence. Mr. Henderson, the attorney, speaking of Mrs. Wright says, “Here’s a nice mess, ..Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper,

Shakespeare’s Othello is a play consistently based on jealously and the way it can destroy lives. One is quick to think this jealously is based on Othello’s lack of belief in Desdemona’s faithfulness to him or his suspensions over Desdemona’s affair with Cassio, Othello’s honorable lieutenant. Upon closer inspection of the jealously that exists throughout the play it becomes clear that his jealously is not the sole start and reason for all of the destruction that occurs. Iago, a good friend of Othello, is not who he appears to be. Iago’s own jealously of those around him pushes him over the edge. He begins to deceive all those who believe he is a true, honorable, and faithful man. Throughout Othello, Iago incites his own jealously in

Symbols are important, especially in literature. They have been known to inspire hope and life, in turn inspiring some of the most profound actions in the history of the world. Yet, humanity’s statement to symbols goes beyond us finding meaning in innominate or non-human objects. People assign humanity into objects, almost a part of themselves. This concept is clearly demonstrated in Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles. The work contains many element of symbolism that make important and relieving comments on the characters of the play and the themes of the story.

Oppressive gender roles are expressed first through the title Trifles itself. By definition, a trifle is a thing of little value or importance. Whenever the women were talking about Mrs. Wright’s preserves, Hale laughs, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 598). Using the word trifles as the title indicates that the play contains a shallow, meaningless theme or concept, but the truths found in the theme of the title are actually very far from insignificant. The trifles, although perceived by the men as trivial,

Throughout the play jealousy is shown within almost every character, ago mostly causes everyone in the play to be jealous of someone by doing what he does best, manipulating everyone and getting them to do his dirty work. Jealousy plays a big role within the play, and influences almost every decision made by each character at some point in the play. Sadly, the decisions made due to the characters being jealous are mostly bad, the play mainly shows how jealousy affects Iago, Othello, and Roderigo. Iago at some point gets each character to believe everything he has to say and talks them into doing anything he wishes them to do all for the sole purpose of revenge and jealousy

At first glance or giving a slight ear to the two plays “Trifles” and “Othello” the differences can be very noticeable. “Othello” was written by a man William Shakespeare and “Trifles” by a women Susan Glaspell. While Glaspell authored her play in the twentieth century, Shakespeare on the other hand penned his play in the seventeenth century. “Trifles” theme dealt with isolation whereas jealousy was the theme in “Othello”. When taking a closer look and compare the two the use of verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony are used in the same way to keep the audience intrigued and full of suspense.

The reactions in Trifles reveal to the reader how heavily defined gender roles were in the early twentieth century. The two genders quickly form separate bonds with one another in this play. The men of this time dominate every aspect of this story. They make sarcastic jokes at the women when they start to show concern about things that appeared out of the norm in Mrs. Wright’s house. The first thing they noticed is the broken can goods when the Sheriff says, “Well, you can beat the women! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves” (Glaspell 1245). This tone of voice reveals how the men did not take the women seriously. They laugh at the women’s idea of trifles but as Phyllis writes, it is “their attentiveness to the "trifles" in her life, the kitchen things considered insignificant by the men, the two women piece together, like patches in a quilt, the

Jealousy is a powerful drug. When someone is jealous, one can only imagine how far someone would go because of it. In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, there were several characters that went through different ways of processing their jealousy. Iago’s jealousy provokes his idea to get back at the people he felt was not deserving enough of the things they had or their happiness. His plans succeeds but by the end, no one wins. Iago’s jealousy forms at the beginning of the play which causes Othello’s jealousy towards the end and because of it, it results in people hurt mentally and physically.

Symbolic objects can be observed by inquisitive and perceptive readers. Symbols fit naturally into context and can be overlooked by even the most perceptive reader. A symbol can have no apparent connection to the text, and therefore be considered as irrational, but the symbol's relation to the object is often typical for what it stands for. However, the main goal in using symbolism is to grasp a more complex meaning beyond its natural state. Glaspell's use of a birdcage is an apparent connection to Mrs. Wright's life on the farm with her husband. While Mr. Wright works on the house farm, Mrs. Wright is held captive; as a caged animal, alone to fulfill wifely duties. In agreement, a composed analysis by Ariang Bangga on Glaspell's Trifles explains how, "Traditional beliefs have held women captive for years. In Trifles, [readers] clearly [see] that there is an obvious distinction between men’s and woman’s role" (Ariang Bangga 1). The bird cage signifies Mr. Wright's treatment and harshness toward his wife to prevent Minnie from socializing with the outside world. Due to his cruelty, Minnie is like the trapped bird imprisoned by traditional male dominance. With that being said, another object of significance is brought forth, that being the bird. Glaspell strategically places symbols for readers to form their own suggested significance. In this matter, the bird is only allowed to wonder within its cage and depend completely on its owner. Relatively, Minnie is conformed to housekeeping matters and what Mr. Wright allows. Turning back to the birdcage that the two women found later in the play, it was found already broken without a bird inside. Marisarah’s article, "A Study of Symbols," suggests that the bird was removed roughly, resulting in the cage breaking. "It implies what just happened to Minnie's life, which she can finally [break away] from a cold and hard husband with a rough way too"

Shakespeare uses a combination of recurring themes and motifs such as betrayal, love, conflict, and jealousy throughout his plays and sonnets. In Shakespeare’s Othello, jealousy is the prominent theme, which causes the destruction and tragic downfall of the play’s main characters. Jealousy is masked through lies, misleading situations and manipulation and interpreted in varied ways by the main characters. From beginning to end, jealousy is rooted in every scene, eventually leading to the death and demise of the main character, Othello.

In the story of Othello, all of the conflict, violence, and harm that occured was a result of jealousy. Iago, one of the victims of jealousy, made a hypocritical statement to Othello where he called jealousy a green-eyed monster. This monster known as jealousy not only consumes the people that it hates, but also consumes the person itself. Jealousy is the culprit for any character that had died in the story. Jealousy fueled each scene to the next in Othello and the more that is added, the more damage it does as seen with its effects on Roderigo, Iago, and Othello.

The true definition of the world trifle is something of very little value or importance. “Trifles” is a story about a small group of people trying to solve the mystery of why a woman killed her husband. Two women named Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are helping the two men, the sheriff and the county attorney, find Mrs. Wright’s motive to kill her husband. The women begin to find small details that reveals plenty of information that could be useful in the investigation of the murder. These small details that the women find around Mrs. Wright’s home are “Trifles” to the men. As Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale search around the house, Mrs. Peters finds a birdcage in a cupboard. Mrs. Hale finds a dead bird wrapped in a box with its neck broken, and in finding this, they come to the realization that Mrs. Wright killed her husband because he killed her bird. The women know that Mrs. Wright’s husband did not enjoy her singing and he would never allow her to have a bird because it sang too.

"Trifles" is a play with a unified plot. Although there are verbal flashbacks to the events of the day of the murder of John Wright, the play's entire plot begins and ends in a span of one day. The author also extends the unified plot to create a single setting (the farmhouse kitchen). The plot centers on John Wright's murder. Mrs. Wright is the main suspect; an investigation is taking place as to the motive or reason for the crime.

Jealousy is the sensation to envy someone and have the desire to avenge someone. The infamous play Othello portrays the consequences of jealousy. Throughout the play, Othello tragic flaw is his own jealousy. Othello jealousy causes a transition of character. Othello was once the charming noble gentleman and it is now turned into a vicious callous monster. Othello’s jealousy was his downfall that cost the deaths of multiple lives.