Jealousy In Shakespeare's Othello

Iago does not stop there, his jealously leads him to start infecting others and the first is Roderigo, a naïve gentleman in Venice. To put his scheme into motion, Iago informs Roderigo of Othello and Desdemona’s elopement, which causes Roderigo to become very upset because he too is in love with Desdemona and is willing to do anything to win her love. Iago plants the seed of jealousy in Roderigo’s mind because he knows he can now use Roderigo “for sport and profit” (I.iii.1180) by playing off his jealousy toward anyone who comes close to Desdemona. After breaking Roderigo down he then, builds him back up by telling him a way they can break up the marriage. Iago tells him:

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.

   Throughout the length of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello there is a steady undercurrent of sexism. It is originating from not one, but rather various male characters in the play, who manifest prejudicial, discriminatory attitudes toward women.

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.

Another area of jealousy in Othello is when there are accusations of Othello having an affair with Iago’s wife, Emilia. Emilia was a woman who thought her husband was unfaithful, but stayed with him anyway. Along with these rumors, there were also rumors that Cassio had slept with Emilia too. I believe that jealousy is a powerful thing, and it’s hard to overcome rumors and accusations when they involve everyone’s husbands and wives. Not every character handled themselves the same while getting through these accusations of affairs and what not.

Jealousy is common in the novel, and the author, Shakespeare uses it to keep the storyline moving. In Othello, Shakespeare uses figurative language to help Iago manipulate Othello, causing the reader to feel more sympathetic towards him. The way Iago is treating Othello makes the reader realize what jealousy and a thirst for revenge can cause a person to do to another person. Othello was manipulated by Iago in many different ways for numerous different reasons, one of them is jealousy.

In Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, good is often confronted by evil, in which almost every case is in the form of jealousy. Iago, the plays antagonist, is a very manipulative villain. Iago uses his own agony and distress brought upon him by his envy of others, to provoke the same agony within the characters in the play. Jealousy’s ability are shown to influence people to new ends and make all humanistic judgment disappear leaving that man a monster torn apart by envy. Jealousy’s true destructive wrath and the pure evil it brings out in people can be revealed through Iago’s actions throughout the tragedy Othello.

¨To what profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul.¨Othello who was a great man of much grace was on a crusade to restore “honor” to his appellation. In the tragedy of "Othello", a play composed by William Shakespeare which explores the many motifs and themes, touches on one with great effect, jealousy and the implication of what is real and what is not. Jealousy is the overarching theme and the main motivation of most of the characters in”Othello.” Othello who had sufficed with the mere thought of killing his wife was a victim of self-perception borderlining illusion and reality, which was orchestrated by “honest” Iago, his ancient. Othello had chosen to go the wrong way about the whole situation and waited until he essentially become mad and wanted to “fix”the problem. Othello, our tragic hero who fell from such divine grace had suffered mentally under the thumb of Iago’s schemes. A poise man such as Othello had lost his way as he coped with the thoughts of being “cuckold” by his wife. Putting Othello in modern day context we must recognize that we also fall prey of jealousy, the green-eyed monster. Othello, like many of Shakespeare's tragedies, focuses on the protagonist, whose life is ruined due to an hamartia. Part of the human condition is that the act of being jealous has been repeated countless times throughout history, in a multitude of different ways.

The play “Othello” by William Shakespeare was written in 1604 during the Elizabeth era. Othello is one of the most extraordinary characters in all of Shakespeare’s dramas. He enjoyed unheralded success in the combat zone, which gave him the reputation as one of Venice’s most competent generals. Even though he has great success in the battlefield, he has a dramatic flaw that causes a downfall in his life. The dramatic flaw that causes his downfall is jealousy. This was brought on by a simple persuasion of Iago, the evil character in the play. Even though Iago used extreme manipulation to get Othello to be jealous, Iago did not really have to try very hard to get Othello in a jealous state of mind. Othello was blinded by his jealousy which

This is interesting because it shows how Iago uses his pure jealousy towards Othello by making up rumors in his head that seem normal to him. But in reality, has the audience is watching/ reading this we can observe how Iago’s mentality changed due to the fact that he was consumed by jealousy that it turns into hatred towards Othello. Some may say that Iago was not jealous, that he just wanted to manipulate others around him to make them see how much of a horrible person Othello is. But I think personally that Iago did show Jealously towards Othello because if he did not get jealous towards him why would Iago waste his time on Othello in the first place, to begin with if he did not feel the slightest bit jealous. Jealousy comes in different ways some may some it differently to others, but overall the feeling is it inside of them eating them slowly and that’s what I think occurred to Iago in which he used manipulation and anger towards the other characters in ‘Othello’.

In many of these cases, Iago has only influenced Othello’s thoughts, and his actions are of his own volition. Othello allowed those thoughts to fester and develop on their own, which resulted in a disastrous outcome. This can be seen when Othello jumped to conclusions and did not confront Desdemona with the problem until it was too late for him to change his mind. Also, Othello allowed his obsession over Desdemona’s betrayal to poison his professional life and crumble his reputation. Lastly, Othello was consumed by jealousy, revenge, and hate that he drove himself insane, none of which, were actions done by Iago who had only made a couple of suggestions. For these reasons, Othello is a weak characters who’s ultimate demise was caused by his own

Iago’s false sincerity allows him to openly manipulate Othello, while no one questions his character due to status and how ‘honest’ he

He knows that he is an outsider and that he will not completely fit in with everybody else. Othello's jealousy is what causes him to be deceived by Iago. After Iago receives and presents the handkerchief to Othello, jealousy begins to take over Othello and he becomes angry. Iago, playing the

Jealousy of power is first displayed through Iago, a solider under Othello’s command. ”One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, a fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife, that never set a squadron in the field”(Act 1, Scene 1). Iago is consumed by jealousy of Cassio, which he masks with hatred of Othello, because Othello took up Cassio as lieutenant and not Iago. In this same scene, we are also introduced to Roderigo, a wealthy Venetian, who is desperately in love with Desdemona, Othello’s wife. This scene is significant because it crafts Iago as the perfect villain. He plans on exploiting Othello’s insecurities in exchange for his own vengeful agenda.

A victim of the villainous Iago, Roderigo was jealous of Othello’s marriage with Desdemona and tried to break it up by hiring Iago. His jealousy is seen taking its toll on Roderigo after he reacts to the confession of Desdemona’s love for Othello in front of the Duke and Brabantio. After hearing this, Roderigo feels as though all hope is lost and expresses his despair to Iago saying,