Essay on Jealousy in Othello

Shakespeare often has common themes throughout all of his poems which include love, death, and betrayal. When talking about Othello, all of these major themes are presented. Although, the major theme is jealousy. Throughout the play, jealousy is shown in each character in some way and drives the decisions that they make. The beginning starts with Rodrigo being covetous of Othello for being with Desdemona, and at the end where Othello is envious because he believes Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. Iago is an important character throughout all of this because he makes up lies and misleads characters into believing things that are untrue. From the beginning, he is envious of Cassio and has hatred towards Othello because Othello

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.

There are many different emotions like sadness, happiness, and joyfulness just to name a few that people can experience. One of the most powerful and sometimes dangerous emotions is Jealousy. Jealousy is a powerful emotion that most people experience at some point in their life. However, not everyone is affected in the same way. Some people are filled with insecurity. While others are filled with fear. Most people experience anger. In William Shakespeare’s Othello the audience learns through the characterization of Othello and Iago, the symbolism of the handkerchief, and through Othello denying that he is jealous we learn that jealousy can make people behave irrationally in certain circumstances.

Jealousy is a powerful emotion that can blind oneself from identifying the truth. Shakespeare heavily emphasizes this theme throughout the drama Othello, especially through the actions of characters. In the play the heinous antagonist, Iago, uses each character’s jealousy to deceive that person and manipulate the truth. His false promises and deceitfulness bring to the demise of many of the main characters in the play, including the protagonist, Othello. Othello could not have been deceived if it were not for his powerful jealousy. Therefore, Shakespeare is telling us that jealousy is an ugly trait that can hide the truth, which in turn causes many problems between characters in the play.

Firstly, Iago showed how he was the perfect villain with his ability to manipulate characters throughout the play. By manipulating other characters Iago can forward his plan of ruining Othello without other characters becoming suspicious. One character that Iago often manipulates is his friend Roderigo, this one character is the one that mainly does all the hard work of Iago. This quote: “Desdemona should continue her love to the Moor-put/money in thy purse-nor he his to her. It was a violent commencement in her, and thou shalt see an/answerable sequestration-put but money in thy purse. (1.3 334-338) convinced Roderigo to not kill himself and to continue to believe in Iago’s plan of making Desdemona to stop loving the Moor. Roderigo is in love and this is one reason why he is unable to realize that he is manipulated by Iago. Also, Iago manipulates Cassio to go talk to Desdemona, but Cassio is totally oblivious that he plans to use this to the Moor with jealousy. The quote: “I’ll send her to you presently; /and I’ll devise a means to draw the Moor/out of the way, that your converse and business/May be more free. (3.3 37-40) convinced Cassio to talk to Desdemona, which consequently shaped Othello to be even more jealous than before.

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

Evidence of jealousy in Iago is more prominent and very evident in the beginning of the play when he explains to Roderigo that Othello has moved Cassio to lieutenant (the position Iago desires) although three of Venice’s most noble nobleman have informed Othello and Iago has fought in front of Othello in Rhodes and Cyprus (Shakespeare 1.1. 10 - 30). Iago’s sly behavior and ability to use other character’s roles and trust such as Othello’s love for Desdemona, Cassio’s pride in serving as Othello’s trustful lieutenant, and Rodrigo's over commitment to win over Desdemona from Othello allows his plan to fall through. His motive throughout the play is to get Cassio demoted from the

My topic is jealousy in the play Othello. Shakespeare wrote this play as a focus on the dangers of jealousy. It shows how jealousy can be kept going by nothing more than circumstantial evidence and how it can destroy people’s lives. In Othello jealousy appears in many ways, from sexual suspicion to professional competition, but as in all cases it is destructive. Shakespeare proves that jealousy is inherently unreasonable in this play. He proves it is founded in the psychological issues of the jealous person, not the behavior of the one who prompts the jealous feelings.

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.

In Othello, one of the most significant scenes that portrays jealousy is when Roderigo uses Iago to get closer to Desdemona. It doesn’t seem as though Iago really wanted Desdemona,

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.

first of all the characters in the play to be attacked by the "green -

The downright evil and hateful nature of Iago made it easy for jealousy to encapsulate itself in his mind. Iago’s jealousy is introduced to the audience in the second line of the play when he states that he should have been promoted to general instead of Othello (Shakespeare, 2003:I.i.2). However, Iago later on in the play confesses, "I hate the Moor: And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets he has done my office: I know not if't be true; But I, for mere suspicion in that kind, will do as if for surety."(Shakespeare, 2003:I.iii.368-372). Whether or not the reasons may be for Iago’s immense jealousy of Othello; it is the fuel that flames of his crusade. The jealousy does not end there. By agreeing with Taylor (2004:385-386), Iago evokes jealousy in Othello by means of manipulation. Not only does Iago approach his manipulation tactfully, he anticipates events and has great patience to wait for the exact time to pour ‘poison in the ear’ to feed Othello’s jealousy. Iago manipulates Othello to distrust his wife’s devolution to him in the lines, "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on;"(Shakespeare, 2003:III.iii.167-169). The vehicle for Iago’s jealousy is manipulative language that he intelligently applies to ensure Othello’s

Iago also has his own suspicion that Othello had an affair with Emilia, Iago’s wife, and seeks revenge. Iago’s soliloquy at the end of “till I am even’d with him, wife for wife” (Act 2, Scene 1) has the notion that Iago might sleep with Desdemona so that Othello must feel the same destructive jealousy.

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,