othello literary essay on jealousy

William Shakespeare

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Iago refers to jealousy as the "green-eyed monster." As this metaphor suggests, jealousy is closely associated with the theme of appearance and reality. For instance, at one point Othello demands that Iago provide "ocular proof" of Desdemona's infidelity—he demands to see reality. But Iago instead provides the circumstantial evidence of the handkerchief, which Othello, consumed by his jealousy, accepts as a substitute for "ocular proof." Othello's jealousy impedes his ability to distinguish between reality and appearance. While the prejudiced characters in the play denigrate Othello as an animal or a beast based on his race, Othello's obvious honor and intelligence makes these attacks obviously ridiculous. Yet when Othello is overcome by jealousy, he does become beast-like, falling into epileptic fits that rob him of the ability to speak intelligibly.

Othello is also not the only character in Othello to feel jealousy. Both Iago and Roderigo act to destroy Othello out of jealousy, with disastrous consequences.

Jealousy ThemeTracker

Jealousy Quotes in Othello

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Othello

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Othello

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 0 )

Of all Shakespeare’s tragedies . . . Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. From the moment when the temptation of the hero begins, the reader’s heart and mind are held in a vice, experiencing the extremes of pity and fear, sympathy and repulsion, sickening hope and dreadful expectation. Evil is displayed before him, not indeed with the profusion found in King Lear, but forming, as it were, the soul of a single character, and united with an intellectual superiority so great that he watches its advance fascinated and appalled. He sees it, in itself almost irresistible, aided at every step by fortunate accidents and the innocent mistakes of its victims. He seems to breathe an atmosphere as fateful as that of King Lear , but more confined and oppressive, the darkness not of night but of a close-shut murderous room. His imagination is excited to intense activity, but it is the activity of concentration rather than dilation.

—A. C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy

Between William Shakespeare’s most expansive and philosophical tragedies— Hamlet and King Lear —is Othello, his most constricted and heart-breaking play. Othello is a train wreck that the audience horrifyingly witnesses, helpless to prevent or look away. If Hamlet is a tragedy about youth, and Lear concerns old age, Othello is a family or domestic tragedy of a middle-aged man in which the fate of kingdoms and the cosmos that hangs in the balance in Hamlet and Lear contracts to the private world of a marriage’s destruction. Following his anatomizing of the painfully introspective intellectual Hamlet, Shakespeare, at the height of his ability to probe human nature and to dramatize it in action and language, treats Hamlet’s temperamental opposite—the man of action. Othello is decisive, confident, and secure in his identity, duty, and place in the world. By the end of the play, he has brought down his world around him with the relentless force that made him a great general turned inward, destroying both what he loved best in another and in himself. That such a man should fall so far and so fast gives the play an almost unbearable momentum. That such a man should unravel so completely, ushered by jealousy and hatred into a bestial worldview that cancels any claims of human virtue and self-less devotion, shocks and horrifies. Othello is generally regarded as Shakespeare’s greatest stage play, the closest he would ever come to conforming to the constrained rules of Aristotelian tragedy. The intensity  and  focus  of  Othello   is  unalleviated  by  subplots,  comic  relief,  or  any  mitigation  or  consolation  for  the  deterioration  of  the  “noble  Moor”  and  his  collapse into murder and suicide. At the center of the play’s intrigue is Shakespeare’s most sinister and formidable conceptions of evil in Iago, whose motives and the wellspring of his villainy continue to haunt audiences and critics alike. Indeed, the psychological resonances of the drama, along with its provocative racial and gender themes, have caused Othello, perhaps more than any other of Shakespeare’s plays, to reverberate the loudest with current audiences and commentators. As scholar Edward Pechter has argued, “During the past twenty-five years or so, Othello has become the Shakespearean tragedy of choice, replacing King Lear in the way Lear had earlier replaced Hamlet as the play that speaks most directly and powerfully to current interests.”

Shakespeare derived his plot from Giraldi Cinthio’s “Tale of the Moor,” in the story collection Hecatommithi (1565), reshaping Cinthio’s sensational tale of jealousy, intrigue, and murder in several key ways. In Cinthio’s story, Alfiero, the scheming ensign, lusts after the Moor’s wife, named Disdemona, and after she spurns his advances, Alfiero seeks vengeance by accusing her of adultery with Cassio,  the  Moor’s  lieutenant.  Alfiero,  like  Iago,  similarly  arouses  the  Moor’s  suspicions by stealing Disdemona’s handkerchief and planting it in Cassio’s bed-room. However, the Moor and Alfiero join forces to kill Disdemona, beating her  to  death  with  a  stocking  filled  with  sand  before  pulling  down  the  ceiling  on her dead body to conceal the crime as an accident. The Moor is eventually captured,  tortured,  and  slain  by  Disdemona’s  relatives,  while  the  ensign  dies  during torture for another crime. What is striking about Shakespeare’s alteration of Cinthio’s grisly tale of murder and villainy is the shift of emphasis to the provocation for the murder, the ennobling of Othello as a figure of great stature and dignity to underscore his self-destruction, and the complication of motive for  the  ensign’s  actions.  Cinthio’s  version  of  Iago  is  conventionally  driven  by  jealousy  of  a  superior  and  lust  for  his  wife.  Iago’s  motivation  is  anything  but  explainable in conventional terms. Dramatically, Shakespeare turns the focus of the play from the shocking crime to its causes and psychic significance, trans-forming Cinthio’s intrigue story of vile murder into one of the greatest dramatic meditations on the nature of love and its destruction.

What  makes  Othello  so  unique  structurally  (and  painful  to  witness)  is  that  it  is  a  tragedy  built  on  a  comic  foundation.  The  first  two  acts  of  the  play  enact  the  standard  pattern  of  Shakespeare’s  romantic  comedies.  The  young Venetian noblewoman, Desdemona, has eloped with the middle-aged Othello, the military commander of the armed forces of Venice. Their union is opposed by Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, and by a rival for Desdemona, Roderigo,  who  in  the  play’s  opening  scenes  are  both  provoked  against Othello  by  Iago.  Desdemona  and  Othello,  therefore,  face  the  usual  challenges of the lovers in a Shakespearean comedy who must contend with the forces of authority, custom, and circumstances allied against their union. The romantic climax comes in the trial scene of act 1, in which Othello success-fully defends himself before the Venetian senate against Brabantio’s charge that  Othello  has  beguiled  his  daughter,  “stol’n  from  me,  and  corrupted  /  By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks.” Calmly and courteously Othello recounts how, despite the differences of age, race, and background, he won Desdemona’s heart by recounting the stories of his exotic life and adventures: “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, / And I loved her that she did pity them.” Wonder at Othello’s heroic adventures and compassion for her sympathy have brought the two opposites together—the young, inexperienced  Venetian  woman  and  the  brave,  experienced  outsider.  Desdemona finally, dramatically appears before the senate to support Othello’s account of their courtship and to balance her obligation to her father and now to her husband based on the claims of love:

My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty: To you I am bound for life and education; My life and education both do learn me How to respect you; you are the lord of duty; I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband; And so much duty as my mother show’d To you, preferring you before her father, So much I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor, my lord.

Both Desdemona and Othello defy by their words and gestures the calumnies heaped upon them by Roderigo and Brabantio and vindicate the imperatives of the heart over parental authority and custom. As in a typical Shakespearean comedy, love, tested, triumphs over all opposition.

Vindicated by the duke of Venice and the senate, Othello, accompanied by Desdemona, takes up his military duties in the face of a threatened Turkish invasion, and the lovers are given a triumphal wedding-like procession and marriage ceremony when they disembark on Cyprus. The storm that divides the Venetian fleet also disperses the Turkish threat and clears the way for the lovers’ happy  reunion  and  peaceful  enjoyment  of  their  married  state.  First  Cassio lands to deliver the news of Othello’s marriage and, like the best man, supplies glowing praise for the groom and his bride; next Desdemona, accompanied by Iago and his wife, Emilia, enters but must await news of the fate of Othello’s ship. Finally, Othello arrives giving him the opportunity to renew his marriage vows to Desdemona:

It gives me wonder great as my content To see you here before me. O my soul’s joy, If after every tempest come such calms, May the wind blow till they have wakened death, And let the labouring barque climb hills of seas Olympus-high, and duck again as low As hell’s from heaven. If it were now to die ’Twere now to be most happy, for I fear My soul hath content so absolute That not another comfort like to this Succeeds in unknown fate.

The scene crowns love triumphant. The formerly self-sufficient Othello has now  staked  his  life  to  his  faith  in  Desdemona  and  their  union,  and  she  has  done the same. The fulfillment of the wedding night that should come at the climax of the comedy is relocated to act 2, with the aftermath of the courtship and the wedding now taking  center  stage.  Having triumphantly bested  the  social and natural forces aligned against them, having staked all to the devotion of the other, Desdemona and Othello will not be left to live happily ever after, and the tragedy will grow out of the conditions that made the comedy. Othello, unlike the other Shakespearean comedies, adds three more acts to the romantic drama, shifting from comic affirmation to tragic negation.

Iago  reviews  Othello’s  performance  as  a  lover  by  stating,  “O,  you  are  well tuned now, / But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music.” Iago will now orchestrate discord and disharmony based on a life philosophy totally opposed to the ennobling and selfless concept of love demonstrated by the newlyweds. As Iago asserts to Roderigo, “Virtue? A fig!” Self-interest is all that  matters,  and  love  is  “merely  a lust  of  the  blood  and  a  permission  of  the will.” Othello and Desdemona cannot possibly remain devoted to each other, and, as Iago concludes, “If sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt an err-ing barbarian and a super-subtle Venetian be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her.” The problem of Iago’s motivation to destroy Othello and Desdemona is not that he has too few motives but too many. He offers throughout the play multiple justifi cations for his intrigue: He has been passed over in favor of Cassio; he suspects the Moor and Cassio with his wife, Emilia; he is envious of Cassio’s open nature; and he is desirous of Desdemona himself. No single motive is relied on for long, and the gap  between  cause  and  effect,  between  the  pettiness  of  Iago’s  grudges  and  the monstrousness of his behavior, prompted Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a memorable phrase to characterize Iago’s “motiveless malignity.” There is in Iago a zest for villainy and a delight in destruction, driven more by his hatred and  contempt  for  any  who  oppose  his  conception  of  jungle  law  than  by  a  conventional  naturalistic  explanation  based  on  jealousy  or  envy.  Moreover, Shakespeare, by deliberately clouding the issue of Iago’s motive, finds ever more sinister threats in such a character’s apparently bottomless and unmerited hatred and capacity for evil.

Iago will direct the remainder of the play, constructing Othello’s down-fall out of the flimsiest evidence and playing on the strengths and weaknesses of Othello’s nature and the doubts that erode Othello’s faith in Desdemona. Act 3, one of the wonders of the stage, anatomizes Othello’s psychic descent from  perfect  contentment  in  his  new  wife  to  complete  loathing,  from  a  worldview  in  which  everything  is  as  it  appears  to  one  in  which  nothing  is  as it seems. Iago leads Othello to suspect that love and devotion are shams disguising the basest of animalistic  instincts.  Misled  by  the  handkerchief,  his  love  token  to  Desdemona,  that  Iago  has  planted  in  Cassio’s  room  and  by a partially overheard conversation between Iago and Cassio, Othello, by the end of act 3, forsakes his wife and engages himself in a perverse version of the marriage ceremony of act 2 to Iago. As the pair kneels together, they exchange vows:

Iago: Witness you ever-burning lights above, You elements that clip us round about, Witness that here Iago doth give up The execution of his wit, hands, heart To wronged Othello’s service. Let him command, And to obey shall be in me remorse, What bloody business ever.

Othello: I greet thy love, Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous, And will upon the instant put thee to’t. Within these three days let me hear thee say That Cassio’s not alive.

Iago: My friend is dead. ’Tis done at your request; but let her live.

Othello: Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her, damn her! Come, go with me apart. I will withdraw To furnish me with some swift means of death For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant.

Iago: I am your own for ever.

This scene has suggested to some critics that Iago’s true motivation for destroying the marriage of Desdemona and Othello is a repressed homosexual love for Othello. An equal case can be made that Iago here completes his role as Vice, borrowed from the medieval morality plays, sealing the Faustian bargain for Othello’s soul in this mock or black marriage scene.

The play moves relentlessly from here to catastrophe as Othello delivers justice to those he is convinced have wronged him. As he attempts to carry out  his  execution  of  Desdemona,  she  for  the  first  time  realizes  his  charges  against her and his utter delusion. Ignoring her appeals for mercy and avowals of innocence, Othello smothers her moments before Emilia arrives with the proof of  Desdemona’s  innocence  and  Iago’s  villainy.  Othello  must  now  face  the  realization  of  what  he  has  done.  He turns  to  Iago,  who  has  been  brought before him to know the reason for his actions. Iago replies: “Demand me  nothing;  what  you  know,  you  know:  /  From  this  time  forth  I  never  will  speak  word.”  By  Iago’s  exiting  the  stage,  closing  access  to  his  motives,  the  focus remains firmly on Othello, not as Iago’s victim, but as his own. His final speech mixes together the acknowledgment of what he was and what he has become, who he is and how he would like to be remembered:

I have done the state some service, and they know’t. No more of that. I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely but too well, Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought, Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand, Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe.

Consistent with his role as guardian of order in the state, Othello carries out his own execution, by analogy judging his act as a violation reflected by Venice’s savage enemy:

And say besides, that in Aleppo once, Where a malignant and a turban’d Turk Beat a Venetian and tradu’d the state, I took by th’ throat the circumcisèd dog, And smote him—thus.

Othello, likewise, has “tradu’d the state” and has changed from noble and valiant Othello to a beast, with the passion that ennobled him shown as corrosive and demeaning. He carries out his own execution for a violation that threatens social and psychic order. For the onlookers on stage, the final tableau of the dead Desdemona and Othello “poisons sight” and provokes the command to “Let it be hid.” The witnesses on stage cannot compute rationally what has occurred nor why, but the audience has been given a privileged view of the battle between good and evil worked out in the private recesses of a bedroom and a human soul.

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

Othello Oxford Lecture by Emma Smith

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Othello Theme of Jealousy

Othello is the most famous literary work that focuses on the dangers of jealousy. The play is a study of how jealousy can be fueled by mere circumstantial evidence and can destroy lives. (In Othello , the hero succumbs to jealousy when Iago convinces him that Desdemona has been an unfaithful wife – in the end, Othello murders his wife and then kills himself.) It is interesting that Iago uses jealousy against Othello, yet jealousy is likely the source of Iago's hatred in the first place. In Othello , jealousy takes many forms, from sexual suspicion to professional competition, but it is, in all cases, destructive.

Questions About Jealousy

• What language does Shakespeare use to describe jealousy in the play? Do different characters use different metaphors to describe jealousy, or are there common ways of talking about it?
• Do other characters besides Othello demonstrate jealousy? In what ways?
• Is jealousy portrayed as intrinsically unreasonable? Is there a kind of jealousy that is reasonable, or does the play suggest that all jealousy tends to "mock" the person who is jealous?
• Why is sexual jealousy the focus of the play, rather than a different kind of jealousy? What other kinds of jealousy are included in Othello? (If you're thinking of Iago's jealousy of Othello, keep in mind that this, too, could be sexual jealousy.)

Chew on This

The reason Iago chooses to hurt Othello by making him jealous is that Iago is consumed by jealousy himself. In Othello, Shakespeare proves that jealousy is inherently unreasonable, as it is founded on the psychological issues of the jealous person, not on the behavior of the one who prompts the jealous feelings.

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Theme of Jealousy in Othello by Shakespeare Research Paper

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Introduction

Jealousy in othello, works cited.

The play Othello is among the most famous tragic plays written by Shakespeare. The story concentrates on four main characters namely Othello, Desdemona, Cassio and Lago. Due to its varied nature and the fact that it addresses important themes such as betrayal, love, death and jealousy, it is still performed in many theatres today.

It stands out as a unique play with a personal setting describing the aspirations and private lives of the main characters. The jealousy displayed by Othello and the villainous nature of Lago are some of the qualities that impress the readers of the play.

In addition, the relationship among the characters makes the play unique (Sparknotes 1).Othello and Lago show close associations which make it difficult to figure out who has the greatest responsibility in the play. Most importantly, the role played by Lago who is the villain distinguishes the play from others. Shakespeare addresses different themes in the play and this essay will discuss jealousy as one of the themes addressed in Othello by Shakespeare.

Shakespeare was one of the most prominent writers who ever lived. He was known for addressing various themes such as betrayal, death and love in his works as evidenced in his play Othello. However, theme of jealousy stands out from the start till the end of the play. As the play begins, Roderigo is presented as he tries to be close to Desdemona.

The theme runs throughout the play until the end, leaving Othello very angry and envious because he believes that Cassio and Desdemona have been entangled in an affair. The jealousy of some characters in the play is influenced by other characters. Lago is the greatest victim of this and creates lies and presents situations aimed at misleading the other characters. He exhibits jealousy towards Cassio and Othello because he was not appointed as a lieutenant.

Lago can be described as a jealous character since he wishes every other person could share in his feelings so he goes ahead to plant the seed of jealousy in other characters. He is driven by anger and envy and aims at instilling jealousy in all the other characters, an aim he achieves through manipulating and betraying them, particularly Othello.

The play begins with Roderigo’s desperate love for Desmodena after which he decides to pay Lago to take her from Othello. This is an important scene in the play since it depicts Lago as a villainous character.

The deeds of Lago and his words portray him as a manipulative character. He designs a plan to ruin Othello by calling him a thief since he has stolen the heart of Desmodena through witchcraft. He goes on to implore Roderigo to confront Desmodena’s father by telling him, ‘call up her father, rouse him…poison his delights…do, with like timorous accent and dire yell’ (Shakespeare 64).

In actual sense, Lago is not concerned about the heart of Roderigo. This implies that Roderigo’s love for Desdemona and the fact that he wants to be with her means nothing to Lago. His intentions are not geared towards helping Roderigo look for Desdemona but encourage Brabantio to pursue Othello because this would disturb him.

Lago perfects the art of speaking things that people would want to hear hence misleading them and making them react according to his plans. He is so witty in his diction to keep off any possible argument and confrontation.

He treats Othello in a manipulative manner when he convinces Roderigo to confront Desdemona’s father regarding the conduct of the daughter. Brabantio finds it difficult to believe the accusations leveled against her daughter by the two and dismisses them as absurd. He is angered by the two after they disturb him at night when he is asleep.

After this incident, Roderigo tries to justify his accusations but his actions only serve to further anger Brabantio. He refers to Roderigo as a villain while Roderigo calls him a senator. Brabantio is baffled by the remark made by Roderigo and sits back to reexamine the situation once more. After carefully re-examining the situation, his anger subsides and starts considering the stories told by the two especially when he discovers that Desdemona is not in her bed chamber (Sparknotes 3).

Lago chooses his words judiciously and expresses his views carefully. He knows what to say and the most appropriate time to say it in order to convince his listeners. He practices this especially when talking to Roderigo and Othello. He begins his talks with imperatives then follows them with self answered questions and concludes by making daring assertions.

The timing nature of Lago is evident when he speaks to Roderigo about the suspicions of Desdemona being in love with Othello. Lago brings out Othello as a deceitful person whose lies are believed by Desdemona. He then uses these lies to manipulate Roderigo by telling him that he is capable of distinguishing the relationship between Othello and Desdemona. However, what drives Lago to manipulate Othello is the jealousy he harbors towards him.

The actions of Lago and Othello are based on what they say and do. Both have hidden intentions of dominating over each other. Othello is seeking answers while Lago intends to manipulate those he considers to have hurt him. As a result, Lago manipulates the conversations to cause Othello create conclusions that suit him.

By using this strategy, Lago waits for Othello’s answer for him to craft a response that will increase his jealousy. For example, when Desdemona is seen with Cassio in a private place, Othello asks Lago about it. Lago answers Othello by telling him that he believes it was Cassio. Clearly, Lago evades the question asked by Othello but instead frames his own answer hence manipulating Othello to answer his own question (Shakespeare 65).

Lago employs suspicion, forestalled criticism, hints and twists reality. He frames the relationship between Cassio and Desdemona for the sake of convenience. He is so determined to ensure that Othello develops unending jealousy for Desdemona by insinuating that Desmodena is unfaithful.

The chance presents itself when Cassio and Desmodena are spotted together. Lago slyly comments about the behavior of the two, a comment that elicits serious thoughts in Othello and wonders what their intentions were. When Othello tries to get more information from Lago, he declines to give any information and this makes Othello more suspicious.

As a result, his jealousy towards Desdemona continues to grow. Lago uses implied communications to make sure that he achieves his goals. He manages to change the perceptions that Othello has towards Cassio and leaves him asking for more information. Othello tries to understand whether the accusations of unfaithfulness made by Lago against Desmodena are right.

Lago tells Othello that he should not continue thinking about the adulteries committed but instead Othello thinks about them deeply. He is persuaded by Lago and he develops jealousy towards Desmodena but never questions the two about the affair. Othello adheres to what he is told by Lago and relies on available predetermined evidence. For instance, when a handkerchief that belongs to Desdemona is found on the bed chamber of Cassio, he is convinced that Desdemona is unfaithful.

Othello’s jealousy towards Desdemona continues to increase and to him the only person who can be trusted is Lago because he seems concerned about his life. Lago is engaged in many secret strategies and manipulates him to move in the direction he wants by pretending to be an innocent person. This is a scheme that portrays Lago as a person who sympathizes with Othello but the case is different.

The deceitful nature of Lago is exhibited when he tells Othello that Desdemona lied to his father about marrying Othello. When Lago points out the past deeds of Desdemona, Othello continues developing jealousy towards her because she lied to her father regarding the marriage (Sparknotes 5).

Desdemona is represented as a mere pawn to Lago. In the first episodes of the play, Lago is not so much interested in her. He only mentions her when talking to Othello about her unfaithfulness.

Later in the development of the play, Lago feels threatened after Desdemona asks about his perception of women and how he depicts them. This compels Lago to express love that is not genuine simply because he has been forced to do so. However, this makes him angered and expresses his jealousy towards Desdemona till the end of the play.

The motivation of the evil acts that are perpetrated by Lago in the play is not brought out clearly in the play. He is angered and harbors intense jealousy towards other characters just because Cassio was appointed a lieutenant despite the fact that Lago was more experienced.

He too becomes jealous of Othello although his manipulative character is not justified by this jealousy towards Othello. The truth of the matter is that Lago is very jealous and strives towards developing the jealousy he has in other characters. He believes that he is the person undergoing a lot of suffering and wants other characters to develop anger and jealousy.

Lago comes out as one of the villainous characters in the works of William Shakespeare. What brings out this character is the fact that he secretly creates the trouble happening in the play but he pretends to be innocent and blameless such that nobody suspects him. He achieves this by applying manipulative strategies that end up betraying other characters.

He always tells lies that cause serious consequences but he expresses sympathy and is ever ready to share his secrets with somebody. It is not clear why Lago acts the way he acts and this makes him even more frightening. He is full of jealousy and wants every other person to feel as jealous as he is. The jealousy of Lago and his efforts to develop the same jealousy in others eventually leads into the deaths of many people and his own downfall.

Shakespeare, William. Othello. New York: Plain Label Books, 1968. Print.

SparkNotes. Themes, Motifs & Symbols . 2011. Web.

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• Act 2 Scene 3
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• Act‌ ‌3‌ ‌Scene‌ ‌3
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Jealousy as a Motive for Destruction in Shakespeare’s Othello

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Published: Dec 3, 2020

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Othello Essay: Jealousy.

Othello Essay:

        William Shakespeare has written many prominent plays that were centered on a specific emotion that propelled the play forward and moved the story along. From Romeo and Juliet ’s love, to Hamlet ’s bitter anger and hate, Shakespeare and proven to be one of the greatest story writers of his time, and many times using his ability to play with emotions. Shakespeare’s 1603-04 play Othello  drove on the passion of jealousy; this emotion was the essence of the entire story, and is largely based on it. It initially placed the readers into a specific atmosphere, built character, unveiling the true side to various people in the script, and created the conflict of the entire play.

        Firstly, the atmosphere of the play is created due to this emotion of jealousy. This aspect of stories is important because it places the readers (or viewers of the play) in a direct relationship with the events unfolding. Since atmosphere is in a parallel with the emotions felt by the characters, it is only natural that the centre emotion felt by most of the people in the story, jealousy, is a main contributor to this atmosphere. Readers and viewers of Othello  feel a mood of suspicion, bitterness, and forced to feel surrounded by cloud of hate. “I hate the Moor / And it is thought abroad that twixt my sheets” . The character, Iago, is quoted here claiming his hatred for Othello because he suspects that he had been sleeping with his wife, in the first act. The atmosphere fails to ever change throughout the entire play. It begins with Iago going through a jealous rage that General Othello did not give him the position of lieutenant, where in fact, he believes he deserved the spot. It sets the tone for the entire play, causing the viewers and readers to feel at an uncomfortable state, and this atmosphere never lets down. This atmosphere, however, is quite fitting for the plot of the play. A man engulfed in such rage that he cannot tame, forces him to irrationally and eventually hurts those he loves. The purpose of Othello  is to portray a tragedy, and the atmosphere parallels this purpose, driven by the emotion of jealousy introduced in this story.

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Secondly, the jealousy truly built characterization in this script and unveiled the true personalities of each individual character undergoing this emotion. In certain cases such as Iago and Roderigo, jealousy was a part of who they were and this was evident from the beginning of the play. However, jealousy also unveiled the type of person a specific character was, when the audience believed they had the character all figured out. Othello was initially viewed as a generous, often mistaken Moor, who only truly had love for his wife, despite the disbelief others had in judgment of him. Iago’s plan was to entertain thoughts of doubt against Othello towards his wife and causing him to believe that she was having an affair with his lieutenant, Michael Cassio. Othello, being naïve and trusting in Iago, faces an uncontrollable jealousy rage that leads him to lose all common sense and judgment. Othello eventually kills his wife, unable to control this “Green-eyed monster” in jealousy, and ultimately regrets his actions. What it evident throughout his entire jealous rage, however, is that Othello was not the calm, gentle, loving person he appeared to be. But rather that he had always lived with this “beast” inside of him, only calmed down due to his status in Venice. This is clear because when he goes on to kill Desdemona, he once again appears to be the sweet, gentle, loving man, not engulfed in jealousy, but still murders his wife. Iago was able to unleash this beast within Othello to go ahead with his evil deeds. This jealousy shows that Othello was only a wild, destructive man, living in a world where he was forced to tame himself.

        Lastly, jealousy was what really opened up the different areas of conflict within the play. Every stories need conflict; it creates action and draws the audience into the story, rather than repel them away. In the case of Othello , jealousy brought about conflict, it created the situation and also presented the action that this story required. Jealousy brought conflict upon even minor characters such as Roderigo. His jealousy of Othello, that this Moor had been married to the beautiful Desdemona, whom he loved, caused him to act foolishly and without correct judgment. He gave his up control of his own life and threw it into the hands of Iago, one who was only plotting evil. Throughout the entire first act, it is evident that Roderigo has placed his trust in Iago to make sure that Desdemona would surely fall in love with him. But it is also clear that Iago has other plans for Roderigo, and decides to manipulate him into doing his own selfish deeds. In the final act, the first scene, due to Iago’s twisted plans, Roderigo goes ahead and fights Cassio. As both of them fall, Iago takes advantage of this situation and kills Roderigo to make it appear as if he was murdered for the purpose to silence him. His plan fell through perfectly, in which the purpose was to act on his hatred for Michael Cassio. It is evident that jealousy even brought about conflict to minor characters, such as Roderigo, whom the audience does not learn too much about. Other than this, jealousy creates other conflicts such as Othello fighting with himself and trying to contain his jealousy, Othello with Desdemona, and Iago against Othello.

        Overall, it is evident that in the play of Othello , jealousy is a vital element that William Shakespeare uses to propel the play and move it along forward. Single-handedly, it creates the atmosphere, characterization, conflict, and therefore, action and different situations. To a large extent, this play depends on this emotion to move the story along and create the situations that this story plays off of to make a widely successful tragedy.

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

Theme of jealousy in othello, writer's profile.

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Essay: Jealousy and Envy in Othello

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To understand the many dramatic occurrences that happened in this tragic story, A person must understand the motives of every character in the book. In the play Othello, jealousy and envy are prominent themes within the characters from the beginning to the end (Shmoop Editorial Team). As the play slowly unfolds it is evident that jealousy is the cause of most of the dramatic scenes. There are plenty of characters that are affected by jealousy and resentment in the play but, most importantly one of the main characters Othello. There is an antagonist character named Roderigo, who also suffers from jealousy. Roderigo is very eager to be with Desdemona, who is Othello’s wife. He refers to Othello as “thick lips” because Othello is a black man. Using a racist comment also shows how much Roderigo envy’s Othello as Desdemona loves him and not Roderigo. Also Iago’s scheme would not have worked without the underlying atmosphere of racial prejudice in the society, a prejudice of which both Desdemona and Othello are very aware. Shakespeare’s Desdemona copes with prejudice by denying it access to her own life. Her relationship with Othello is one of love, and she is deliberately loyal only to her marriage. Othello is not affected by the jealousy instantly. It shows that his love for Desdemona is true. Although people have doubted if their love for each other is true. Brabantio refers Othello’s love for Desdemona as “if she in chains of magic were not bound” this shows that Brabantio is also feeling jealousy. Brabantio’s relation to Desdemona is her father and he thinks that Desdemona is showing Othello more love than she is showing to him. He is saying that Othello has used some sort of “magic” to make his daughter fall in love with him. Nevertheless, Othello has used nothing because their love is true. Othello’s jealousy and envy comes from his public insecurity due to the fact that he’s black, and wont have the same treatment or level of respect as the other characters. Which makes him jealous of Cassio. Othello’s envy is so strong that It allows him to believe that Cassio has slept with Desdemona. What is fascinating about Shakespeare’s Othello is the way in which jealousy between the major characters is sexualized. That’s what makes Othello so disturbing is how quickly this sexualized jealousy turns into hate. For Othello and Iago love becomes hate, and hate becomes love and the difference between the two feelings are always being blurred. The reason that Iago hates Othello is because Iago hates himself. He hates himself because he is jealous of all the things that other people have in their lives and he doesn’t. Iago’s ambition in the play shows that he will do almost anything in order to get what he wants. Iago’s jealousy fuels his fiery hatred towards Othello and Cassio, as well as all of the other people in his life. At first Iago is jealous of Cassio’s position as lieutenant, but then it turns into more than that. Cassio had violated Desdemona’s purity and ruined the bond between Othello and himself. The bond between Othello and Cassio is symbolized by the way in which Othello makes Cassio his second wife after Desdemona. Cassio and Desdemona serve the same role in Othello’s life. Othello loves them both because he believes both possess what he lacks: culture, and noble blood. And both Desdemona and Cassio bring the respectability that Othello so desperately seeks out. It is important to note that Cassio and Desdemona provide no emotional support to Othello. This is because Othello’s idolization of both Desdemona and Cassio prevent him from confiding in them. Othello in the end comes to turn his love and admiration of Cassio into hatred in the same way he turns his feelings toward Desdemona into such a hatred that he was willing to kill her. Iago becomes jealous of Othello and Desdemona’s relationship doing anything he can to put a stop to it. Iago sees qualities that are in Othello and Cassio that aren’t in him and it makes him hate himself. In Othello, Cassio is the first person that Iago becomes jealous of. Cassio gets promoted to lieutenant, which angers Iago. It is because of that situation Iago dislikes Cassio. There really is no indication of why Iago acts in such a way which causes him to be even more frightening. He is masked with jealousy to which he wants everyone else to feel. In doing so, Iago causes the deaths of many and the downfall of himself. Although he hates him, Iago hates himself even more for not being able to secure his spot as lieutenant. Iago, being the villain of this tragedy, appeared to have a desire to reach out and destroy the loving, as well as the good in everything. For example, after he unsuccessfully tried to enrage Brabantio with Othello and Desdemona’s secret, he began the endless web of lies. As a result of all of Iago’s lies, each character gains a false feeling of jealousy. The reason the feelings are false are because, none of the lies are even close to being true. All of the characters are jealous for no reason considering everyone was innocent. Iago noticed Othello’s tendencies about his insecurity and overreaction, but not even Iago imagined Othello would go as far into jealousy as he did. Jealousy forces Othello’s mind so tightly on one idea, the idea that Desdemona has betrayed him with Cassio, that no other assurance or explanation can peek through. Such an obsession shows Othello’s reason, his common sense, and his respect for justice. Up to the moment Othello kills Desdemona, Othello’s growing jealousy maddens him. Upon seeing that she was innocent and that he killed her for no reason, Othello recovers. He can again see his life in proportion and grieve at the terrible thing he has done. Once again, he speaks with calm rationality, and finally killing himself. That’s what’s so tragic and also dramatic about the play. Othello didn’t deserve to die because of Iago and Cassio’s lies. In Othello, love is a force that overcomes large obstacles and is tripped up by small ones. It provides Othello with intensity but no direction and gives Desdemona access to his heart but not his mind. Types of love and what that means are different between different characters. Othello finds that love in marriage needs time to build trust, and his enemy works too quickly for him to take the time. The main attraction between the couple works on passion, and Desdemona builds on that passion. Which Othello cannot equal. Iago often falsely professes love in friendship for Roderigo and Cassio and betrays them both. For Iago, love is leverage. Desdemona’s love in friendship for Cassio is real but is misinterpreted by the jealous Othello as adulterous love. The true friendship was Emilia’s for Desdemona, shown when she stood up witness for the honor of her dead mistress, against Iago, her lying husband, and was killed for it. Appearance and reality are important aspects in Othello.Also they play a key role for the jealousy in Othello. For Othello, seeing is believing, and proof of the truth is visual. To “prove” something is to investigate it to the point where its true nature is revealed. Othello demands of Iago “Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, be sure of it, give me the ocular proof” (Act 3, Scene 3). What Iago gives him instead is imaginary pictures of Cassio and Desdemona to feed his jealousy. As Othello loses control of his mind, these pictures his thoughts. He looks at Desdemona’s whiteness and is taken into the traditional symbolism of white for purity and black for evil. Whenever he is in doubt, that symbolism comes back to haunt him and even with his experience, he cannot help but believe it. In Conclusion Shakespeare’s Othello takes the readers and audience though an emotional journey. Anyone who reads the book can look back on what they have gained from each aspect of the play and apply it to modern day times. The way Shakespeare’s play intertwines with modern day society makes the book valuable no matter what time period a person is in. It holds the issues of jealousy and how it will always be around. I think Shakespeare play could possibly expand the minds of everyone and show how real jealousy can get and how it can get fuled in all different kinds of ways. It is shown that basically, Shakespeare has included the antagonist nature of Iago, and the destructive, powerful nature of Othello to show a “theme and variation” on the typical image of jealousy the “green eyed monster” feeds on. Because of the powerful toxic nature of this beast of jealousy, the feelings of jealousy are able to be spread rapidly and contagiously in the different events in the play, from character to character, in Shakespeare’s play, Othello.

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