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The Importance of Act 3 Scene 3 to William Shakespeare's Othello

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The Importance of Act 3 Scene 3 to William Shakespeare's Othello

In this essay I am going to investigate the importance and effectiveness of Act 3 scene 3 considering its significance in terms of plot, characters and theme and its dramatic power.

Throughout this scene there are striking examples of the main themes of the play, one of these being appearance and reality.

Iago fools everyone in the play into believing he's honest.

No one even suspects him of treachery, until the final act when Roderigo realizes how badly he's been fooled.

Iago proves that evil intentions can be masked behind a facade of honesty.

This theme emerges in other characters such as Brabantio who is …show more content…

Only Desdemona and Cassio, the true innocents of the story, seem beyond its clutches.

Since it is an emotion that everyone shares, we watch its destructive influence on the characters with sympathy and horror.

Almost every Shakespearean play has a tragic hero, one which has a fatal flaw, which can only lead to terrible consequences, in this case Othello’s Jealousy, leading to the death of his beloved wife and everyone around him.

Finally, the last theme is miscommunication, caused by Iago between Othello and Desdemona.

Iago leads everyone to believe that he is honest and caring, while he is truly a conniving evil spirit.

He intentionally misrepresents his feelings to everyone and intentionally communicates false information to Othello about Desdemona.

He implants the idea of Desdemona's disloyalty, pointing to her relationship with her father, Brabantio. Othello's proof of Desdemona's disloyalty lies in the handkerchief. As soon as he is misled to believe that the napkin is in the hands of Cassio, Othello immediately believes all lies and miscommunications betold him by Iago. This proves extremely fatal in making this the pivotal scene. The miscommunication between Desdemona and Othello, due to Iago's intentional lies, manifests in this scene.

His anger results in violence because of the information discovered through

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