othello conflict essay

Shakespeare’s Othello: Essay Samples - Links & Essential Info

If you want to write a paper on any topic related to Othello , this article will be your life-saver. Our team collected various free samples on one page. See what Othello essay interests you and click on the link to read it.

✍ Othello: Essay Samples

Theme of Jealousy in Othello by Shakespeare Genre: Research paper Words: 1643 Focused on: The issues of jealousy, manipulation, and jealousy Characters mentioned: Iago, Othello, Roderigo, Desdemona, Brabantio, Cassio
The Tragedy of Othello Genre: Research paper Words: 1651 Focused on: Othello’s tragedy and whether it was self-inflicted Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Desdemona, Roderigo, Brabantio, Emilia, Bianca
Othello by William Shakespeare Genre: Essay Words: 888 Focused on: Catastrophe, race, and misrepresentation Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Desdemona
Irony in “Othello” by Shakespeare Genre: Analytical Essay Words: 907 Focused on: How irony drives the plot of Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Emilia
Summary about Shakespeare’s Othello Genre: Essay Words: 837 Focused on: Retelling of Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Roderigo, Desdemona, Emilia, Brabantio
Othello by William Shakespeare Genre: Term paper Words: 1141 Focused on: Comparison of the play with Tim Nelson’s 2001 movie O Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Cassio
Shakespeare’s Othello, the Moor of Venice Genre: Research paper Words: 1404 Focused on: Character traits of Iago and Othello, and how they drive the story Characters mentioned: Iago, Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, Roderigo, Emilia
The Downfall of Othello Genre: Essay Words: 1687 Focused on: Comparison of Othello’s and Oedipus’s downfalls Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Brabantio, Cassio, Desdemona
“Othello” by William Shakespeare Genre: Essay Words: 548 Focused on: The role of minor characters in Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Emilia
Character of Iago in “Othello” by Shakespeare Analysis Genre: Essay Words: 1080 Focused on: Character analysis of Iago and his evil nature Characters mentioned: Iago, Othello, Cassio, Desdemona, Emilia, Roderigo,
Critical Analysis of the Tragedy of Othello Genre: Essay, Critical Writing Words: 971 Focused on: Stage directions , the play’s modernity, and geographical symbolism Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona
Jealousy in “Othello” by W.Shakespeare Genre: Analytical Essay Words: 1611 Focused on: Good vs. evil as characterized by jealousy Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Desdemona, Emilia, Roderigo
Othello as the Outsider Genre: Essay Words: 1356 Focused on: Othello as an outcast in society and how his language and behavior reflect it Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona
Racism in Play “Othello” by William Shakespeare Genre: Essay Words: 867 Focused on: The theme of racism and how it’s shown in the play Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio, Brabantio, Desdemona
Othello and Desdemona: Emotional Strangers Genre: Essay Words: 1243 Focused on: The relationship between Othello and Desdemona Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago, Cassio
What Can Lawyers Learn From ‘Othello’? Genre: Essay Words: 692 Focused on: Why lawyers should read Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Cassio, Iago
Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Othello: The Words and Actions of Iago Genre: Essay Words: 1421 Focused on: Why Iago is an excellent villain, comparison of Iago and Joker from The Dark Knight Characters mentioned: Iago, Othello, Cassio
Othello and Snow Country: Personal Opinion Genre: Critical Essay Words: 994 Focused on: Love and passion in Shakespeare’s Othello and Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona
Othello’s Fall from Grace and Redemption at the End of the Play Genre: Essay Words: 1145 Focused on: Themes of jealousy and gullibility Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago
Othello’s tragedy Genre: Essay Words: 830 Focused on: The cause of Othello’s tragedy Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago
The issue of racial prejudice Genre: Research paper Words: 2198 Focused on: Racial prejudices, discrimination towards Othello and foreigners in general, cultural and historical context Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Brabantio, Desdemona
Humiliation of Iago (Othello) Genre: Essay Words: 589 Focused on: Possible motives of Iago Characters mentioned: Iago, Othello, Desdemona
Compare and Contrast Shakespeare’s Othello and the Blind Owl by Sedayat Genre: Compare and Contrast Essay Words: 1370 Focused on: Differences and similarities of the plots and themes of Shakespeare’s Othello and the Blind Owl by Sedayat Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona
Remembrance and Redemption Relationship Genre: Essay Words: 1471 Focused on: Theme of redemption in Othello , Mansfield Park, and A Small Place Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Cassio
Treatment of women by Shakespeare and Sophocles Genre: Essay Words: 1895 Focused on: Different treatments of women in Othello and Oedipus Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Emilia, Cassio, Roderigo, Brabantio
The Feminist critique Genre: Essay Words: 2062 Focused on: The role of women in Elizabethan society as told by Othello Characters mentioned: Desdemona, Emilia, Bianca, Othello, Iago, Cassio, Duke of Venice, Brabantio
Comparison and Contrast of the Driving Force of Plot in Medea by Euripides, Othello by William Shakespeare, and the Epic of Gilgamesh Genre: Essay Words: 568 Focused on: Heroism in Medea by Euripides, Othello by William Shakespeare, and The Epic of Gilgamesh Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Brabantio, Roderigo
Violence of Shakespeare Genre: Term paper Words: 1701 Focused on: Violent behavior in Titus Andronicus , Hamlet , and Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona
Philosophy of Literature: Shakespearean Tragedy Genre: Essay Words: 1218 Focused on: How tragic incidences make heroes be villains as shown in Othello and Macbeth Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago
Machiavelli and Othello’s Leadership Skills Essay Genre: Essay Words: 584 Focused on: Leadership skills in Machiavelli’s The Prince and Shakespeare’s Othello Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago
The Life And Work Of William Shakespeare: His Contribution To The Contemporary Theater Genre: Research paper Words: 1371 Focused on: The contribution of William Shakespeare’s works to contemporary theater Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago
Othello and Oedipus Rex Characters’ Traits Genre: Essay Words: 963 Focused on: Character and tragic traits of Othello and Oedipus Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona
Iago and Othello Relationships Genre: Research paper Words: 1254 Focused on: Iago’s and Othello’s relationships and how it contributes the plot Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Emilia
Cultural Diversity in the Play “Othello” Genre: Essay Words: 822 Focused on: The play’s reflection of society and racial prejudices Characters mentioned: Othello, Desdemona, Iago

Thanks for checking our samples! We hope you’ve found them helpful. For more information about Othello , see the links below.

Share to Facebook
Share to Twitter
Share to LinkedIn
Share to email

Study Guide Menu

Play’s Plot Explored
Act 1 Scene 1
Act 1 Scene 2
Act 1 Scene 3
Act 2 Scenes 1-2
Act 2 Scene 3
Act‌ ‌3‌ ‌Scenes‌ ‌1-2
Act‌ ‌3‌ ‌Scene‌ ‌3
Act 3 Scene 4
Act‌ ‌4‌ ‌Scene‌ ‌1
Act 4 Scene 2
Act‌ ‌4‌ ‌Scene‌ ‌3
Act‌ ‌5‌ ‌Scene‌ ‌1
Act 5 Scene 2
Characters Analysis
Important Quotes
Essay Samples
Topics‌ for‌ ‌Essay‌
William Shakespeare
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, August 13). Shakespeare’s Othello: Essay Samples - Links & Essential Info. https://ivypanda.com/lit/othello-study-guide/essay-samples/

"Shakespeare’s Othello: Essay Samples - Links & Essential Info." IvyPanda , 13 Aug. 2023, ivypanda.com/lit/othello-study-guide/essay-samples/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Shakespeare’s Othello: Essay Samples - Links & Essential Info'. 13 August.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Shakespeare’s Othello: Essay Samples - Links & Essential Info." August 13, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/lit/othello-study-guide/essay-samples/.

1. IvyPanda . "Shakespeare’s Othello: Essay Samples - Links & Essential Info." August 13, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/lit/othello-study-guide/essay-samples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Shakespeare’s Othello: Essay Samples - Links & Essential Info." August 13, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/lit/othello-study-guide/essay-samples/.

KS2 English
Study Guides
Practice Tests
Rapid Revision
YN+ Digital

This website uses Cookies

Othello: A Level York Notes A Level Revision Guide

A Level Study Notes and Revision Guides

Othello: a level york notes, william shakespeare, act i scene 1, conflict and the tragedy of othello.

From the beginning of Othello the scene is set for conflict. The topic under discussion in the opening lines (marriage) seems of little political significance. However, Shakespeare images or events side by side so that they can be compared.">juxtaposes Roderigo’s failure to marry Desdemona with Iago’s failure to gain promotion, making it clear that private, domestic issues and the public, professional world will collide in Othello . The scene ends with an indication that this is not a purely domestic drama. Brabantio arms himself and rouses his neighbours to help him hunt down Othello. He is making his daughter’s elopement a public, political affair. The audience realises that the marriage of Othello and Desdemona is going to be at the heart of the conflict in the play. Act I Scene 1 also includes references to the Venetian conflict with the Turks over Cyprus, the setting where Othello’s mind and marriage will be destroyed.

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

Othello’s Tragic Flaws

William Shakespeare creates dynamic and complex characters in his tragic play, Othello . Othello, Iago, Desdemona, and Emilia each display a tragic flaw . Shakespeare’s subtle descriptions of the characters allow for varying interpretations of each character . The tragic flaws can truly alter perspectives as the story transitions. A tragic flaw can begin as a positive character trait, yet spiral into the downfall of the respective character . Shakespeare thoroughly expresses the importance of tragic flaws in the play Othello .

Shakespeare provides the title character with the tragic flaw of inherent trust in others, particularly in Iago. Iago’s ambition, Desdemona’s love for Othello, and Emilia’s loyalty in Iago and Desdemona are also tragic flaws. These tragic flaws are imperative to the play, and without them there would be a lack of plot , conflict , and climax . Othello’s tragic flaw of inherent trust haunts him throughout the play. Othello is easily persuaded and this leads him to put his trust in the wrong people. He unfortunately gets ensnared into Iago’s devious plan.

Othello treats Iago as a trust-worthy friend who he has known for a long period of time. When Iago realizes that Othello believes the story about Cassio’s relationship with Desdemona, Iago decides to take the scheme further. Iago places horrid images in Othello’s mind that turn Othello into a rash man. Othello’s tragic flaw ultimately leads to his destruction. Othello’s personality vastly transforms due to the madness. Othello ironically mistrusts his loyal wife Desdemona and good friend Cassio. When Othello places Desdemona on her deathbed, he states, “Be thus when thou are dead, and I will kill thee/And love thee after” (V. i. 20-21). At this moment in the play, Othello’s actions are ironic. Originally, Othello worried that Desdemona would stab him in the back, but he is the one who betrays his beloved wife. Othello is brought to this action because Iago places extreme jealousy within him. Emilia enters Othello’s room and discovers that she has walked into another murder. Othello still has a degree of trust in “honest” Iago, but Emilia informs Othello of her husband’s lies. Othello may subconsciously realize the mistakes he has made, but he does not want to believe Emilia and face the truth.

In response to Emilia, Othello states, “I say thy husband. Dost understand the word? My friend, thy husband; honest, honest, Iago” (V. . 188-189). Although Iago’s plan is obvious to the audience , Othello refuses to believe it. Iago’s actions have already destroyed Othello’s marriage, but Iago continues until Othello ruins his entire life. Iago is a dishonest and devious character , but his main tragic flaw is his undying ambition to take down Othello and Cassio. In the play, Iago manipulates several characters and tends to extend his actions too far.

Iago constantly manipulates his wife Emilia and treats her as his pet. He continuously disrespects her and uses her to advance his plans. However, Emilia has a growing sense of suspicion towards her evil husband as the play carries on. When Iago is planning to overthrow Cassio with the handkerchief, he states, “A good wench! Give it to me” (I. i. 359). Emilia finds this very suspicious. She wonders why this handkerchief is so vital to Iago as it belonged to Desdemona. At this moment, Emilia realizes something is brewing and notices that this is the time to act upon her disrespectful husband.

Emilia knows how devious Iago can be, and how important it would be to earn a stronger position. She knows Iago will do anything to get his hands on the lieutenancy by taking it from Cassio. For instance, Iago is jealous of Othello’s power and is determined to steal his throne as well as his wife. When Iago learns that Othello is very trusting, he becomes very eager to take advantage of this overthrow Othello at a rapid pace. However, instead of being patient, Iago includes Cassio, Emilia, and Roderigo in his agenda to gain power.

Involving several people in his plan backfires and interferes with his plan because all his actions eventually catch up to him. For example, Emilia becomes very suspicious of her husband’s desperation to possess the handkerchief. Emilia dislikes the way her husband treats her and becomes very anxious to catch him doing something devious. By the end of the play Emilia says, “You told a lie, an odious, damned lie! Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie” (V. . 216-217). Emilia finally confronts her two-faced husband. Due to Iago’s extreme desire for power, his reckless actions eventually catch up to him.

His wife turns on him and tells people about his recent actions. Iago is finally held responsible for his actions and taken away for a long period of torture. Throughout the story, Desdemona relies heavily on Othello and his love for her. She believes that she and Othello have an everlasting relationship. Unfortunately, she is clueless about Othello’s trust in Iago. She does not know that he is feeding Othello appalling lies about her and Michael Cassio. Although Othello is the love of Desdemona’s life, his tragic flaw causes him to become extremely jealous.

In the beginning of the play, Othello and Desdemona openly display their love for each other for others to see. Iago knows that in order to disrupt their passionate love, he is going to have to convince one of them that the other is cheating on them. Iago chooses to convince Othello of Desdemona’s “affair” with Cassio, and Othello does not hesitate to trust Iago’s statements and immediately believe that Desdemona is cheating on him. Othello knows that she betrayed her own father, Brabantio, and therefore conceives that Desdemona could potentially to the same to him.

Othello starts acting as a demon is inside of him, but Desdemona does not understand the reason. As Othello’s jealousy starts to build up, Desdemona states, “Why ten tomorrow night, (or) Tuesday morn, on Tuesday noon or night’ on Wednesday morn” (I. i. 68-69). Othello shows obvious anger about Cassio to Desdemona. Instead of attempting to fix the situation, Desdemona hopes this side of Othello will pass. This is the key factor in the start of Othello’s envy towards Cassio due to Iago’s fatal lies. Desdemona continues to believe that nothing stands a chance of interfering with her and Othello’s relationship.

Meanwhile, Othello fails to look at Desdemona the same way believing that she has been seeing Cassio behind his back. As the play progresses, Othello’s jealousy is getting increasingly worse and Desdemona does not act in response to Othello’s harsh behavior. As Desdemona lays hopelessly in her deathbed, she does not panic, however, she acts as if Othello is not going to kill her. As Othello smothers Desdemona, she eventually states to Emilia, “Nobody. I myself. Farewell. Commend me to my kind lord. O, farewell” (V. 152-153).

Desdemona expresses her undying love for Othello by explaining to Emilia that she took her own life away. She cannot believe that Othello would kill her because her love blinds her. Therefore, love is Desdemona’s tragic flaw . Emilia contains the tragic flaw of loyalty. She exhibits this loyalty particularly to her husband and to Desdemona. Although Emilia receives disrespect from her husband, she perpetually shows Iago loyalty throughout most of the play. When Emilia picks up the handkerchief that Desdemona drops, she hesitates to give it to Iago.

However, she does give it to Iago because there is some loyalty that exists in her towards her husband. As Iago demands the handkerchief from Emilia, she questioningly states, “What will you do with ‘t, that you have been so earnest to have me filch it? ” (I. i. 360-362). Emilia knows her husband is up to something and it is up to her to stop it. Although for most of the story Emilia is loyal to Iago, she also has loyalty to Desdemona. Emilia discovers that Iago uses the handkerchief to frame Cassio and destroy the relationship between Othello and Desdemona.

When Emilia walks into the murder of Desdemona, she knows she has missed her opportunity to catch her husband in the act framing Desdemona. Her minimal amount of remaining respect for her husband is eliminated at this moment, and she tells everyone that it is Iago that has stolen the handkerchief in order to blame Desdemona. Emilia’s secret strength is evident. Emilia states, “O thou dull Moor, that handkerchief tho speak’st of I found by fortune, and did give my husband—For often, with a solemn earnestness (More than indeed belonged to such a trifle), He begged of me to steal’t” (V. i. 267-272). Emilia explains to Othello that he has fallen into Iago’s trap. Emilia tells everyone in the room that Iago asked for the handkerchief, and shows her loyalty to Dedemona by proving her innocence. When Emilia displays her loyalty towards Desdemona this way, it angers Iago thoroughly and ruptures his plan completely. In response to Emilia’s actions, Iago takes out his rapier and stabs her. She dies on the same bed as Desdemona. The two innocent female lives are lost in the same spot.

Overall, the tragic flaw of loyalty that Emilia expresses is her downfall. Tragic flaws are a critical component of Shakespeare’s Othello. Each character displays a tragic flaw as the play unravels. The play would have no action without these tragic character flaws. Shakespeare provides these flaws to the characters to create dimension and suspense . Othello, Iago, Desdemona, and Emilia would be unrealistic, boring, and static characters without these flaws. The tragic flaw leads a character to downfall, and it is an integral part of a tragedy .

Gender Conflict in Othello by Jackie Chirco

Gender conflict in othello.

The female characters in Shakespeare’s “Othello” are unknowingly thrown into the center of Iago’s villainous plot and used as pawns. How do they combat their circumstances and find power?

How Women Find Power in a Misogynist Society

At the heart of several of Shakespeare’s plays are conflicts circulating around gender, where certain misogynist tropes are displayed. Oftentimes, women are used by the villain to hurt the protagonist, manipulated and used as bait. In Shakespeare’s Othello , the female characters are unknowingly thrown into the center of Iago’s villainous plot and used as pawns to take down Othello. Iago’s treatment of women speaks to the gender conflict scattered throughout the play and shows how even though the main goal is to hurt the man, Othello, it’s achieved at the women’s expense. Seen as nothing more than tools to carry out the evil scheme, the women are painted as deceivers and face false accusations, which ends up costing them their lives. Although the women are naive about Iago’s plan, they are aware of the gender dynamics within society, and they exhibit a certain amount of power both in their awareness, as well as in their discussions about how the men in their lives treat and perceive them. While they are victims, the women defy many norms and expectations, and hold considerable power, even in their deaths. Looking at how misogyny and masculinity function in the play, one can track how the women thus combat it and find power, despite it all.

Misogyny is riddled throughout Othello , and the attitudes that men have towards women, both in the play and in society, are what Iago uses to manipulate Othello. Since Ancient Greece men carried out a belief that a “woman is just a cheat” and that women are “more malicious” and more “inclined to suspicion and plotting.” 1 While Iago’s main objective is to hurt Othello, his whole scheme relies on the lie that Desdemona is having an affair. The fact that Iago chooses this lie as the focal point is directly rooted in misogyny. The idea that a woman could be having an affair is not hard for the men to believe, considering all the centuries old rhetoric that paints women as malicious cheaters who are plotting against their husbands. Moreover, in act 2, Desdemona and Emilia directly face these misogynist ideas during playful banter with Iago, as he tells them:

You are pictures out of door, Bells in your parlors, wildcats in your kitchens, Saints in your injuries, devils being offended, Players in your huswifery, and huswives in your beds. 2

Iago perpetuates the belief that women are liars and deceivers who make noise and disturb others. They live under a guise of innocence, while in actuality, they are harmful to everyone around them. Women are pretenders. They pretend to be housewives, acting like they are working in their homes, which they are not, while actually asserting control over their husbands in bed. They present themselves as “saints,” but are truly “devils.” In the eyes of Iago, women are masters of deception. This characterization of women as pretenders and deceivers with an ulterior motive, is prevalent throughout the play, and is arguably the main reason why Othello is so convinced Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. In act 1, Brabantio even warns Othello, telling him to “look to [Desdemona],” for if she has “deceived her father,” she may also deceive him. 3 Desdemona’s own father upholds this belief that she is capable of deception and contributes to this characterization of women that is so central to the play.

On top of the belief that women are deceivers is the idea that women are property. Seen as objects that exist to serve men, they are at the men’s disposal and are additionally given the responsibility to uphold the honor and reputation of the men around them. The play opens with these ideas, as Iago and Roderigo disrupt Brabantio in the middle of the night to tell him that Othello has married Desdemona. Iago shouts “thieves, thieves,” and directs him to “look to [his] daughter” and his “bags.” 4 He continues to tell Brabantio that he’s been “robbed,” as if Desdemona is a possession with no agency or thinking skills. Brabantio continues to diminish his own daughter’s ability to make decisions, saying how she must have been “corrupted by spells” and witchcraft. 5 While these accusations against Othello are racially motivated, they also support the idea that women are objects without any control over their decisions and can be “stolen” from the men who possess them. 6 Not to mention, women are expected to be virtuous and honorable, for if they don’t appear as such, it ruins the reputation of the men around them. Male characters who feel like their reputation is threatened, due to the actions of the women around them, appear in various plays by Shakespeare. Many of his male characters conclude that the only way to assure their reputation stays intact, is to assert control over the women, and treating them like objects and subordinates. When Desdemona elopes, without her father’s consent, that may affect Brabantio’s reputation. Considering the interracial aspect of their marriage, the fact that she also marries a Moor, may doubly impact Brabantio’s reputation. Although the marriage affects Desdemona foremost, it seems as if the men are more worried about themselves. They believe that if a woman has ruined her reputation, she’s better off dead than alive, for existing as a “ruined woman” can further tarnish the image and status of those around her. Othello presents a duality of misogynist views toward women. While on one hand they are deceptive and are out to trick and hurt men, they are also objects and possessions who are expected to be subdued and virtuous. However, these two sides of women work hand in hand, for it’s the fear of the deception that makes men assert control and keep them as objects.

Understanding the misogyny embedded in Elizabethan society, as well as upheld by the characters of Othello, is important in understanding how Iago uses women as pawns in his scheme, and how Othello reacts to the accusations he believes are true. Because women are seen as objects and possessions, it’s not surprising that Iago uses them as tools in his plot to hurt Othello. They are weaponized when put into the center of Iago’s plot, and instead of being seen as people who will suffer from the accusations he sets forth, they are simply seen as pawns to get back at Othello. Iago’s motivations are never completely clear, but he has heard rumors that Othello has been “’twixt [his] sheets” and has “done [his] office,” meaning that he suspects that his wife, Emilia, and Othello have had an affair. 7 If this is one of the motivations behind Iago’s actions, it not only explains Iago’s misogynistic attitudes, but also shows how he’s not only trying to punish Othello for his actions, but also punish women in general for being deceitful. By framing Desdemona, Iago makes her bait, as he knows that Othello’s emphasis on honesty and his insecurities in an already questioned marriage, will push him to take that bait.

In a way, Iago’s control over this narrative is an extension of men’s need for control over women. Control and dominance are common attributes of toxic masculinity, and his need for control, manipulative tendencies, and continuous mistreatment towards women aligns with these ideas of toxic masculinity. Iago shapes Desdemona’s false story and plants the seeds of doubt towards her in Othello’s mind. Additionally, Iago is using Emilia to get the handkerchief to show ocular proof of the affair. Emilia reveals that Iago has “bid” her “so often” to steal the handkerchief, but because Desdemona has dropped it, Emilia has taken it for her husband, now able to both please Iago and meet his requests, while not feeling guilty about stealing from her friend. 8 Emilia naively walks into this trap and helps Iago carry out his plot, because she wants to be an obedient wife who serves her husband. But Iago doesn’t see Desdemona or Emilia as people worthy of respect; he uses them as objects, especially exploiting Emilia’s trust in him, to his benefit. Furthermore, Othello’s traits of profound jealousy and anger prove toxic, as he spirals out of control and convinces himself the affair is truly real. He becomes so consumed with jealousy, insecurity, and the fear of becoming a cuckold, that he neglects to even give Desdemona a chance to defend herself. The possibility of becoming a cuckold threatens Othello’s masculinity, for it shows a certain weakness and lack of control over one’s wife. As previously mentioned, masculinity is associated with power and control, and at this time, having a subdued and virtuous wife was expected. This threat to his masculinity, power, position in the partnership, and reputation contributes to Othello’s response. He’s determined to “tear [Desdemona] to pieces” and is filled with “black vengeance” and “tyrannous hate.” 9 Resulting to violence as a solution is also a trait of toxic masculinity, and Othello sets out to kill Desdemona, reasoning that “she must die” or else “she’ll betray more men.” 10 Just as Iago is essentially punishing all women for their deceit, possibly because of his suspicions that Emilia was having an affair, Othello is set on killing Desdemona as a way to prevent more men from having their masculinity threatened.

While many may read the play as characterizing the women as weak, it can be argued that the women are actually strong and powerful, despite being victims of the misogyny of their culture. Both Desdemona and Emilia are aware of how men treat women, and openly discuss the gender dynamics of the society they belong in. With this awareness comes power, for they’re not blind to the inequality and speak up against it when necessary. From the beginning of the play, Desdemona is characterized as a loyal, generous woman, who both stands up for her husband and actively works to help her friends. When Brabantio suggests she was coerced into the marriage with Othello, Desdemona tells him to his face that Othello is her husband and that she has a duty to him. With “so much duty [her] mother showed” Brabantio, “preferring [him] before her father,” Desdemona has the same duty to Othello. 11 In the context of this scene, it takes a powerful woman to speak up against her father in front of a room of men. She’s not weak nor demure, and is instead respectful, well-spoken, and loyal to her husband. Desdemona is also generous, and serves as an advocate for her friends, ensuring Cassio that she will do “all [her] abilities in [his] behalf” to help him get his position back, and vows to be his friend. 12 In this instance, she helps Iago’s plan move forward, but it still shows how she’s willing to defend and persistently help those in need.

Both Emilia and Desdemona have various discussions about gender, which display their awareness about how men treat women in society. Emilia states that men are all “but stomachs, and [women] but food.” Men use women and “eat [them] hungrily,” but “when they are full,” they “belch [them]” up. 13 Emilia is not only describing how Iago is treating them, but also realizing that women are nothing but objects to men. Moreover, she’s explaining how men use women for their benefit, but when they are done, they dispose of them. Desdemona additionally mentions how “men’s natures wrangle” with “inferior things” and that we should not think that men are gods, or perfect people. 14 The women see the men for who they truly are, while the men view women in a fictitious light. Desdemona says this in defense of Othello, explaining how he’s only human and has flaws. At the same time, the women are both aware of how men use them, and how men see themselves as superior beings, and with this statement she’s taking men off their self-placed pedestal. However, being that this is a tragedy, we know that death must be the end result. If death is necessary, then, are Desdemona and Emilia’s deaths inevitable? If we view their characters as powerful, is it even possible for powerful women to find a happy ending in a misogynist society?

Desdemona and Emilia combat the misogyny they face by finding camaraderie and remaining loyal to each other. Emilia, in particular, presents various strong opinions about men and ruthlessly defends Desdemona’s honesty, speaking up against Othello’s accusations. Emilia “wager[s]” that Desdemona is “honest, chaste” and “true,” willing to “lay down [her] soul at the stake” on her friend’s innocence. 15 She is furious with the accusations set forth against her friend, stating how she is sure that an “eternal villain” has “devised this slander,” and declares that hell should “gnaw his bones,” for he has no right to “call [Desdemona] a whore.” 16 In addition, Emilia later states that she thinks it’s a “husband’s fault if wives do fall,” for they “slack their duties” and “breakout in peevish jealousies.” She continues and discusses how men “throw restraint” upon women, proclaiming that women “have galls” and that husbands should know that “their wives have sense like them.” 17 This is arguably one of the most combative and self-aware speeches against the misogyny demonstrated throughout the play. Emilia is aware that men view women as powerless, and she negates that false sentiment; women are just like men and have similar desires, urges, and capabilities. Moreover, if a woman does have an affair, Emilia blames it on the husband, for their need for complete control and dominance over their wives is too restraining. Before Emilia’s and Desdemona’s deaths, they do speak out on the injustices they faced. Desdemona states that she “never did offend” Othello nor loved Cassio, and Emilia speaks up against Iago’s trickery and exposing his “wicked lies” and villainy, declaring that she will not obey Iago any longer. 18 As a result of trying to expose his lies, she is murdered. Desdemona and Emilia are certainly powerful women, but are also victims of a misogynistic society, and victims of Iago’s scheme.

Toxic masculinity and misogyny work hand in hand throughout Othello, and it’s evident that the views of women as deceptive and as objects in need of control contribute to the trajectory of the play. Analyzing how misogyny and masculinity function in the play is essential in understanding how the women exist within it. Although faced with direct misogyny, as well as being used as pawns in Iago’s scheme, the women prove to be powerful characters. Defying the expectations that women should only be silent, subdued, and obey their husbands, Emilia and Desdemona, at many times, speak out in their male-dominated atmosphere and have points where they resist these traits. Furthermore, they show a level of self-awareness through their conversations, and have a deep understanding about how misogyny is at play. While Iago’s scheme is largely responsible for their deaths, they both find power in speech, in conversation with each other, and die defending the truth.

Hesiod, Work and Days , Translated by Dorothea Wender, Penguin Random House (1976) ; Aristotle, The History of Animals : Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 1: The Revised Oxford Translation, Translated by Jonathan Barnes, Bollingen Series, Princeton University.
William Shakespeare, Othello , act 2, scene 1, 109-112.
Shakespeare, Othello ,1.3.292-3.
Shakespeare, Othello , 1.1.78-80.
Shakespeare, Othello , 1.3.61-3.
Shakespeare, Othello , 1.360.
Shakespeare, Othello , 2.1.379-80.
Shakespeare, Othello , 3.3.309.
Shakespeare, Othello , 3.3. 431, 447-9.
Shakespeare, Othello , 5.2.6.
Shakespeare, Othello , 1.3.185-9.
Shakespeare, Othello , 3.3.2.
Shakespeare, Othello ,3.4.102-105.
Shakespeare, Othello , 3.4.142-3, 147.
Shakespeare, Othello , 4.2.12-19.
Shakespeare, Othello , 4.2.130-3, 136-7.
Shakespeare, Othello , 4.3.85-104.
Shakespeare, Othello , 5.2.58-9, 182.

Jackie Chirco (BA ’22) originally wrote “ Gender Conflict in Othello : How Women Find Power in a Misogynist Society” in Bella Mirabella ‘s Spring 2021 Interdisciplinary Seminar “ Shakespeare and the London Theatre .”

Thumbnail image: “ Othello , Act 3 Scene 4: Othello and Desdemona ” (1845), Kenny Meadows, Drawing and Prints, The British Museum ( CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ).

Study Like a Boss

Othello Conflict Essay

“I am not what I am. ” What is Iago? — as distinct from what he pretends to be — and what are his motives? In Shakespeare’s, Othello, the reader is presented the classic battle between the deceitful forces of evil and the innocence of good. It are these forces of evil that ultimately lead to the breakdown of Othello, a noble venetian moor, well-known by the people of Venice as a honourable soldier and a worthy leader. Othello’s breakdown results in the muder of his wife Desdemona. Desdemona is representative of the good in nature. Good can be defined as forgiving, honest, innocent and unsuspecting.

The evil ontained within Othello is by no means magical or mythical yet is represented by the character Iago. Iago is cunning, untrustworthy, selfish, and plotting. He uses these traits to his advantage by slowly planning his own triumph while watching the demise of others. It is this that is Iago’s motivation. The ultimate defeat of good by the wrath of evil. Not only is it in his own nature of evil that he suceeds but also in the weaknesses of the other characters. Iago uses the weaknesses of Othello, specifically jealousy and his devotion to things as they seem , to conquer his opposite in Desdemona.

From the start of the play, Iago’s scheming ability is shown when he convinces Roderigo to tell about Othello and Desdemonda’s elopement to Desdemona’s father, Brabantio. Confidentally Iago continues his plot successfully, making fools of others, and himself being rewarded. Except Roderigo, no one is aware of Iago’s plans. This is because Iago pretends to be an honest man loyal to his superiors. The fact that Othello himself views Iago as trustworthy and honest gives the evil within Iago a perfect unsuspecting victim for his schemes. The opportunity to get to Desdemona through Othello is one temptation that Iago cannot refuse.

He creates the impression that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio in order to stir the jealousy within Othello. It is this jealousy and the ignorance of Othello that lead to the downfall of Desdemona; the one truely good natured character in the play . As the play opens we are immediately introduced to the hostility of Iago against Othello. Iago has been appointed the position of servant to Othello instead of the more prestigous position of lieutenant. Michael Cassio has been appointed this position. Iago feels betrayed because he considers him self more qualified than Cassio to serve as lieutenant.

Iago then foreshadows his plans for Othello to Roderigo, “O, sir, content you. / I follow him to serve my turn upon him (Act I, Scene I)”. Iago already realizes that Othello thinks about him as an honest man. Roderigo is used by Iago as an apprentence and someone to do his “dirty” work. Roderigo is naively unsuspecting. As the play shifts from Venice to Cyprus there is an interesting contrast. Venice, a respectful and honourable town is overshadowed by the war torn villages of Cyprus. It could be said that Venice represents good or specfically Desdemona and that Cyprus represents evil in Iago.

Desdemona has been taken from her peacefullness and brought onto the grounds of evil. Iago commits his largest acts of deceit in Cyprus, fittingly considering the atmosphere. Ironically, the venetians feel the Turks are their only enemy while in fact Iago is in hindsight the one man who destroys their stable state. Act II Scene III shows Iago’s willing ability to manipulate characters in the play. Iago convinces Montano to inform Othello of Cassio’s weakness for alchohol hoping this would rouse disatisfaction by Othello. Iago when forced to tell the truth against another haracter does so very suspiciously.

He pretends not to offend Cassio when telling Othello of the fight Cassio was involved in, but Iago secretly wants the worst to become of Cassio’s situation without seeming responsible. Cassio is relieved of his duty as lieutenant. With Cassio no longer in the position of lieutenant, this gives Iago the opportunity to more effectively interact with and manipulate Othello. By controlling Othello, Iago would essentially control Desdemona. To reach Desdemona directly is unforseeable for Iago considering that Othello is superior to him. It is for this reason that Iago decides to exploit Othello.

If Iago can turn Othello against his own wife he will have defeated his opposition. Act III Scene III, is very important because it is the point in the play where Iago begins to establish his manipulation of Othello. Cassio feels that it is necessary to seek the help of Desdemona in order to regain his position of lieutenant and therefore meets with her to discuss this possibility. Iago and Othello enter the scene just after Cassio leaves, and Iago witfully trys to make it look like Cassio left because he does not want to be seen in the ourtship of Desdemona.

Iago sarcastically remarks : Cassio, my lord? No, sure, I cannot think it That he would steal away so guilty-like, Seeing your coming. (Act III, Scene III) When Desdemona leaves, Iago takes the opportunity to strengthen Othello’s views of honesty and trust towards him by saying ironically, “Men should be what they seem; / Or those that be not, would they might seem none! ” (Act III, Scene III). This cleverness by Iago works upon one of the tragic flaws of Othello. Othello has a tendency to take eveything he sees and everything he is told at face value without questioning he circumstances.

Iago wonders why someone would pretend to be something they are not, while in fact that is the exact thing he represents. Finally, after hearing the exploits of Iago and witnessing the events surrounding Cassio, Othello for the first time is in conflict about what is the truth. This is the first stage of Iago’s scheme to control Othello. As Emilia becomes suspicious about Othello’s development of jealousy, Desdemona defends her husband by blaming herself for any harm done. This once again shows Desdemona’s compassion and willingness to sacrifice herself for her husband.

Othello begins to show his difficulty in maintaining his composure : Well, my good lady. O, hardness to dissemble — How do you, Desdemona? (Act III, Scene IV) Act IV, Scene I is a continuation of the anxiety and indifference Othello is under going. Iago takes advantage of this by being blunt with Othello about his wife Desdemona. Iago suggests that she is having sexual relations with other men, possibly Cassio, and continues on as if nothing has happened. This suggestions put Othello into a state of such emotional turmoil that he is lost in a trance. Iago’s control over

Othello is so strong now that he convinces him to consider getting rid of Desdemona and even suggests methods of killing her. Iago, so proud of his accomplishments of underhandedness : Work on. My med’cine works! Thus credulous fools are caught, And many worthy and chaste dames even thus, All guiltless, meet reproach. (Act IV, Scene I) Othello in this state commits his first act of violence against Desdemona by hitting her. This as a result of Desdemona’s mention of Cassio. This shows now Othello’s other tragic flaw. He made himself susceptable to Iago and the jealousy within him begins to lead to the demise of thers.

By his actions Othello has isolated himself from everyone except Iago. This gives Iago the perfect opportunity to complete his course of action. Iago does not tolerate any interference in his plans, and he first murders Roderigo before he can dispell the evil that Iago represents. Finally, Othello, so full of the lies told to him by Iago murders his wife. Desdemona, representative of goodness and heaven as a whole blames her death on herself and not Othello. Iago’s wife, Emilia, becomes the ultimate undoing of Iago. After revealing Iago’s plot to Othello, Iago kills her.

This is yet another vicious act to show the true evil Iago represents. Othello finally realizes after being fooled into murder : I look down towards his feet — but that’s a fable If that thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee. (Act V, Scene II) Iago says “I bleed, sir, but not killed”, this is the final statement by Iago himself that truely shows his belief in evil and that he truely thinks he is the devil. That is the destruction of all that is good. Hell over heaven and black over white. Iago, as a representation of evil, has one major motivational factor that leads him to ie, cheat, and commit crimes on other characters.

This motivation is the destruction of all that is good and the rise of evil. This contrast is represented between Iago and Desdemona. Desdemona is described frequently by other characters as “she is divine, the grace of heaven” (Act II, Scene I), while Iago in contrast is described as hellish after his plot is uncovered. Iago uses the other characters in the play to work specifically towards his goal. In this way, he can maintain his supposed unknowingness about the events going on and still work his scheming ways.

Iago’s schemes however at times seem to work unrealistically well which may or may not be a case of witchcraft or magic. Iago’s major mistake, ironically, is that he trusted his wife Emilia and found that she was not as trustworthy as he thought. Although not completely victorious at the conclusion of the play, Iago does successfully eliminate the one character representative of heaven, innocence, and honesty. Yet “remains the censure of this hellish villian” (Act V, Scene II). Finally, everything Iago pretended to be led to his demise : Honesty, Innocence, and Love.

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:

Four Faces of Man in Othello
Othello – Honest Iago
Othello Act 5 Analysis
Characteristics of Othello
Othello: Act 5 Analysis
Othello – Brabantio, Roderigo and Iago
Othello Themes Essay
Othello Play
Othello, the villain Iago
The Mood of Othello
Othello And Iago
Shakespeare’s Othello – The Character of Iago
Iago was the bad guy and Othello was the good guy

More Essays

Othello and Iago
Othello: Act 5 Analysis
What Motivates Iago In Othello
How Are Othello And Iago Similar
Why Is Iago Evil
The Theme of Revenge in Othello
Love In Othello
Othello Summary Essay
Magic In Othello

Conflict In Othello

Othello is certainly an overlay of the features that define tragedy as explained by Aristotle, Hegel, Nietzsche and Eagleton. Hence, to say that the play is Hegelian does not necessarily mean it is not Aristotelian. While Aristotle focused on tragedy Hegel focused on the tragic. Both features of tragedy and the tragic are to a great extent available in the Shakespearean tragedy of Othello . Hegel’s theory on the tragic helps us to a great extent analyze the tragic conflict in this play. He focuses on the tragic vis-à-vis tragedy. And for me, Hegel is the best whom can we depend upon analyzing Shakespeare’s Othello. Not only that but also he uses other supportive techniques of increasing the tragic conflict. Hegel, neither judges nor indicates …show more content…

Collision occurs when “one individual’s aim encounters hindrances from other individuals…so that in this confrontation mutual conflicts and their complication result.” Both the ends and the individuals identified with those ends come to a resolution through either “inevitable disaster or peaceful union.” The resolution of the tragic conflict in Othello, however, is followed by the negation of the hero and affirmation of the moral order in the universe. As soon as Othello is awakened that he is guilty, his life turns out to be a sort of self-destruction. As per the Hegelian canon, Othello’s death shows the inexorability of …show more content…

But it is not bad luck what makes tragedy. For Elizabethan consciousness, what happened to Othello concerns one or all of the following: the Wheel of Fortune, Fate, or the will of Providence. References to Fortune and to the position of the stars or the Divine occur throughout the play and characters after plead with or rail against these forces. It is the ability, as Hegel says of “Absolute Spirit,” to sacrifice oneself into free contingent happening. It is the reuniting of the subject with nature. Iago, as Edmund in King Lear, was not capable of such sacrifice. Iago’s inability is present in his own credulity: His hatred of Othello stems from the fact that someone told Iago that Othello had slept with Iago’s wife. Thus despite being able to not be who he appears to be, Iago is caught up in the dramatic action. For someone to negate the negation, he or she has to have a clear understanding of his or her dramatic identity, and to be able to step in and out of it at will, as necessity

Othello: The Tragedy of an Aristotelian Tragic Hero Essay

4 Works Cited

Shakespeare's play, “Othello, the Moor of Venice,” is a powerful example of a tragedy and it’s main character, Othello, is an excellent illustration of what Aristotle constitutes as a tragic hero. The play imitates life through basic human emotions such as jealousy and rage. In addition, Othello is far from being a perfect character - another quality that meets Aristotle's requirements. Othello also matches Aristotle's ideas of tragic hero because our Othello realizes the error of his ways, causing us to feel sympathy for him. If we carefully examine the third scene in the third act, we can see how Othello fits into Aristotle's definition of tragic hero. This passage reveals how much Othello has deteriorated as far as his ability to reason

Othello Analysis : Othello By William Shakespeare

Othello, a play that was written in 1604 by William Shakespeare, is an example of a type of story called a “tragedy.” Throughout the course of the work, Othello proves himself to be very easily misled, despite his heroic status. This causes him to lose his ability to make good judgments and decisions. Even though Othello had a reputation as a hero, he ends up being one of the most gullible characters in the play when he completely falls into the evil trap that Iago set for him. As the story unfolds Othello’s character evolves in an extremely tragic way as Iago manipulates him and leaves him to rot in his misery. Eventually, this leads to Othello’s suicide.

Othello : An Argumentative Essay

Inside each of us, there is a seed of good and evil since it is a constant struggle for us to

Othello - The Tragic Hero Essay

In William Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello is the tragic hero. He is a character of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. His destruction is essentially precipitated by his own actions, as well as by the actions of the characters surrounding him. The tragedy of Othello is not a fault of a single villain, but is rather a consequence of a wide range of feelings, judgments and misjudgments, and attempts for personal justification exhibited by the characters. Othello is first shown as a hero of war and a man of great pride and courage. As the play continues, his character begins to deteriorate and become less noble. Chronologically through the play, Othello’s character

Racial Conflicts Of Othello

Three sources analyze the racial conflicts of white actors playing colored parts, and all agreed that it was not a trivial situation, for audiences, or actors. Racial tensions are very popular with the media. While there is some minor tension today, the movies and plays of Othello top the charts for most racial conflicts. First, The article, “Othello: the role that entices and engages actors of all skin colours,” by Andrew Dickson shows the history of the actors that played Othello, and when the actors were black, they were either not cast, due to segregationists, or were criticized in their performance for the same reason. Also, this article uses diction to convey the seriousness of white vs. minority crisis. Next, the video, “SHAKESPEARE UNCOVERED White Actors Playing Othello” by PBS, shows the performances of many Othello actors that were white. Additionally, the video shows one white actor who used makeup to make himself more than than black. The video uses hyperbole to describe the absurdity of Othello movies. For example, Laurence Olivier, the 1964 Othello was black-top showing how far film industries will go to cover-up racial tensions, and the narrator describes the makeup as ridiculous,and dramatic. Finally, the last article, “Aladdin: putting a white character in Disney’s live-action remake is offensive,” by Hannah Flint displays that film industries feel obligated to please a white audience, keeping the minorities second fiddle by adding characters white people

Othello, By Director Iqbal Khan

The state of not having certainty makes Othello a tragedy. If characters in the play were not allowed to be manipulated the network of betrayals would have never existed. Betrayals are based upon hearsay no one is for certain. Only the audience is aware of the mastermind Iago. The fact that the situations are familiar to us as humans also allows the play to be more tragic. We know what it is like to be betrayed. We know what is it like to feel love and have it taken away. We know what it is like to be that outsider just as Othello was. Therefore the universal feeling of uncertainty creates a catastrophic world in Othello that defines it as a tragedy. The world is recognizable.

The Dual Nature of Characters in Othello Essay

In Shakespeare's tragedy, Othello, Iago is uncharacteristically honest when he says "I am not what I am". However, he is not the only character whose appearance differs from the reality. Nonetheless, he is possibly the only person who intends this duplicity. Unfortunately everyone is under the impression that Iago is "honest and just". Once alone, Iago reveals "when devils will the blackest sins put on, they do suggest at first with heavenly shows as I do now". Iago is two-faced in his relationships, even in the language he uses. After referring to Othello as a "black ram", he then tells him "my lord, you know I love you". Iago has no shame in appealing to heaven and godly images in

Othello Comparison Essay

How is the theme of suffering portrayed in ‘Othello’, ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’?

Human Frailty in Othello Essay

6 Works Cited

Tragedy is an intrinsically human concept; tragic heroes are damned by what they themselves do. Othello is not so much felled by the actions of Iago, but by a quality all people possess-- human frailty. Accordingly, Othello is not a victim of consequences, but an active participant in his downfall. He is not merely a vehicle for the machinations of Iago; he had free agency. Othello's deficiencies are: an insecure grasp of Venetian social values; lack of critical intelligence, self-knowledge, and faith in his wife; and finally, insecurity-- these are the qualities that lead to his own downfall.

Iago: One of Shakespeare's Most Misunderstood Villains Essay

Iago is one of the most misunderstood villains in Shakespeare literature. We side with Othello from the start because his name is on the cover of our paperback, we read Othello when learning about heroes, so we expect Iago to be a villain, a ruthless manipulator. We don’t know why, he doesn’t state it plainly or in simple English, so we assume that he’s evil, that he’s just a disgruntled sociopath out to exact his exaggerated revenge on good and noble Othello. Iago’s misunderstood reputation is a result of not truly examining his character, and answering the “why” factor behind his actions. After all, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. His goal in the play was not just to destroy Othello for the fun of it. His objective,

Othello Character Analysis

In Othello by William Shakespeare, the villainous Iago devises a plot with the hopes that Othello and his wife, Desdemona, will be separated so that he can take Othello’s position as head of the Venetian Military. Iago’s scheme consists of him convincing Othello that Desdemona is cheating on him with his lieutenant, Cassio. Iago has told no one else about his ploy so while everyone else’s actions remain true, he manipulates their every move for his benefit. While their actions may not lead to results that they expected, exploring the reasoning behind everyone’s actions, can give insight to their values since the actions were based on what they believed was the best thing to do. To the characters of Othello, honor is more important than

Othello, The Moor of Venice Essay examples

Aristotle’s second requirement for a tragedy is that the tragic hero must have a reversal of fortune. In the beginning of the play, Othello is seen as content with his new bride: “For know, Iago, But that I love the gentle Desdemona” (1.2.24-25). As the play progresses, and Iago’s plan culminates, Othello’s good fortune begins to turn. After Othello returns from war at sea with the Turks, his fortune begins a downward spiral. Shakespeare often focuses his plays on human nature as well as fate, which Othello’s fate ended in the tragic ending due to his reversal of fortune once the claims against Desdemona begin. After Othello learns of a possible affair between Cassio and Desdemona, at this instance is the turning point in Othello’s fortune because it changes his views, attitudes and ultimately his fate. “In

Othello: Characters Bring About Their Own Demise. Essay

As in almost all tragedies, especially those of William Shakespeare, the tragic hero always runs into misfortune. The play Othello is no exception. In this play, every character acquainted with the tragic hero appears to be unfortunate. While these misfortunes are oddly related to Othello, are they his fault or did each character attract them out of their own actions? To answer this daunting question, one must consider the three most unfortunate characters: Othello, Desdamona and Roderigo and analyse their downfall which eventually lead to their deaths. It is known from reading the play that Iago is the one who manipulates all three of them. Examinations of their connection with him before their deaths are necessary to answer this

Essay about Othello as Victim of Hamartia

In the beginning of the play, Shakespeare illustrates Othello as a benevolent military noble who shares an intellectual love with his young wife, Desdemona, that is of utmost purity and innocence. At once the evil character of Iago is introduced and uncovers the hero's tragic flaw; ultimately that of naiveté. Although Othello is usually a very even-tempered man, as can be seen when he refuses to let Iago persuade him to get angry at Roderigo, (I, ii, 6), an exteriour opposing force characterized by Iago, perpetuates the tragedy of the play by provoking the interiour opposing force, or the hamartia of the protagonist. Near the beginning of the play, Shakespeare's clever demonstration of dramatic irony allows the reader to realize Othello's tragic flaw in the fact that he hands his full trust over to a man who is "Janus-faced" and dishonest. "...my ancient; a man he is of honesty and trust. To this conveyance I assign my wife". The irony from this line lies in Othello's misconception of his ensign, Iago, who is already plotting against him for his own means. After witnessing Iago's conspiracy with Roderigo at the ruination of Othello in the previous act, the reader immediately sees Iago's villainess, however in innocence, Othello is blinded to it and by it. From this we see, as in many tragedies, the tragic hero's flaw is not actually a defect in itself, but rather an excess of a virtue. In the case of Othello, this perilous virtue

Othello's Tragic Flaw

Shakespeare is very well known for his inclusion of tragic flaws throughout the storylines of his novels. Hero’s, as courageous as they may seem, are just like any other person and go through flaws throughout their lifetime regardless of the extent of their situation. In Shakespeare’s novel Othello, with all the events twisting the readers mind from one side to another, there are many distinct qualities that portray Othello’s tragic flaw. Iago was portrayed as an honest character but with his careful deceptions jabbing in Othello’s mind, he is far from honest. Othello’s tragic flaw is that he trusts others opinions more than his own perceptions and Shakespeare develops this flaw by using convincing persuasive appeals and strong syntax throughout

Conflict in Othello

Othello is a play which contains many conflicts between the characters. The main conflicts in ‘Othello’ are between friends and foes. Othello’s inner conflict, cultural and racial differences which lead to racial judgement and discrimination, to express these conflicts; Shakespeare uses many techniques such as soliloquies, dramatic irony, imagery foreshadowing and symbolism.

Amongst the main characters there are many conflicts, however the main reason for most of the conflict if Iago and Shakespeare use the techniques to show us how Iago causes the conflicts. This also analyzes Othello’s pride, his self conscious nature, his jealousy and his rash behaviour.

Conflict between the characters especially Iago and Othello is partly portrayed through the use of language devices such as imagery and metaphors animal imagery, sexual innuendo, irony and dramatic irony, repetition, classical and religious allusions. These devices are used to provide insight into the characters relationships, thematic concerns and a wide variety of alternatives reading. The metaphors and imagery portray how Iago despised Othello and the conflict to come between them.

Order custom essay Conflict in Othello with free plagiarism report

Conflict is also presented through the Binary Opposition, which allowed the audience to see the change within the characters or between characters from one extreme to another. For example, we are able to follow the personal conflict and deterioration through the Binary Opposition of love and hatred as well as rational and emotional. This provides the audience to see how Othello transforms from a rational to an irrational man. Another example is the Binary Opposition of wisdom and foolishness which illustrates the conflict between Iago and Othello.

Other forms of conflict involved in this play are internal which includes hate and identity, external that consists of race, sex, gender and marriage. Adding on there is in international conflict with the Turks and Venice, racial conflict as Othello being the outsider, conflict within marriage which involves Desdemona and Othello as well as Iago and Emilia and filial conflict within the family with Desdemona and her father.

Cite this Page

Conflict in Othello. (2017, Mar 31). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/conflict-in-othello/

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

More related essays

Unit 1: ‘Many critics have argued that Othello is not a true Shakespearean tragic hero. Explore the idea that Shakespeare intended to make Othello fit the criteria of his tragic.

Othello is character created by Shakespeare that “fulfils the conditions and requirements of a tragic hero (Bhattacharyya 123). ” This is for the reason that Othello’s character exhibits what Aristotle.

Furthermore, the tragedy of the play is Othello hubris forcing him to murder his wife - the action which proves his Inability to Integrate with Venetian society. Shakespeare presents the.

Gender Overplay The representation and relationships of women in Venetian society in terms of ender relations and equality are explored throughout the play. The character of Ago, adopts the sexist.

What can we see about the treatment of love in literature from comparing Shakespeare and Browning? In Shakespearean 'Othello' and Borrowing's 'The Laboratory, it is implied that love was the.

There are three mall reasons for why Ago hates Othello. The first being that Ago deeply believes that there used to be an affair between his wife Email and Othello..

Depending on cultural differences and upbringing a text will have different impacts on the audience. Like any great piece of literature, William Shakespearean plays deal with timeless concerns that have.

Jealousy and Manipulation in Othello He, who loves his wife for the lust, can run away from the situation that haunts him. But, he who loves his wife like he.

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. By continuing we’ll assume you’re on board with our cookie policy

Save time and let our verified experts help you.

IMAGES

Conflict In Othello Essay Example (300 Words)
An Essay on Shakespeare's Othello
Othello Essay
Othello Political Context Essay
(PDF) Othello's Conflict: As a Collision of Love and Honour
⭐ Theme of othello by william shakespeare. Themes of Trust and Betrayal

VIDEO

"Reputation, Reputation, Reputation" Othello Essay Read-Aloud
Israel and Palestine conflict essay CSS&PMS
Conflict Essay
Conflict Resolution Overview
Conflict Analysis Essay Presentation
Article Review: “The Israeli Side of the Israel-Palestine Conflict…”

COMMENTS

Conflict in Othello
Notes / Words: 680 / July 16, 2021. " Othello " is a play which contains many conflicts between the characters. The main conflicts in 'Othello' are between friends and foes. Othello's inner conflict, cultural and racial differences which lead to racial judgement and discrimination, to express these conflicts; Shakespeare uses many ...
Shakespeare's Othello: Essay Samples
Comparison and Contrast of the Driving Force of Plot in Medea by Euripides, Othello by William Shakespeare, and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Genre: Essay. Words: 568. Focused on: Heroism in Medea by Euripides, Othello by William Shakespeare, and The Epic of Gilgamesh. Characters mentioned: Othello, Iago, Brabantio, Roderigo.
What are some examples of conflict in Othello?
The play exhibits many examples of both external and internal conflict. The first of these is displayed in Act 1, Scene 1, where there exists an apparent conflict between what Iago wants and what ...
Critical interpretations Post-colonial readings Othello: A Level
Post-colonial readings. A post-colonial critique of the play considers the way in which Othello's race is portrayed, and considers the hero's 'outsider' status in a white world. In Gender, Race, Renaissance Drama (1987), Ania Loomba suggests the central conflict in Othello is 'between the racism of a white patriarchy and the threat ...
Act I Scene 1 Conflict and the tragedy of Othello Othello: A Level
Brabantio arms himself and rouses his neighbours to help him hunt down Othello. He is making his daughter's elopement a public, political affair. The audience realises that the marriage of Othello and Desdemona is going to be at the heart of the conflict in the play. Act I Scene 1 also includes references to the Venetian conflict with the ...
Iago's Alter Ego: Race as Projection in Othello
I, I, I: Iago's name unfolds from the Italian io, Latin ego; and the injured "I" is his signature, the ground of his being and the ground, I will argue, of the play. For Iago calls up the action ...
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 ...
What internal and external conflicts led to Othello's downfall?
Expert Answers. In Othello, the main character faces inward and outward conflicts which lead to his downfall. Although Othello was initially confident in himself, he begins to struggle with inner ...
Othello's Tragic Flaws
Iago's ambition, Desdemona's love for Othello, and Emilia's loyalty in Iago and Desdemona are also tragic flaws. These tragic flaws are imperative to the play, and without them there would be a lack of plot, conflict, and climax. Othello's tragic flaw of inherent trust haunts him throughout the play. Othello is easily persuaded and this ...
Essay on Conflict in Othello
The conflict between Iago an Othello is many between the two but only one person can see what's happening. Iago constantly manipulates, lies and plots to ensure that he. Free Essay: Othello is a play which contains many conflicts between the characters. The main conflicts in 'Othello' are between friends and foes.
Conflict In Othello Essay
Conflict In Othello Essay. Othello, the protagonist of Othello by William Shakespeare, is a tragic hero with both good and bad qualities. Othello's most noticeable strength is his passion for Desdemona. Othello has physical strength from being a moor, but also mental strength from being well educated in military matters and language.
Gender Conflict in Othello
At the heart of several of Shakespeare's plays are conflicts circulating around gender, where certain misogynist tropes are displayed. Oftentimes, women are used by the villain to hurt the protagonist, manipulated and used as bait. In Shakespeare's Othello, the female characters are unknowingly thrown into the center of Iago's villainous ...
Othello Conflict Essay Essay, Othello
It are these forces of evil that ultimately lead to the breakdown of Othello, a noble venetian moor, well-known by the people of Venice as a honourable soldier and a worthy leader. Othello's breakdown results in the muder of his wife Desdemona. Desdemona is representative of the good in nature. Good can be defined as forgiving, honest ...
Internal Conflict In Othello By William Shakespeare
Othello has internal conflicts in regards to the accusations of Desdemona, his wife, sleeping with his lieutenant Cassio, which is caused by the finding of the handkerchief. The handkerchief is symbolic of Othello and Desdemona's love and marital fidelity. Losing the handkerchief is said to make the husband unfaithful to his wife, which is ...
What are some conflict-related quotes in Shakespeare's Othello
Expert Answers. In Shakespeare's Othello, when Othello chooses Cassio for a promotion over Iago, this creates the central conflict of the play. It is for this reason that Iago decides to destroy ...
Conflict In Othello Essay
Conflict In Othello Essay. Conflict is a central theme in Othello. Othello has to deal with conflicts with other characters, as well as his inner conflict about whether or not he is truly capable of being a great leader. This leads to Othello's tragic downfall. Shakespeare was very skilled at writing about complex human emotions and the ...
Conflict In Othello
Conflict In Othello. Othello is certainly an overlay of the features that define tragedy as explained by Aristotle, Hegel, Nietzsche and Eagleton. Hence, to say that the play is Hegelian does not necessarily mean it is not Aristotelian. While Aristotle focused on tragedy Hegel focused on the tragic. Both features of tragedy and the tragic are ...
Conflict In Othello Essay Example (300 Words)
The main conflicts in 'Othello' are between friends and foes. Othello's inner conflict, cultural and racial differences which lead to racial judgement and discrimination, to express these conflicts; Shakespeare uses many techniques such as soliloquies, dramatic irony, imagery foreshadowing and symbolism. Amongst the main characters there ...
Othello essay plans Flashcards
Othello essay plans. Get a hint. Conflict between what power represents and what represents power, Iago lives through the fictions he has fabricated, sets in motion the representation of power. -Iago's godlike sense of power, fades towards end (loses voice)?, reaches peak in climax (his power matches play's power, representative of the play ...