Love, jealousy and obsession is a relevant theme in most tragedies. In tragedy, the introductory love a protagonist feels for another character is often organically surpassed by stronger emotions of jealousy and obsession. This arises when the individual lacks a fundamental sense of identity and leads to the downfall of a hero or, modernly, a regular person. Othello introduces this idea in the first scenes of the text, when Othello weds Desdemona. This event creates a conflict between Brabantio and Othello, to which Brabantio warns Othello: “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:/She has deceiv’d her father and may thee.” (A1:S3) This rhyming couplet instills in Othello a mistrust towards Desdemona, though he disregards Brabantio’s words …show more content…
However, Othello’s perception of himself differs from his colleague’s perception of him, evident thus: “Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw/The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt.” (A3:S3) Othello concludes that he will not succumb to jealousy, in spite of his …show more content…
He becomes jealous to the point of delirium, and murders Desdemona. Othello’s thoughts are expressed through a monologue, where he says: “Perplex’d in the extreme; of one whose hand,/Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away/Richer than all his tribe…” (A5:S2) Othello’s jealousy manifested because of his hamartia: his negative perception of himself, ignorance of his ‘hero’ or well-respected status and his placement Desdemona on a pedestal. The responder is provoked, and feelings of pity, sadness and grief are summoned, and then released in catharsis. These combined fulfilled the convention of tragedy’s ‘quota’ and led to Othello’s downfall.
Vertigo, like Othello, portrays the protagonist as having an unstable sense of identity, bringing forth within the protagonist a fixation with the romantic interest. In Vertigo, Scottie forms a romantic connection with ‘Madeleine’ (in reality, Judy portraying Madeleine) but soon he becomes obsessed with her, then reaches hysteria and ultimately loses both Madeleine and Judy in the end. At the start of the film, during an exchange between Midge and Scottie, Scottie demonstrates how
The relationship between Desdemona and Othello in the play ‘Othello’ is used to express and observe the way that humans are selfish by nature. Although both Desdemona and Othello do sincerely love each other, both of them find great personal gain in their marriage, which clearly contributes to their feelings for one another. Othello, who is a black leader in an overwhelmingly white, Christian society, has come from a troubled and difficult background, being “sold to slavery” and working in the military all his life. In finding a good Christian wife in Desdemona, he finds someone to always support him in hard times, as evidenced in his summary of their romance, “she loved me for the dangers I had passed, and I loved her that she did pity them”. This quote suggests that their love is more self-serving than he lets on; Desdemona loves Othello for the adventures he has been on and the stories he tells, and Othello loves Desdemona because she listens and devotes herself to what he has to say. When Desdemona gets a chance to explain their relationship herself, she is particularly proud of the fact that she “did love the Moor to live with him; my downright violence and storms of fortunes may trumpet to the world”. We note that she mentions her ‘violence’, the way she deliberately disobeyed her father and fled his company to secretly marry a man who is not one of her father’s approved suitors. This furthers the idea that Desdemona seems to be in love with Othello because of the adventures he has been on, and the excitement and liberty of her being with such a man; she is seeking her own freedom in a misogynistic society by defying her father to marry Othello. Their relationship is
Othello’s insecurities are brought to surface as Othello announces, to only the audience, his thoughts. During his speech, Othello pounders the idea that Desdemona has lost her love for him, listing many
The tragedy of Othello, written by William Shakespeare, presents the main character Othello, as a respectable, honorable, and dignified man, but because of his insecurities and good nature, he is easily taken advantage of and manipulated by his peers and alleged friends. The dynamic of Othello’s character significantly changes throughout the play. The contrast is most pronounced from the beginning of the play to its conclusion, switching from being calm and peaceful to acts of uncontrolled venomous rage. Othello’s motivation in the play appears to be his love and concern for his wife Desdemona, which ironically, ends up being his downfall in the end.
Othello's Jealousy is mostly a figure of his imagination made from all of iago's lies and being mislead. The ironic part about that is that iago said to othello”beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock, The meat it feeds on”(III,iii,195-198). Iago is warning Othell that nothing good can come from jealousy.Then Iago starts to question desdemona's loyalty but othello gets mad and says”No, Iago; I'll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove; And on the proof, there is no more”(III,iii,220-223). Othello wants evidence of his claims before he finally decides if she was cheating on him with Cassio.
Shakespeare’s Othello is a play consistently based on jealously and the way it can destroy lives. One is quick to think this jealously is based on Othello’s lack of belief in Desdemona’s faithfulness to him or his suspensions over Desdemona’s affair with Cassio, Othello’s honorable lieutenant. Upon closer inspection of the jealously that exists throughout the play it becomes clear that his jealously is not the sole start and reason for all of the destruction that occurs. Iago, a good friend of Othello, is not who he appears to be. Iago’s own jealously of those around him pushes him over the edge. He begins to deceive all those who believe he is a true, honorable, and faithful man. Throughout Othello, Iago incites his own jealously in
In the play, evil intentions destroy what we know of a pure heart as well as trust and genuine honesty by this falsehearted deception. The agony of the tragic play is captured in a nutshell when Othello admits to Desdemona “when I love thee not/chaos is come again.” There is some misunderstanding of tragedy of love between the two characters. Trust is misplaced, honesty smeared out and finally, lives are ruined by denigrating fabrications and outright lies (Lupu, Jeffrey and Westmaas-Jones 12). The tragic cautionary of Shakespeare offers a supreme warning over jealousy which is referred as “the green eyed monster with doth mock the meat it feeds on.”
Jealousy is a powerful drug. When someone is jealous, one can only imagine how far someone would go because of it. In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, there were several characters that went through different ways of processing their jealousy. Iago’s jealousy provokes his idea to get back at the people he felt was not deserving enough of the things they had or their happiness. His plans succeeds but by the end, no one wins. Iago’s jealousy forms at the beginning of the play which causes Othello’s jealousy towards the end and because of it, it results in people hurt mentally and physically.
It is here that the audience begins seeing a different identity of Othello. Who was once regarded as so valiant and courageous, was now beginning to show signs of severe insecurities dealing with matters, most importantly, such as his lack of experience in love and marriage causing shadows of doubt over his confidence in himself and his ability to be loved by and worthy of someone like Desdemona. Desdemona, although not intentionally, seems to be the reason for all the unrest in Othello. This is an instance in the play when irony shines it's smiling face upon Shakespeare's most tragic characters. Othello feels truly happy with the presence of Desdemona in his life (Act II.1, 181-187):
Othello tends to deny himself his own happiness, the biggest example of this would be killing Desdemona. This adds to the tragedy and insecurity Othello feels when he has to take responsibility for his own downfall. Another character that shows jealousy because of insecurity is Roderigo. Roderigo loses much of his self-respect and starts to deprecate himself when he becomes aware of Othello and Desdemona’s elopement. He completes many dark tasks essential to Iago’s pan because he is determent by insecurity and jealousy to make Desdemona love
Many crimes of passion are the result of jealousy. “Othello” shows readers how the jealousy of one or two people can result in violent actions and even death. In “Othello,” Roderigo was in love with Desdemona, who was already married to Othello. He teamed up with Iago, who possessed envy because Cassio had been promoted to the position Iago desired. Together, Iago and Roderigo plotted to destroy Cassio’s image and reputation as well as Desdemona’s marriage. As Iago began setting Cassio up, he began to develop feelings of his own for Desdemona. Iago and Roderigo’s actions resulted in numerous deaths throughout the play. First Iago stabs and kills Roderigo. Then, Othello’s jealousy leads him to smother Desdemona because she was “false with Cassio” (Shakespeare 767). After Emilia outed Iago, he pierced her with a knife, killing her. Lastly, Othello knifed himself. All of these deaths occurred because two men were desirous of things other people had. These acts exhibit the abominable effects jealousy can have on people’s
Jealousy of power is first displayed through Iago, a solider under Othello’s command. ”One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, a fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife, that never set a squadron in the field”(Act 1, Scene 1). Iago is consumed by jealousy of Cassio, which he masks with hatred of Othello, because Othello took up Cassio as lieutenant and not Iago. In this same scene, we are also introduced to Roderigo, a wealthy Venetian, who is desperately in love with Desdemona, Othello’s wife. This scene is significant because it crafts Iago as the perfect villain. He plans on exploiting Othello’s insecurities in exchange for his own vengeful agenda.
This quote explains the shift in Othello’s personality. Othello is fueled by the jealousy of Desdemona and enraged that she would do such a thing to disrespect him. His pride was shattered and his feelings were hurt.
Othello’s jealousy is responsible for the death of his wife and of Othello himself. His jealousy consumes him so much that he even falls into epileptic shock at one point. Jealousy’s effect on Othello is most obviously seen when he rambles on saying,”Handkerchief! Confessions! Handkerchief! To confess, and be hanged for his labor. First to be hanged, and then to confess—I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips. Is ’t possible? Confess! Handkerchief! Oh, devil!”(78). Right after saying this Othello collapses and falls into a trance. The amount of jealousy is so prominent in Othello that he can no longer think straight as he contemplates all of the suspicions at once. At this point, Othello was not able to think straight whatsoever and the idea of murdering both his best friend and his wife was
Jealousy was based on Othello’s lack of trust on Desdemona and suspects her cheating on him. “To you, preferring you before her father, so much I challenge that I may profess
“You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself”. This quote directly applying to Othello. He grew to be so jealous because he though Cassio had Desdemona, who he thought was his. He was overpowered by his jealousy which was fueled by Iago. Ironically, Iago warns Othello about jealousy, “O, beware, my lord of jealousy, it is the green-ey'd monster which doth mock, the meat it feeds on”. Jealousy is ugly, the more Othello grew to be jealous, the more ugly he became and the more consumed he was by it. This is another element making Othello such a tragic hero, he listened to the advice of the person who was making him jealous, making him into the