“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on (Iago- 3.3.195).” In Shakespeare’s play Othello, jealousy plays a huge role. A jealous man manipulates everyone around him (see figure 1) into doing insane deeds, including murderous acts. This tragic tale of jealousy, racial prejudice, love, manipulation, and candor captures the tale of the innocent, the evil, and a tragic hero. In Blazing Moon Theatre’s rendition of Othello, our company seeks an Othello with genuine and naïve characteristics.
II. Background Othello takes place in the 16th century war between Italy and Turkey. The entire plot contains three to four days of action, and centered in Cyprus (outpost attacked and conquered by the Turks in 1570). Shakespeare added his own twists to The History of the Turks by Richard Knolles from 1603, or Hecatonimithi (Giraldi Cinthio) from 1565. The plot line includes a Moorish general who is led to believe his wife is false. Shakespeare twisted the original story by Cinthio to make Othello a tragic hero. Shakespeare’s play also touches on the Italians conflict with Spain,
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Othello and Cassio remain secretly Jewish Aryan soldiers in the German army. Iago also appears Aryan, but prejudice against Jews. Othello and Cassio are “transporting” the rest of the characters in the play into France out of Germany, and this enrages Iago. In his mind, the Jews should suffer and die: this also motivates his cruel acts. He convinces Othello that Desdemona secretly works for Hitler, and that Cassio is doing the same. He convinces Rodrigo that Cassio spilled his families location, getting them dispatched to a concentration camp. Our play is centered more around Iago’s jealousy and deception than Othello’s naivety and tragic flaws. Othello, however, still plays a very important part of spiking Iago’s jealousy and making the play
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
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.
Shakespeare’s Othello is a play consistently based on jealously and the way it can destroy lives. One is quick to think this jealously is based on Othello’s lack of belief in Desdemona’s faithfulness to him or his suspensions over Desdemona’s affair with Cassio, Othello’s honorable lieutenant. Upon closer inspection of the jealously that exists throughout the play it becomes clear that his jealously is not the sole start and reason for all of the destruction that occurs. Iago, a good friend of Othello, is not who he appears to be. Iago’s own jealously of those around him pushes him over the edge. He begins to deceive all those who believe he is a true, honorable, and faithful man. Throughout Othello, Iago incites his own jealously in
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.
Jealousy is described as someone who is feeling or showing envy of someone because of their achievements and advantages. Jealousy plays a major role in Shakespeare’s play Othello. There are many instances throughout the play that show jealousy between the characters. Throughout the play, jealousy is used for destructive purposes only. I believe that Iago longed to get revenge on Othello for previous issues. This only results in a long line of accusations and disputes between the characters in Othello.
The strong emotions of jealousy and misplaced thrust present trouble for most of the main characters in the play, Othello. William shakespeare displays how these emotions are easily brought out in the best of people. Iago, although brilliant in this own mnd still falls vitem to jealousy's for cassio's job. The brave moor othello has doubt sof desdemona's faithfulness and in stand of trusting his wife he allows iago manipulations to could his good judgement. Desdemona is the kind innocent wife othello could ever look for but she constantly battle for trust with the moor while still helping her friend cassio.
first of all the characters in the play to be attacked by the "green -
Despite being written in 1603, William Shakespeare’s Othello is a tragic tale of love, jealousy and betrayal that still resonates with audiences today. No doubt it is shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. But of the many strong emotions and tragic elements in Othello, jealousy seems to be at the core of all events in the story. Jealousy results in hate, lies , betrayal, manipulation, and eventually to murder.
Throughout the play Othello , the author, William Shakespeare portrays Iago as a character full of unhappiness and self-hatred. The theme of jealousy and betrayal is apparent as it motivates the actions of Iago and expresses the effect of jealousy. Iago has the ability to convince people of his honesty and loyalty; as it is only a part of his plan of revenge. In the act three scene three the audience starts to realize that all Iago’s work couldn't possibly be all for revenge. There was something deeper than just jealousy and hatred.
Othello is a tragedy written by the famous playwright, William Shakespeare. Jealousy is the driving force behind this play and without it, there would be no play. In Shakespeare’s Othello, jealousy distorts logic and leads to irrational conclusions. The three characters that have a character flaw of being jealous are Iago, Roderigo, and Othello.
In the story of Othello, all of the conflict, violence, and harm that occured was a result of jealousy. Iago, one of the victims of jealousy, made a hypocritical statement to Othello where he called jealousy a green-eyed monster. This monster known as jealousy not only consumes the people that it hates, but also consumes the person itself. Jealousy is the culprit for any character that had died in the story. Jealousy fueled each scene to the next in Othello and the more that is added, the more damage it does as seen with its effects on Roderigo, Iago, and Othello.
Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes definitively categorizes Othello as a “study in jealousy”:
The play Othello by William Shakespeare was published during the 16th century, it is one of Shakespeare’s popular and controversial plays. Shakespeare depicts Othello’s race as placing him apart in some respects from the predominantly white European society in which he lives. Jealousy is another of the main themes in Othello. Iago is the first character to start the sparks of jealousy in Othello, and in the end, causes the downfall of Othello and Desdemona. In the end, racism and jealousy are the causes of the tragedy in Othello.