Melony Galicia Ms. Zongker AP English lll February 20, 2017 Driven by Jealousy In Othello, Shakespeare illustrates the dangers of jealousy through the belligerent actions of the characters. Jealousy can be incited by circumstantial proof, that can ruin lives. Shakespeare uses dramatic techniques to aid him in conveying his message. Being fearful and insecure causes one to become jealous of the evils that follow jealousy. For example , when Iago acknowledges that the lieutenant promotion was passed onto cassio instead of him, he became infuriated and envious, even referring to Cassio as a bookworm .
In Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago is a spurious, manipulative character that fabricates a scheming plan to use Michael Cassio as a scapegoat in ruining Othello’s life. Once again, Iago addresses the crowd with a soliloquy to formulate his plan. Iago seemingly takes on the role of a ringleader, pawning the rest of the characters throughout his act. Earlier in the play, Cassio and Desdemona share a friendly gesture of holding hands, after Desdemona’s debate with Iago. Iago expresses in great detail the prejudices against the female sexuality by claiming that all types of woman, whether beautiful or ugly, are deceitful and ‘sex-crazy’.
Pride, greed, and lust drove Iago to poisoning Desdemona 's father and eventually ruining the marriage between Desdemona and Othello. In his play, he approach the problems the world faces in a comedic manner. People let greed and lust persuade them to do crazy things. Othello and Iago are foil characters in Othello. Iago let his vengeful ways and deceitful motives alter his decisions while Othello appears in the opening acts as the very personification of self control”(Harbage).
To skillfully manipulate someone is to use their weaknesses and to use their emotions against them. Iago uses these methods with each character in order to effectively gain their trust and allows him to use them. Iago uses these techniques to perfection to achieve the power he craves. Iago was fueled by jealousy and used this as his motivation throughout the play. He got jealous of Othello for allegedly sleeping with his wife, and of Cassio who has taken the position that he wants.
“To what extent is Iago responsible for the downfall of other characters in Othello?” .The Shakespearean character ensign, Iago, is the trusted friend and advisor of his army superior Othello, who plots the downfall of several characters within the play. Iago was the character most responsible for the tragic events in the play, Othello. He is the driving force that moves the play, pushing Othello and everyone else towards the tragic ending. From the beginning to the end of the play, Iago arranges the entire vile plan that gives rise to Othello 's destruction and demise, beginning with the exclusion of Cassio, Othello trusted lieutenant. After that, Iago being convincing Othello that Cassio and Desdemona are having a relationship, a claim supported by his famous handkerchief trick.
All these traits that Othello exhibits lead him to be known as one of the most well-known tragic heroes in all of literature. And Iago is person who is full of hatred and jealousy towards anyone who is in a position higher than him; he can’t control his jealousy and begin doing actions which is not suitable to his position. This leads to destroy all the people whom around him even the people he
Iago uses manipulation to turn the moor into a murderer. The main reason for Iago's success was based on the social differences between the two. In that time interracial marriage between a black and white person was unacceptable, giving Iago the chance to enrage Brabantio. To begin with, Iago told Roderigo,” I will follow him to serve my turn upon him.” The quote means Iago's intentions are to mislead Othello by gaining his trust and turning him into a killer beast. Once Othello's trust is gain, Othello confides in Iago about Desdemona.
Although the audience is well aware of his hatred for Othello at this point, this soliloquy begins to delve into the mind of Iago. For example, Iago states “Thus do I ever make my fool my purse;/ For I mine own gained knowledge should profane/ If I would time expend with such a snipe/ But for my sport and profit” (1.3.375-8). Because Roderigo is in love with Othello’s wife Desdemona, Iago is just using him in order to achieve his goal. While Iago continues with discussing his thoughts, he brings up many reasons behind why he is planning to get revenge. First, he uses derogatory terms to describe Othello such as a moor.
William Shakespeare's play Othello uses irony to present the central message that reputation is not an accurate evaluation of one’s character, for manipulation is very prevalent throughout the plot. Varying types of irony are used as Othello, Emilia, and Desdemona all are not able to grasp reality with the information that is presented to them. Iago takes away what is truly occurring to improve his own standings while shattering others. Emilia was unaware of her husband's intention to sabotage as she exclaimed, “I tell you, it makes my husband so unhappy, you’d think it was his own cause”(Shakespeare 155). Furthermore, on a superficial level dramatic irony was used as Emelia was blind to Iago being the cause of the predicament.
Iago’s two-sided character served the purpose of strengthening the plot and character development throughout the play. Through this, the audience gains their own opinion of developing characters and clearly know who to sympathize. From the very beginning of the play, Iago was introduced as a racist man. He referred to Othello as a “lust driven animal” that is abusing “the innocent Desdemona”. For example, he calls Othello, “an old black ram”