Othello
Othello is considered to be the most tragic of Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare plays out a tale of a self-delusional villain that has declared revenge on Othello. Othello is the main character of the play, a general of the army with the status and respect of everyone, even though his race is African and Africans are usually looked down on. For Iago, our delusional viollan, to carry out his plan of revenge, he must infiltrate Othello's trust more so then he already has and he does this by discrediting Cassio, who Othello has named lieutenant. Cassio's actual role in the play is merely to be stuck in the cross-fire of Iago's anger, collateral damage. Then after using Roderigo, a clueless suitor to the beautiful Desdemona, Cassio is discredited as lieutenant and Iago named it in his place. With Othello now trusting Iago more then his own wife, Iago trickles in the ideas that Desdemona may not be loyal. Fair Desdemona is considered to be the most beautiful woman in Venice, and she snuck away to marry Othello because he is black. Desdemona only plays into Iago's tricks because she is just so innocent; "quote". The tragedy ends with a death toll of 4 people. But the motivating factors as to why Iago went to such great length
Not one single of the motivating factors that could have caused him to cause the deaths of 4 people, but it seems that together they may have been the driving force behind Iago. When dealing with Roderigo, he has fun, laughing at how gullible the young love driven fool is and playing off of his foolishness. He is asking something that should be impossible, and technically is because Desdemona never cheated on Othello. But Othello is not a character that jumps to conclusions either. That adds an almost psychotic element to Iago because no sane person would have fun pitting people against each other and causing murder. After analyzing all Iago's various motivations and attitudes towards other characters, it is clear that there is not one motivating factor but in reality a combination of jealousy, self-delusion and anger. In an essay by Geoffrey Bent, the writer explains how in fact Iago was originally just trying to annoy Othello and maybe disrupt his marriage, but with the sudden success, he finds the situation escalating to murder and the only reason he has pursued it as far as he did, was for sport. Numerous times Iago expresses how this whole ordeal is a sport (quotes). Iago is in fact a new sort of character for Shakespeare, and "in this evil ensign Shakespeare created the first self-delusional villain in literature" . He is overcome with some kind of emotion, but whether it is actual happiness from being made lieutenant or whether it is tears from laughter instead we are left to figure out for ourselves. While there can be all kinds of complicated theories of what Iago's motivation in the play is, ranging from jealousy to anger to a feeling of betrayal, there is one final motivation, that of sport. But what Iago hopes to achieve in this whole ordeal is never quite clear to the audience or Iago himself. Yet, while this was the deciding moment that Cassio and Desdemona should be killed, it was also the reason that Iago is eventually found out and exposed. There might be an underlying message from Shakespeare telling us to never trust one single opinion from someone; never to trust a rumor without there being just cause and evidence. But by analyzing the various motives that Iago might have, there are in fact underlying issues that lead Iago to his decision of the utmost revenge.
Common topics in this essay:
Iago Othello,
Cassio Desdemona,
Fair Desdemona,
Geoffrey Bent,
Othello Iago,
Cassio Othello,
Luckily Cassio,
Othello Othello's,
Iago Iago,
Othello Othello,
cassio othello,
cassio othello die,
iago's wife,
iago othello,
happiness lieutenant,
reason iago,
wife iago,
iago lieutenant,
iago's anger,
discredit cassio othello,
rumors othello slept,
othello slept,
cassio discredited,
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Acceptance Essays
