Manipulation of words can have a great impact on human behavior. The impact of manipulation is uncontrollable; individuals use it without even thinking about it because it is what humans do to get what they desire. In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, Manipulation, jealousy and betrayal by characters change how they perceive themselves and others. Iago uses manipulation of words to persuade Othello throughout the whole play. Iago uses his cleverness and his patience to achieve his goals in the play. Othello becomes a dynamic character after getting convinced by Iago, that he began to perceive everyone differently. There are many ways in which characters in “Othello” perceive themselves and others differently.
Othello changed his perception very significantly throughout the play. In the beginning of the play Othello loved Desdemona, but as the play went on Othello hated Desdemona so much he wanted to kill her. Desdemona perceives herself as the most loyal wife anyone could have. Othello perceives the total opposite when he sees Desdemona. When Iago first told him that Desdemona is cheating on him. Othello looked at Iago like he was irrational but after Iago convinced him of Desdemona cheating he perceived everyone as his enemy because Iago had great reputation. Every time Othello looked at Cassio or Desdemona he would always think about the negative between them. Depending on how persuasive someone is they can impact how an individual perceives
others. Just like Iago towards Othello, he fooled him and he never found out until the end when it was too late. In Act IV Scene ii Othello even threw money at Emilia while calling her the madam of a brothel. This scene shows how human behavior can be altered in a bad way b...
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...eive Cassio as his worst enemy in a matter of minutes because of how effective manipulation was towards Othello.
Based on evidence from the text Iago made Othello perceive everyone differently without any real proof. This shows how powerful manipulation is when it comes to changing how people perceive themselves and others. Jealousy and betrayal also played a huge role in the play when it came to characters changing perception throughout the play. The handkerchief shows a lot of symbolism because it shows how it manipulated Othello further into believing things that are not true. Manipulating someone will give an individual what he or she wants but it will cause a huge amount of humiliation and it will cause individuals to morally degrade themselves.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William, and Jane Coles. Othello. Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 1992. Print.
In the beginning Othello is seen as a calm collected man when put into an awkward situation, such as being ridiculed by his wife’s father in thinking that Othello has used some sort of magic to gain Desdemona 's infection. Othello’s calm collected ways start to deteriorate after he is convinced by Iago, a deceiving evil man that Desdemona has slept with Cassio. Othello’s self control no longer exist once he is fully convinced that it is in fact true that Desdemona has been unfaithful. His sense of what is real and what is not real is thrown out the window. Othello starts to become extremely jealous of his used to be beloved Cassio, and after considering giving back his spot as liternuanat he denies him that. He starts to become cold and distant towards his wife, and starts to call her out of her name. As Othello continues to lose control the people around him start to doubt his abilities of being able to protect Cyprus, and even his wife starts to doubt him, and agree with her father. No one knows who this man is anymore, he has started to act in an insanely matter. He can longer be his true self and take on the responsibilities of being general as he starts to crack. With Othello being faced with evil, him being calm is no longer an option for him because he can’t face the fact that the person he loves so dearly is cheating on him. Going back the they handkerchief, the symbol of his love for her. Othello seeing Cassio with Desdemona’s handkerchief sets him over the edge becoming truly convinced that his wife has betrayed him. Even when Desdemona and her maid Emila, Iago’s wife, has told him countless times that she has not been unfaithful, he is so far gone from reality that he does not believe either one of them. With the state of mind he’s in he cannot bear the thought of another man touching his wife. Othello and Iago plan to kill Cassio and Desdemona. After he
Othello has many positive traits, including being a great leader and loyal. He also has one negative trait that ultimately leads to his death; jealousy. Iago provokes deep, strong emotions in Othello, jealousy being the strongest. Jealousy is a nasty little emotion. It causes people to do terrible things because once it is on a person’s conscience, it stays for quite some time. Because of these effects, jealousy can impact some of the strongest people such as Othello. The love between Desdemona and Othello was portrayed so elevated and pure and was filled with religious words and phrases that just added to the strength and sanctity of their love. Othello has such a strong mind, but jealousy caused by the manipulation of Iago, negatively impacts him. Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona is cheating on him with his friend Cassio. When Othello asks Iago for proof of Desdemona’s deceit, Iago describes scenes and events in which Othello has a reason to be jealous. In Act III, Scene I Iago is describing to Othello, Desdemona and Cassio’s imagined relationship, “It is impossible you should see this/ were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, as salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross as ignorance made drunk.” These images planted themselves inside Othello’s mind and haunted him until he did something about it. These images led to Othello believing Desdemona really did love
Othello wondered if Desdemona really loved him, or if she was just using him to rebel against her father. With Iago constantly putting these ideas in his head, Othello was convinced to kill his wife. Cassio was known to be a good soldier, and is proud of that public perception.
Since the dawn of time, people have always manipulated others for their self-absorbed needs. Some did it to gain wealth, fame, or power and some for the sake of doing it. In William Shakespeare’s play, “Othello”, a character named Iago manipulates the people surrounding him for his twisted purposes of gaining higher status and for entertainment. He tries to convince Othello that his wife is cheating behind his back; he brands Cassio as the cheater, fools Roderigo into believing him, which leads to his death and finally, kills his own wife, Emilia. Iago’s motive for controlling these people is to plot out revenge for the enjoyment of doing so, making him a schadenfreude, and also to gain higher status.
Throughout the mind bending play Othello we are deceived from the characters and their innocence and the tragedies that set out to do. During the play Othello by William Shakespeare, we meet a few iconic characters. Iago, the mischievous man who deceives everyone into believing he is the good guy and is there to help when all along he is trying to bring Othello down. Continuing through the play Iago takes charge into his plan, using anything he can get his hands on. Further bringing us to the scene that Iago gets a hold of Desdemona’s handkerchief from Emilia. Iago tries to use that to his advantage to turn Othello and Desdemona on each other. The archetypal perspective helps the audience understand what Shakespeare is trying to accomplish
In Othello, Iago uses his fine reputation as an “honest man” and Othello’s insecurities to manipulate him and carry out his master plan of destroying Cassio, Othello, and Desdemona. Iago’s insight towards the other characters’ weaknesses enables him to let them know exactly what they want to hear, which helps him gain their trust. He plays upon the insecurities of others to maneuver them into carrying out the actions he needs done in order to fulfill his own desires. In looking at Othello, we will consider the Othello’s blind acceptance of “the truth” as it is presented to him and find that when we blindly take another’s “truth” and accept it as our own, we merely become tools utilized by the person who gave us that supposed truth and give up the power of being ourselves—we fail to assert a self.
The main theme of the drama is revenge. The events that take place are due to Iago’s pursuit of revenge. Iago manipulates the people and events throughout the course of the play in order to enact this revenge. In Othello, Iago manipulates the situations he finds himself in, the people who happen to be around him, and the words that come out of his mouth to ensure his mission for revenge is a success. Iago impacts everyone in the game.
Appearances are often deceitful. In the play Othello, Iago seemed to be a rather moral person to the other characters in the play. He used his honest ways and twisted words. The tragic events that occurred in Othello could have been avoided if Iago did not spread his lies.
...ief, everything went downhill for everyone. He planted that “napkin” in Cassio’s bedroom as evidence for his scheme and Othello seen it. Then afterwards he fooled Othello by having him hide in Cassio’s room and talk to Cassio about the things he did with Desdemona when in reality they spoke of Bianca the town strumpet.
Diction is the author's choice of words, taking into account correctness, clearness, and effectiveness. Shakespeare's works focus on human problems and resolving them. The use of Shakespeare’s diction throughout Othello is very unique because he is very clear in the emotions and the plans of characters. He lays out what a character's plan is before he acts it out. He also has a tendency to retell the recent events. These subtle hints allow the reader to foreshadow and develop a feel for each character. The intimations of what’s to come is prominently seen through Iago’s soliloquies. He often speaks openly of his plan for revenge that only the reader will know. This in turn creates dramatic irony. The effect of this type of diction is that the reader has a clearer and comprehensive understanding of what exactly is going on. He uses imagery several times in the describing of various people as animals or in terms of comparing things. Most of the imagery pertains to Othello and his various travels or especially his jealousy. This use of imagery and diction is effective because in addition to having merely an idea of what is going on the reader can have a mental picture as well. These strong bouts of imagery are beneficial to the work as a whole because they give strong pictures in which the general action of the work can be amplified, which is something Shakespeare strives for. The women in the story: Desdemona and Emilia, play an important role in the theme of the story. It is possible to establish a clear relation behind Shakespeare’s diction towards each of these women and the theme of ignorance behind a man’s view of the women in his life, and misconceptions of what love truly is.
Continuing Act three, Scene three, Othello feels the beginning of a headache. Desdemona offers Othello a handkerchief to ease the pain upon Othello’s forehead. The handkerchief is a gift from Othello to Desdemona as a symbol of the love shared by Othello and Desdemona. In Othello’s pain the handkerchief falls from Othello’s hand and Emilia steals the handkerchief. Iago uses the characters of the play as pawns, including wife Emilia. Jealousy is the fuel and the handkerchief is the spark. With the handkerchief in Iago’s possession, Iago can continue to spin the web of lies and deceit. Iago plans to leave the handkerchief in Cassio’s lodgings to further support the suspicion of Desdemona’s infidelity.
Othello, through Iago’s manipulation and Desdemona’s compliments to Cassio, starts to mistrust his wife because he is convinced she is having an affair and becomes convinced to the point he can not believe his wife’s faithfulness. Iago’s disrespect and cruel views towards women enables him to manipulate Othello because he does not care about the fates of women and would rather not deal with them. Also, Iago hurting his wife both mentally and physically illustrates his mistrust towards his wife because he does not believe his wife is faithful and he hurts her, in efforts to prove his superiority. Lack of communication between spouses in relationships can bring many arguments because they are unwilling to admit their mistakes or admit something bothering them and once it all these emotions boil up inside it can lead to the argument becoming worse. These intense arguments can lead to spouses acting upon emotions, which they will later regret their actions during these fight, but in the moment they are too blinded by emotions realize their mistakes. Miscommunication can also lead to others being labeled based on other’s perspective of the person, which is bad because they might not act that way, but if the person does not confront them then they will always assume the other person’s view of a person is correct, instead of learning the truth by meeting the
coming up with plans to ruin Othello and Michael Cassio. First off Iago wants to frame
Iago’s deceit and manipulation in Othello Iago is widely credited, in the words of Agatha Christie, as “the greatest villain of all time”. He is a manipulative character who “weaves a web of deceit” by exploiting even the tiniest faults in others. By maintaining a facade of comedy and boyishness he uses his honesty and twisted truth to play others “like a virtuoso” and “drive... them to madness”. In the play Othello, Act 2 Scene 1 is perhaps the most enlightening scene with regards to the truly manipulative character of Iago.
...gonism. Characterization was used to emphasize Othello’s gentlemen like nature and noble soldier status, while to the contrary, Iago’s actions defined him as a conniving saboteur. These differences create a tension that stresses the good in our protagonist and the bad in our antagonist. Metaphors were used by Iago that showed his manipulative pattern of malice. A subtle placement of irony extenuates our negative perceptions of Iago. Symbolism was a crucial role in Othello, this may have been the crown jewel of literary devices used to demonstrate that Iago was a great villain in the play Othello. Symbolism was the device that this whole play hinged on. Were it not for the handkerchief and the inherent symbolism Othello would have played out very differently.