Although Othello is a victim he is not entirely innocent. In the play, Othello is convinced by Iago that Desdemona was cheating on him with Cassio but if he stopped and thought about it rationally, he may have been able to talk out the problem and half the cast would live to the end of the play.
In the start of the play, Desdemona and Othello are in love and trusted each other but Rodrico was in love with Desdemona and hated Othello because he was with her. Iago used his hatred of Othello and desperation to get Desdemona to get money from him. He turned Rodrigo against Cassio to get Cassio stripped of his position before making him believe that he may be able to get his position back by talking to Desdemona but Iago tricks Othello into
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If he were to stop and think about it for even a minute, he could have seen that Iago’s “evidence” is weak and suspicious and that the way Iago acts feels scripted with the way he seems to randomly change his mind about talking to Othello about Desdemona or Cassio. If he really loved Desdemona like he said he did, he wouldn’t have killed her at least not without hearing her out. When Emilia was telling him that she was never sent away when Cassio was speaking with Desdemona, he should have paid attention and stopped to think for himself rather than having blind trust in Iago but he may not have trusted Emilia because women were less valued at the time. The “evidence” of Cassio having the handkerchief could have been solved if he were to remember that only a short while before, he knocked the handkerchief out of Desdemona’s hand after she tried to help him and that Emilia was the only other person in the vicinity, making her the most likely to steal it. Othello and Desdemona were also newlyweds so if Desdemona wanted to be with Cassio in the first place, she had plenty of time before she married Othello to change her
Othello trusts Iago and now Iago is trying to take his wife from him for someone else. Furthermore, “He takes her by the palm...sir in.” (pg. 71). Iago watches Cassio and Emilia because he thinks they had an affair he watches them carefully so he can figure out how to convince Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair. Another example involves the plan to help Othello kill Desdemona. “Do it not with poison. Strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated” (pg. 185). Othello believes that Iago is most honest, thus he believed killing his wife Desdemona was the right thing to do. Iago brainwashed Othello into believing the wrong thing was the right thing. The characterization of Iago is created by the use of dramatic irony. The audience knew how devious Iago is, but the characters fell for his mischievous acts.
Thanks to his reputation, he manipulates Othello's feelings and reasoning, destroys Cassio's reputation, and also manages to get Othello to kill Desdemona.
determine as to which one will win, so that is why one cannot exist without the other. However, there are some whose emotions are unbalanced, which causes them to near towards one side more than the other one and many times the side a lot of people prefer to lean on is evil. Shakespeare’s play Othellois set in 16thcentury Venice and Cyprus. Othello, a noble black general from the Venetian army has secretly married Desdemona, daughter of Venice senator Brabantio. Othello chooses inexperienced Cassio to be his lieutenant, while he decides to give the ensign position to Iago, a malicious but very experienced man who, with his stealth and knavery, will ultimately ruin almost everyone’s life since for a long time, he was desiring the position of lieutenant just like Cassio. At the end of the play, Othello, Desdemona, Iago’s wife Emilia, and his sidekick Roderigo die due to his revenge against Cassio, for obtaining the position he wanted and Othello, for being the man who he hates the most. The play ends with Iago being told that he will be punished and tortured for his actions. However, despite the fact that Iago is punished at the end of the play for doing all of the malicious things he did, he still manages to wear down Othello’s relationship with Desdemona, get Cassio demoted from his lieutenancy, and cause Othello to show his cowardness by
Even if Othello was not as trusting or corrupt, he still would not realize Iago was lying. Othello commits his first act of violence against Desdemona by hitting her. This shows now Othello's tragic flaw. He made himself susceptible to Iago and the jealousy within him begins to lead to the end of others. By his actions, Othello has isolated himself from everyone except Iago. This gives Iago the perfect opportunity to complete his course of action. Finally, Othello's breakdown
Othello is an easy target in this drama, because Iago already knows that he is a very insecure person. With that stated, it will be easy for Iago to use Othello’s jealousy to trick him into thinking that Desdemona is an unfaithful wife. Iago will manipulate the way Othello sees things in order to convince him that what he sees is innocent acts between Desdemona and Casillo. Iago’s starts to plant the idea in Othello’s head of an affair after Othello sees Casillo rush leaving Desdemona in a manner that looked as though he is guilty (1223). Alone with Othello, Iago begins to make Othello feel threatened by Casillo and Desdemona’s apparent relationship by bringing up the fact that Casillo served as Desdemona’s and Othello’s go-between during the time of their courtship. The conversation ends with Iago asking Othello to watch carefully of Desdemona and Casillo, and Iago exits giving Othello time to question the accusation of Iago (1225-1228).
Starting off, Othello allows Iago to tamper with his mind and does nothing to stop it. Othello puts all of his trust in him, but Iago is just hiding behind a mask and only wishes to torment Othello. Othello is not aware of his surroundings and the people there, making him vulnerable. If he paid more attention to Desdemona and not Iago than he would not have thought to kill his loyal wife. Othello jumps to conclusions too quickly
Othello’s trust for Iago enables Iago to completely discredit Othello as the good guy of the play when Iago manipulates him into thinking Desdemona was unfaithful to him with Cassio. Even though Othello must know in his heart that Desdemona would not betray him, he is so caught up by Iago's efforts and has fallen for his manipulative lies, that all rational thoughts abandons Othello and he ultimately ends up murdering his wife since to Othello betrayal was immoral. At the end of play, even Othello can hardly believe what he has done because he thinks of himself as, "One not easily jealous, but, being wrought, perplexed in the extreme..." meaning that he has acted out of character and only in the interests of honor. Iago’s betrayal to those such as Othello and Desdemona, ultimately successfully destroyed everyone, himself included.
In the play Othello, there are actually more characters responsible for the unfortunate deaths, aside from Iago and his manipulation. Brabantio, as Desdemona’s father could have stopped her tragic death if he had protested against their marriage despite Desdemona’s profession of love for the moor and insistently kept them apart. As an attempt to try and win her husband’s love back, Emilia chose to give Iago the handkerchief that Othello had given Desdemona instead of giving it back to her which led the handkerchief to end up at Cassio’s, convincing Othello that Desdemona had cuckolded him with his new lieutenant. Cassio could have prevented the deaths of Roderigo, Desdemona and Othello if only he had been persistent
The most particularly confusing, aggravating, and difficult thing about Othello is how Othello himself can be so easily tricked into believing that Desdemona, his wife, cheated on him with Cassio, Othello’s squad leader. Little to no physical evidence was given to Othello to make him believe that Desdemona cheated, he simply took Iago’s word for it. As Wyndham Lewis from Shakespeare for Students wrote, “He seems possessed of no instinct by which he might scent his antagonist, and so be put on his guard” ( Othello is completely clueless that Iago is against him and not actually helping him out, and if Othello would have realized that sooner, or collected real, physical evidence on Iago’s comments of Desdemona cheating, he could have saved
Othello is not hurt because of a failing love, but because of how it makes him look and hurts his pride. This is when things get ugly. Othello puts more trust in Iago than in his own wife. This is due, in part, to Iago's manipulative skills, but mostly to Othello's lack of communication skills, especially with his wife. But Desdemona does not do anything to mediate the situation and lets the condition escalate, and her self-blaming attitude only perpetuates Othello's misgiven notion that she has been falsely accused . After Othello strikes her in front of the whole dinner party, and orders her around like a peasant,
The play Othello by William Shakespeare consists of manipulation and tragedy, a story of love that ends in demise. Othello, a great general, finds himself at odds with the notion that his beloved wife has been unfaithful, while Desdemona is completely innocent. He loves her so much that the idea of her adultery drives him to murder. The ensign to the general, Iago, is behind the rumors and the turmoil. He manipulates the trust between Othello and those who are closest to him, even so far as suggesting the method irate Othello uses to kill his wife. However, despite Iago being the ringleader behind the conflict and crime, Othello would be charged guilty for first degree murder, criminal conspiracy, and tampering with a witness in a court of law. Iago would be cleared of any homicide accusations, most likely getting a minimal charge compared to Othello.
"Othello is set in a world and focuses on the passions and personalities of its major figures." (Thomas). Othello is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The work revolves around four central characters: Othello, Othello's wife Desdemona, his lieutenant Cassio and advisor Iago. The play appeared in seven editors between 1622 and 1705. The themes of the story are racism, love, jealousy, and betrayal. Othello is a black soldier who is accused of stealing his wife Desdemona. Although Desdemona's father dislikes his daughter's choice, Desdemona loves Othello very much and the two are married. Othello’s right hand man is angered at the fact that Othello picked a man named Cassio to be more important than him and he also feels that he is messing with his wife. Iago plans to manipulate Othello but his plan eventually causes more hurt to most of the characters. Iago tries to use the meeting between Cassio and Desdemona as a way to make Othello believe she was cheating on him. Iago goes on with his manipulative plan by planting a handkerchief in Cassio's room, and goes and tell Othello about what he has seen Cassio do. Othello becomes jealous throughout the story and begins to believe that Cassio is talking to his wife. Iago persuades Othello to come up with a master plan to kill Cassio and Desdemona. As Othello tries to kill Desdemona, Emilia, Iago's wife, comes in to tell Othello the truth about Iago. Unfortunately it is too late. Othello had already suffocated her. When Othello
Later on in the play, Iago lies to Roderigo when he tells him that Othello will be taking Desdemona with him to Mauritania. He suggests that if Roderigo ever wants to see Desdemona again he has to make sure that Othello extends his stay in Cyprus. To do so, he suggests that Cassio must be killed, “Why, by making him uncapable of Othello’s place—/ knocking out his brains.”(4.2.226-227). If Othello goes to Mauritania, Cassio will be assigned Othello’s place. By killing Cassio, Iago gets his revenge and Roderigo would have a chance to win over Desdemona. Roderigo’s character is used to portray the theme of manipulation. He is persuaded into doing Iago’s ill deeds. Iago is only after one thing, to be appointed lieutenant, and he will do whatever is necessary to reach his goal.
In Shakespeare’s Othello, Desdemona is murdered by her husband, Othello, after he is convinced by Iago, without real evidence, that she is cheating on him. Iago manipulates Othello by triggering what he knows to be Othello’s values: reputation and honor. After this tragic murder, the question of who is truly responsible for her death is raised. Although Iago put the ideas that Desdemona cheated into Othello’s head, Othello is solely responsible for the murder of Desdemona as he is the one who physically killed her to protect his reputation despite being aware of her innocence.
Iago quickly tried to come up with false evidence to apparently, to prove to Othello that this is indeed, reality, “I know not that; but suck a handkerchief – I am sure it was your wife’s – See Cassio wipe his beard with.”(3.3.496). Iago was supposedly ‘thickening his proofs’, and he insisted that Cassio has Desdemona’s handkerchief. Notice how Iago is exaggerating false allegations, only to make Othello think that Desdemona is unfaithful. It becomes fairly manageable for Iago to sell his tale to Othello, as he takes advantage of Othello’s trust, and reports what he ‘apparently witnessed’. After Iago successfully manipulates Othello, to consider his wife as a false-hearted woman, he doesn’t even think to reflect upon his sinful deeds, revealing his cold-hearted soul to the audience. By now, the viewers can only look down upon Iago with disgust, as he is also breaking a loving relationship between an honest man and his innocent wife. Why would Iago want to harm Desdemona when he clearly hates the Moor, and only the Moor? What was Iago’s purpose in slandering a beautiful, innocent woman? Well, Iago’s villainous schemes continue to leave the audience in disbelief. Then, Iago also vividly describes to Othello, about how Cassio is yearning for Desdemona, “There are a kind of men so loose of soul that in their sleeps will mutter their affairs. One of this kind is Cassio. In sleep I heard