Othello, By William Shakespeare

Othello has no motivation to uncertainty what Iago is stating truth be told he supposes him legitimate and has set extraordinary trust in him and hence he turns out to be all the more effortlessly controlled

Iago's supposed honesty is ironically, also a result of his own lying, by making statements that help him sustain his reputation.  When he explains Roderigo and Cassio's fight to Othello, he claims to do it with a heavy heart, because he does not want to cause problems for Cassio.  However, he feels he must tell the truth; " I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth than it should do offense to Michael Cassio.  Yet I persuade myself to speak the truth." [Act II, scene iii].  By saying this, others are led to believe that the guilt of not speaking the truth is

Shakespeare 's complex play Othello holds numerous pressing issues within its intricate layers that seem to leap out to modern society. One such issue seen by many is the representation of women. Women within the play can be characterized as submissive possessions and temptresses. This ideology, though commonplace in this time period, appears controversial to the modern eye as we deconstruct the characters of this play. This dominate patriarchal society present within the setting merely conditions this belief further as it is prevalent within the characters dialogue.

In Shakespeare’s Othello, the nominal character, an honorable Venetian general, is driven to madness through the deceptions of his honest right hand Iago. Iago plots to ruin Othello and through his deception, he drives Othello’s insecurities by implanting the idea of infidelity of his beloved wife Desdemona. Othello goes on to murder his wife, and after he discovers Iago’s plot, he kills himself. In a time when women were looked down upon, Shakespeare crafted a drama in which women took part in major roles. Modeled by Elizabethan England the women in Othello were portrayed in a light justified by society as in Othello, these women were nothing more to than objectified possessions, forced to submit to the ever dying will of their husbands. This is displayed by Desdemona and Emilia’s and relationships with their husbands.

A society consists of diverse cultures, looks, values, and beliefs. In a world with one predominant culture, those perceived as different from the norm are associated with negative images and treated inferior to the superior culture. The negative images associated with color, specifically blackness, has a detrimental effect on the victims who are racially stereotyped. The character Othello is a unique character in English literature, because unlike the other members of society, Othello is an outsider in Venice. He is a black man living in a white world, married to a white woman, and a leader of white men in battle. Othello is persuaded that his wife, Desdemona, is cheating on him, leading him to murder her. Some argue that because Othello was the typical black stereotype he killed Desdemona, but evidence suggests that Othello viewed his own racial identity as undesirable for Desdemona and killed her out of honor and self-hatred. Henceforth, the long-term psychological effects of racism affects an individual’s self-identity and his or her relationship with others.

William Shakespeare’s 16th century play Othello is a duplicitous and fraudulent tale set alternatingly between Venice in act 1, and the island of Cyprus thereafter. The play follows the scandalous marriage between protagonist Othello, a Christian moore and the general of the army of Venice, and Desdemona, a respected and intelligent woman who also happens to be the daughter of the Venetian Senator Brabantio. Shakespeare undoubtedly positions the marriage to be viewed as heroic and noble, despite Othello’s hamartia and subsequent downfall that inevitably occurs. Their marriage is then sabotaged by the jealous Iago, Othello’s ensign and villain of the play. While Iago’s ostensible justification for instigating Othello’s demise was his failure to acquire Othello’s position as lieutenant, Iago’s motives are rarely directly articulated and seem to derive from an obsessive, almost aesthetic pleasure in manipulation and destruction. Through the genre of the play, being a Shakespearean tragedy, and the structural devices employed by Shakespeare such as plot development, exposition, foreshadowing, dénouement, dramatic excitement, and catharsis, the key ideas of jealousy, appearance vs. reality and pride are developed and explored.

William Shakespeare’s Othello would not be a dramatic tragedy if the smiling villain, Iago, were a deaf mute. There is no doubt that the destruction of each character can be blamed on jealous Iago. The theme of jealousy helps propel the plot naturally and demonstrates the consequences of being morbidly jealous. The circumstantial evidence Iago provides acts like a lethal poison, which surrounds Othello in suspicion and envy but also turns him into an inhuman murderer. Jealousy is the ‘monster’ that unresonably conducts the great suffering in the story.

Iago mentions the strength of others wills, and notes how it is simple to change a person with willpower alone. He is then implying that the people who he can trick are inferior to him. In this way Iago is overly proud of his abilities and loves to put himself above his superiors. He is superior to them only his ability to plot complex schemes. His plan to destroy Othello is full of grandeur and risks. Iago sets long series of specific events into motion relying on luck to carry through some of the parts. He is very roundabout on bringing his plan to fruition. Rather than lying to multiple characters and stealing handkerchiefs he could have, just as easily, told Roderigo to kill Othello. However, he seeks to have superiority over his commanders, so in a way, he is trying to prove he is better than they by creating such complex narratives. His actions in this regard are very similar to

Iago plans to ruin Othello because of Iago's jealousy towards him is by carrying out a plan to get back at Othello based on lies and deceit. This plan will make Iago the only person that Othello believes he can trust, and Iago will use this trust to manipulate Othello. Iago plans to remove Cassio from

It is not wise to attempt to judge another purely based on their outer shell; the showmanship of one’s character is demonstrated through the goodwill and integrity of their being. Women, while commonly shown to have a weaker sense of character, could also reveal to have some of the greatest shows of genuity. In one of Shakespeare’s famous tragedies, Othello, the story revolves around Othello, a Venetian general, who marries Desdemona, the daughter of a Venetian noble. Iago – whom Othello declares as his ancient – despises him, and thus tries to destroy his marriage along with him. Othello is easily ensnared within the traps Iago sets; this causes great paranoia and distrust among Desdemona, and a series of rash decisions. Othello is

Othello by William Shakespeare tells the tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venetia and how one of his most loyal subordinates Iago betrays him, by making Othello believe that his wife Desdemona was being unfaithful with Othello’s Lieutenant Casino. Iago’s deception not only causes Othello to distrust his wife Desdemona, but it ultimately leads to the deaths of most characters in the play including Othello, and Desdemona. The Fourth act Second scene is mainly about Desdemona and Emilia talking about unfaithful women and if either one of them had being unfaithful to their husband. This dialogue between Desdemona and Emilia is important because the audience can connect to early events in the play and to a small degree the audience can make connections to Iago’s plan for Othello and what can be the future of Othello and Desdemona.

355,] By playing on his hopes, Iago is able to conjure money and jewels from Roderigo, making himself a profit, while using Roderigo to further his other plans. He also thinks stealthy on his feet and is able to improvise whenever something unexpected occurs. When Cassio takes hold of Desdemona's hand before the arrival of the Moor Othello, Iago says, "With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio." [II, i, 163] This language demonstrates the evil inside Iago’s goals of retrieving absolute power. He actually even says of himself, "I am an honest man...." [II, iii, 245] Iago slowly corrupts the character’s thoughts, creating ideas in their minds without implicating himself. His "medicine works! Thus credulous fools are caught...." [II, i, 44] "And what's he then that says I play the villain, when this advice is free I give, and honest," [II, iii, 299] says Iago. In turn, people rarely stop to consider the fact that old Iago could be deceiving and manipulating them; yet they are convinced that he is "Honest Iago." From these quotes from “Othello” it is proven that the dialogue used between Iago and the others is manipulative causing an evil outcome.

In this life that we live, different individuals go about their business oblivious of their individual struggles that confront them. According to www.dictionary.com, a struggle is defined as, “a forceful/violent attempt or effort to get free from restraint or contrition”. Some of these struggles are more pronounced than others. From Othello, the tragedy by William Shakespeare, we can see how humans are faced with individual contentions, and their daily actions are in fact, efforts of trying to free themselves. In the discussion below, we not only consider Othello’s struggles of being different, gullible, timid, inferior, proud and selfish but also, Iago’s conniving personality, hatred, greed, manipulation, selfishness and slander.

Women, especially Desdemona but Emilia as well, are obviously targets of male violence in Othello. For some reason Shakespeare’s play often put the emphasis on the role of the female characters and their influence on the main male characters. For instance, the result of the passionate love of Romeo for Juliet, the effect of Ophelia’s insanity had on hamlet, and so on. In Othello, Shakespeare made Desdemona and the other women in the play no different; Othello’s jalousie and love made the play a tragedy. Shakespeare made Desdemona the faithful wife of Othello. She was such a kindhearted and wished to make everything work even when the situation where she lost her handkerchief she tried to fix the situation and calming Othello. However, her innocent sympathy towards Cassio made lago’s lies more credible. Overall, one can say that her naïve nature causes her to become a target for the men in the play.

During the course of this essay I will be focusing on the play Othello written by William Shakespeare during the 16th century. It was first performed by the Kings men at the court of King James the first on November 4th 1604. The 16th century was a time when most of the population lived in small villages and made their living from farming the land. However, trade and industry grew rapidly and England became a more profitable country. During this period England became richer and more affluent in society. I will be focusing on the use of power the characters have in the text, and how in today 's society that would be seen differently. I will also be looking at racism and how due to the impact of improved equality and diversity in society, multi-cultural views have become more normal.