Othello's Tragic Flaw Analysis

Othello becomes jealous of Michael Cassio, when he suspects he is sleeping with his wife. “At way at once of love or jealousy”(131/220) Othello lets his own insecurities create a false image of his wife Desdemona letting the “Green-eyed monster” into his head. This becomes a problem for Othello because he can no longer hide his jealousy and starts to take it out on people. When jealousy sneaks into his life, it turns him into a completely different person and he can no longer control his anger, towards Desdemona and Cassio. “Jealousy has far thou taken over” Othello has no more room for any emotions and just lets the emotion of jealousy consume him.

Othello’s jealousy causes him to jump to conclusions and not doing his due diligence in investigating Desdemona’s possible infidelity himself. Once it is proved to Othello that Desdemona was innocent and the affair was fabricated by Iago, Othello despairingly stabs and kills himself. Shakespeare uses Othello to warn against jealousy by providing an example of the possibly fatal consequences to those who harbor such envy. Yet again cruelty comes as a result of the provocation of the character's fatal flaw, and in the case of Othello it was his

He kills the love of his life while blinded with false anger and jealousy, only to find out all of the betrayal was fake. He finally has actual suspicions when Emilia, the wife of Iago, reacts by saying, “If he say so, may his pernicious soul Rot half a grain a day! He lies to th ' heart. She was too fond of her most filthy bargain.” (5.2.166). Even as Emilia is finally clearing his vision, he draws his sword at her, refusing to believe that he’d killed the love of his life for nothing but lies.

The Play Othello by William Shakespeare shows how easily jealousy can destroy relationships, and turn tokens of love into symbols of infidelity. The setup of the play is somewhat confusing: who is the main character? The play mostly focuses on Iago and his plans to ruin Othello's life and it is hard to tell if Iago was meant to be the protagonist or antagonist. The play starts with Iago letting Brabantio know that Othello “the moor” has married the man's daughter in secret. Thus the game begins: Iago pretends in front of Othello, that he is his friend while he secretly plots against him.

First of all, the character Othello’s love for his wife Desdemona is soiled by Iago putting false images into Othello’s head that his wife is being unfaithful to him which ultimately leads him to kill his own wife because of his vulnerability and insecurity towards the pure love he had for her. Othello starts to feel things that he has never felt before towards his wife, “I had rather be a toad/And live upon the vapor of a dungeon /Than keep a corner in the thing I love/For others' uses. Yet 'tis the plague of great ones” (3.3.311-14). Iago is planting the seeds for Othello’s relationship with Desdemona to crumble by putting images into Othello’s head about women and generalizing all women saying that they all act upon their temptations with no remorse. In these lines said by Othello, he is showing how someone’s deceit (having to do with his love for his wife) can really go as far as to make him criticize a whole entire gender based on one idea that his Desdemona has been unfaithful—and he does not even have proof that this accusation is true.

Tybalt illustrates passionate hate which makes him very impatient with the Montagues and leads to his own death and causes emotional distress to the Capulet family. Accordingly this can be seen when Romeo goes to the fest at the Capulets and Tybalt wants to kill him solely because he was present at the fest. This, by his voice, should be a Montague.— (to his PAGE) Fetch me my rapier, boy.— What, dares the slave Come hither, cover’d with an antic face, To fleer and scorn at our solemnity? Now by the stock and honor of my kin, To strike him dead I hold it not a sin. Tybalt believes that Romeo attended the fest to mock and show disgrace to the Capulet and therefore wanted to kill Romeo.

Iago does not even know for sure whether or not Othello did sleep with his wife but Iago is going to act as if it is. Not only that, his revenge is clearly going to be very malicious, and for Iago to go through with this revenge with one of his reasons not even confirmed to him, too. That is just a sign of a very jealous man.

The down side to this is that he is impulsive in major life decisions, an example would be getting married to a woman that fell in love with him because she felt pity for him. Othello stated that Desdemona only fell in love with him for his lonely and depressing life. Othello said, “She loved me for the dangers I had past, / And I loved her that she did pity them.” Whiling explains how Desdemona fell in love with him (1.3.166-7). Another irrational decision he acted hastily upon was to kill his wife so soon after he thought she was having an affair. Othello didn’t really think about his decisions before he made them.

While Othello seems an insane story, the plot teaches that jealousy and deception can destroy many people, including those who seek benefits through channeling their feelings. A major liar attempts to create fights between his acquaintances, assuming he will get by doing so. His lies create some bloody circumstances and ultimately lead to his undoing. He controls the story and is later despised once the plot is foiled. Iago exploits creases in the feelings of Othello and Desdemona to create conflicts.

When Iago says this, he is showing his true colors. He is a sneaky and devious man who happens to be under the authority of Othello. He hates Othello and basically his life. He is jealous, dramatic, and is willing to lose everything just to cause chaos and destruction to anyone that crosses his path. Here, he is telling the audience that bad things are to come and his is beginning to have ideas on how to destroy Othello, Desdemona, and the

The cousin asks Iago about Othello striking Desdemona, and like the little weasel he is, he didn’t tell him this was the first time. Instead he told him to follow Othello and watch him because he knows Othello will kill Desdemona that night. Othello is filled with so much jealousy that he can’t see reason. Iago has brainwashed him so much he is to the point of no return. Emilia has tried to tell Othello that Desdemona has been a faithful good wife to him and the moment she leaves, he starts talking trash because he can’t believe it.

Iago reminds Othello about Brabantio’s comment and it causes some feeling towards the end of the tragedy and helps Iago convince Othello into thinking that Desdemona has been unfaithful because of how her father says if she betrays me why wouldn’t she betray him. Brabantio 's comment on deceit reinforced Othello’s jealousy and concluded that his only option was to kill his unfaithful Desdemona because he convinced him that she has not been faithful

Iago infers that his plan is rancorous, and the evilness will shine through, once the wicked acts are completed. Iago has a desire to destroy the lives of Othello and Desdemona because he thinks that Othello slept with his wife. This makes Iago villainous because he is planning destruction. Iago’s goal is to devastate Othello’s life to seek revenge. Iago possess pernicious traits because he destroys his life and marriage, as well as the marriage between Othello and Desdemona.

His arrogance and anger cost him his life but with the warning “Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.” he might have been spared that consequence. However, because of his actions he can be described as vain. This is because throughout almost the entire play he is out to kill someone, namely Romeo. This also proves that he is very self-centered because of his reasons for attacking Romeo which was: crashing a Capulet party and being a Montague. His ill-wished actions caused a severe outcome.