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Othello Jealousy

Decent Essays

Othello is one of the literary works that focus on the dangers of jealousy and how it can destroy lives. I think Othello is compromised by Shakespeare’s absorption with the emotion of jealousy particularly Othello’s reliance on Lago’s statements. The hero succumbs to jealousy when Iago convinces him that Desdemona has been an unfaithful wife. “Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus”. Lago conveys that man has the ability to control his emotions but Othello is poisoned by the monster of jealousy and resultantly murders his wife. In the play, jealousy takes many different forms from professional competition to sexual suspicion, but whichever the form, it always leads to destruction. This paper focuses on the theme of jealousy depicted in Shakespeare’s …show more content…

As the play unfolds slowly it is clear that jealousy leads to a lot of dramatic events which take place throughout the play. Iago says that “jealousy is a green-eyed monster," (Act I, Scene 3) green depicting envy's color and the monster expressing the destruction it causes leading to a lot of vicious actions. The words are described by one of the characters called Lago who has a manipulative mind. It is ironic how the character tries to warn the protagonist, yet what drives Othello to his deeds and jealous acts. Jealousy is a controlling emotion that blinds people from seeing and accepting the truth. The writer of the play emphasizes this theme heavily continuously in the play. Othello, the protagonist through his deeds is an influence of envy. Lago, on the other hand, uses his character to cause deception and manipulate the truth. His deceit and fake promises lead to the demise of many characters in the play. However, the protagonist is easily deceived due to his powerful jealousy. Shakespeare is trying to express the evils of jealousy that can even lead to unbelieving of the facts. The play starts with Lago and Roderigo standing on the Venice streets. Lago starts planning his devious scheme. Roderigo has eyed Desdemona for a while and continuously asked her father for her hand in marriage always to be turned away. Newsletter reaches the people on how Othello the general and Desdemona have …show more content…

Lago has hatred for the protagonist for promoting a younger man who he considers to be incapable as a solder hence using the private marriage to his advantage. He advises Roderigo,“go wake Brabanito and explain the elopement issue” (Act I, Scene 1), while he goes looking for Othello to warn him of Brabanito seeking to destroy him. Brabanito gets angered with the news promising not to rest until the protagonist is beheaded accusing him of seducing his daughter using witchcraft. It is palpable that from the first act, the reader can see how Iago plays with Rodrigo's emotions to get individual revenge on Othello. He uses Roderigo as a pawn in his plan knowing that he has his undivided loyalty. Jealousy is not genetic in an individual but caused by severe actions of their character. The protagonist is inundated with his pride and ego lead to his demise. Otherwise, Othello is a very romantic character full of deep feelings to a person he loves. Apart from the main character, other characters are also affected by resentment and jealousy in the play. For instance, Roderigo suffers from jealousy. He is determined to be with Desdemona, despite her being a wife to another. His racial comments to Othello describing his lips as thick just because of him being black expresses how envious he is of Othello as he has the love of Desdemona. The act of love between Othello and Desdemona leads to a lot of envy in the

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