The Inecurities Of The Character In Shakespeare's Othello

Debra Winger had stated once that “Most bad behaviour comes from insecurity”, this could not hold anymore truth in Shakespeare’s “Othello” as the story progresses only due to the insecurities of the characters. For starters, Othello is the protagonist so we get to see his internal conflicts about societal standards and judgement on display. Meanwhile, Iago’s vulnerabilities as a villain are only showed during his monologues as he is hinted to having a superiority complex against Othello, and a complete reverse of Iago, Cassio’s issues are visible from the readers perspective and the characters as his reputation is slandered and used against him. These are all prime examples of how insecurity was used as a primary plot device to advance the

The core of it is thanks to 1603’s views on African males, as they believed that they were savages that practiced black magic. So, this had caused issues once Iago had resurfaced those problems with the subtle reference to the infidelity of Desdemona. He does this through saying innocently “As for Michael Cassio I think it would be safe for me to swear that he’s honest” although it seems harmless the amount of ideas that plants in Othello’s head while distancing himself, protecting and accusing Cassio at the same time. The complexity of this one quote by Iago is enough for Othello to be sent down a deep spiral of self-doubt and anger displaying how easily his insecurities can be exposed. Deconstructing the same scene, there is a ton of irony here as he utters Cassio’s name once after making Othello say it five times. Iago acts innocent and clueless which is against his character and saying that Cassio is honest when in fact Iago isn’t but Cassio is, creating a paradox situation that is irony filled. This is the turning point in the plotline as Iago has just planted the seeds of doubt in Othello’s mind and it will only bloom from

Cassio cares deeply for his reputation as after he is disgracefully disbarred from his rank of lieutenant he obsesses over the loss of his reputation and sulks about it for a majority of the story. A moment wherein he had just lost his rank as lieutenant you can see how much he values his social and army status “My reputation, my reputation! I’ve lost my reputation the longest-living and truest part of myself!” and further cements the importance of it as he completely blames himself in the next few lines “I rather ask him to hate me then ask such a good commander to accept such a worthless drunk, stupid officer as myself”. These two excerpts clearly demonstrate the true insecurity of Cassio that is easily taken advantage of by Iago which in turn drives the story because it is the catalyst to the main event as Othello starts suspecting Desdemona’s infidelity to him. Due to this it is yet another example of how another character’s insecurities were used to drive the action further