Dealing With Deceit In Shakespeare's Othello

Dealing with Deceit ¨You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.¨ - Phineas T. Barnum. While the characters in Othello and Macbeth both dealt with rhetoric in divergent means they were also confronted by rhetoric in different approaches. In Othello the characters naively credited everything Iago said as true without question. While in Macbeth the main characters strived to alter the witches’ prophecy for their own dominance. This will inevitably be the characters’ from both stories own demise. Throughout the play of Othello readers can see the main antagonist, Iago, use of equivocation to his advantage and ultimately executing his external goal, while the readers are left

Iago maliciously uses deceit in order to entrap Othello and continual strategic use of speech tempts Othello to his own extinction (Christofides Par. - 6). The shortcoming for Othello was not Iago’s

The handkerchief was one of the most iconic symbols in the play, not only because of its sentimental value but also what it symbolized. Othello’s first gift to Desdemona was the handkerchief that she kept with her at all times symbolizing their love, Othello sees it as a symbol of Desdemona’s fidelity. Othello’s mother used it in a similar fashion which was to keep his father faithful to her. He told Desdemona the history behind the handkerchief and said it was two hundred years old and woven by a female prophet who used sacred silkworms and dye from the hearts of mummified virgins. Edward Snow throws menstrual blood into the mix, arguing that the handkerchief is “a nexus for three aspects of woman - chaste bride, sexual object, and maternal threat” (as cited in Smith PLL