Theme Of Jealousy In Othello

You have told me she hath received them, and returned me expectations and comfort of sudden respect and acquaintance; but I find none” (IV, ii, 186-190). Roderigo started to see that Iago is cheating on him, but Iago is smart enough, and Roderigo is dumb enough for Iago to confuse him. In the second act during the party after the defeat over the Turks, Cassio becomes very drunk and easily taken advantage of. He then runs into the room where everyone is and attacks Roderigo. Montano intervenes and is then wounded by Cassio; Othello is forced to demote Cassio from his position of Lieutenant. With Cassio devastated he asks for advice from Iago, he then informs Cassio the only way to gain his position back is to talk to Desdemona. Cassio then leaves “good night, Honest Iago” (II, iii, 306). Shakespeare put in those two extra words on purpose; he is trying to show how Iago is already able to play with people’s minds and how manipulative he can be. Us, the audience knowing what Iago really wants to do, but Cassio puts trust into Iago with his position and future. The last person to believe Iago is honest and to trust him is Othello. Iago started to tell Othello of how Desdemona might be sleeping with Cassio, and how she is cheating on him. Othello does not believe him as there is no proof, “I’ll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove; and on the proof there is no more but this” (III, iii, 190-191). Othello knows

     Iago told Othello that he would discuss Desdemona with Cassio, and that he would talk about the affair. Iago does not do this, and instead he talks about Bianca with Cassio, and Cassio laughs at things Iago says. Othello sees Cassio laughing and just assumes he is laughing at Desdemona, which in return upsets him very much. Iago used several tactics to set up Othello for deception in this case.

Othello trusts Iago and now Iago is trying to take his wife from him for someone else. Furthermore, “He takes her by the palm...sir in.” (pg. 71). Iago watches Cassio and Emilia because he thinks they had an affair he watches them carefully so he can figure out how to convince Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair. Another example involves the plan to help Othello kill Desdemona. “Do it not with poison. Strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated” (pg. 185). Othello believes that Iago is most honest, thus he believed killing his wife Desdemona was the right thing to do. Iago brainwashed Othello into believing the wrong thing was the right thing. The characterization of Iago is created by the use of dramatic irony. The audience knew how devious Iago is, but the characters fell for his mischievous acts.

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.

Iago warns Othello that “[Desdemona] did deceive her father, marrying [Othello], and when she seemed to shake, and fear your looks, she loved them most.” (Shakespeare 3.3.207-210). We can see that Iago is trying to make Othello jealous by pointing out that Desdemona has already betrayed someone that she loved so what would prevent her from doing it again. Iago manipulates Othello by claiming that Desdemona gave Othello’s handkerchief away “yours by this hand! And to see how [Cassio] prizes the foolish woman, your wife! She gave it to him, and he hath given it to his whore” (Shakespeare 4.1.170-173). The final blow to manipulating Othello, Iago tells him that Desdemona gave Cassio her handkerchief confirming her betrayal. This is the end to behaving rationally for Othello. Mark Rose insist that Iago is “playing his victim [Cassio] with wine has robbed [Cassio of his reputation]. The presentation of Cassio as a decent man changed into a drunken madman foreshadows the actions of Othello to come” (Rose 285). This displays the idea that Iago is manipulating anyone in any way in order to get to Othello. In this case he is manipulating Cassio’s reputation so that later in the play Iago can use Cassio against Othello to make him jealous of his wife cheating on him with Cassio. Iago is easily able to set this in motion because he damaged Cassio’s reputation so much that Othello doesn’t trust him, or want him

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

By using short, choppy sentence structure and weak diction, he seems less of a threat to Othello and his innocence is enhanced through it. Also, by always using rhetorical questions, he never does address what it is Othello is talking about. Iago distorts Othello’s thoughts and gets him to think he knows much more than he is telling him about the entire affair. This becomes especially clear when Othello asks for “ocular proof” and Iago confirms he has it using statements like “I should be wise; for honesty’s a fool and looses that it works for,” Act III Scene iii line 378-379, meaning he should not tell Othello what he knows or it would ruin Iago’s reputation. This sets Othello’s suspicions aflame and soon Iago is relaying to him the story about Cassio’s dream about he and Desdemona, and finally, he closes with the handkerchief, the most powerful thing which Othello held as a sacred gift of love to his wife. He is then completely overcome with jealousy and scorn for his former lover and friend, wanting death for the both of them.

In Iago’s soliloquy, he explains that Cassio trusts him, which he can use to his advantage. Because Cassio is naturally charming, Iago knows that if he concocts a scheme where Cassio has lured Desdemona away from Othello, it will be plausible for Othello to believe it. (1.3.433-441) As previously mentioned, he knows his friends very well due to being analytical and simply being close friends with them, which is part of what made his malicious schemes so grand. Also, Iago divulges to himself and the audience that he believes that Desdemona loves Cassio, but not in the way he will make it appear. He knows that Othello is “of a constant, loving, noble nature,” and that he’ll prove to be “A most dear husband.” (2.1.308-313) Iago briefly scrutinizes Cassio, Desdemona, and Othello. Due to years of friendship, he knows all of them well. In this scene, Iago is not exposing his manipulative, cunning ways so much as he is merely analyzing his “friends.” This will prove to be useful to him later in the

Regardless of the tender relationship between Othello and Desdemona, Iago uses Roderigo to seep his lies into Brabantio’s mind and furthermore wreaking havoc among him and his impression of Othello. Dissimilar to this, Iago is supportive and social when it comes to being around Othello and the ones who he stabs behind their backs. Additional to the first instance of Iago’s scheming, he also releases his plans to alter Othello’s marriage and by doing so ruining Cassio’s chance of regaining lieutenancy. After the fight between Montano and drunk Cassio, Iago converses briefly with Cassio who eventually leaves Iago alone in the streets. Once he is gone Iago explains: “And out of her own goodness make the net that shall enmesh them all”(2.3.375-80). From this statement it is clear how Iago has no care towards helping Cassio who needs Desdemona to get his position back, and also for innocent Desdemona who will soon be wrongfully accused of Iago’s bluffs. This is obvious since Iago yearns to create a “net” using Desdemona’s simplicity, and more importantly taking control of everyone’s life with it. Unfortunately the ones who are around him fail to recognize his actions, and without knowing are slowly fooled into their own misery which is all part of Iago’s

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.

The following situation also proves Iago’s ability to effectively use his power over Othello’s intelligence and jealousy. Othello was very gullible and innocent, so Iago took complete advantage of that. He makes Othello believe that Desdemona is unfaithful toward him with Cassio. He does so through a multitude of ways: “If I can fasten but one cup upon him,

Othello’s love for Desdemona was so deep he could not bear the thought of another being with her; “If she be false, O! Then heaven mocks itself. I’ll not believe’t.” Iago uses the characters of Cassio and the obsessive Roderigo as his weapons in his cunning plan. Iago drives the idea into Othello’s mind that Desdemona has been unfaithful, inciting him into a state of jealousy. “Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee; and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.” Othello growing insecurities about his wife’s faithfulness only adds to his psychological suffering which in turn acts as a catalyst towards the suffering of other characters involved in the play.Iago tells these lies with the intention of driving Othello insane as well as establish his dominance and influence the situations of those characters close to Othello. Evidence of this comes in one of Iago’s soliloquies from act two, scene one; “That Cassio loves her, I do well Believe’t: That she loves him, ‘tis apt and of great credit.” This section shows that he is trying to convince himself that his own manipulative lies are true and is trying to reassure his motives by justifying his own actions. By convincing Othello

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.

Shakespeare uses a combination of recurring themes and motifs such as betrayal, love, conflict, and jealousy throughout his plays and sonnets. In Shakespeare’s Othello, jealousy is the prominent theme, which causes the destruction and tragic downfall of the play’s main characters. Jealousy is masked through lies, misleading situations and manipulation and interpreted in varied ways by the main characters. From beginning to end, jealousy is rooted in every scene, eventually leading to the death and demise of the main character, Othello.

Shakespeare portrays Iago using ethos to persuade Othello that his wife has been cheating on him and states, "Men should be what they seem, or those that be not, would they might seem not" (3.3 126-127). Iago ironically states that people should look the same on the outside as on the inside and they shouldn’t be twofaced. Iago cleverly knows that once an idea has been put into Othello’s head no matter what Iago says, Othello will follow that idea and be effortlessly manipulated by Iago. Iago proceeds to use the appeal of pathos in his words when he appeals to Othello’s emotions and provoked him. When Othello thinks that Cassio has Desdemona’s handkerchief Iago does his best to convince Othello that it is nothing but the truth and Iago states, “If it be that, or any that was hers, It speaks against her with the other proofs”(3.3 500-501). Othello maddened by Iagos words ragingly responds, “Oh, I’d kill that bastard Cassio forty thousand times if I could! Killing him once is not enough revenge. Now I see it’s true…”(3.3 502-504). Iago knows exactly how to appeal to Othello and push his buttons for him to think the exact way Iago wishes him to. When Iago puts the handkerchief by Cassio, he changes the scenario into proof that Desdemona was cheating on Othello and ruins their