Examples Of Iago's Weakness In Othello

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In the play “Othello”, the antagonist,Iago , has multiple weakness like jealousy, disloyalty and his manipulations. If the story had not gone the way it did, these weakness could have resulted in the failure of Iago’s plan with Othello and the demise of Iago’s reputation.
Iago’s biggest weakness is his jealousy of Cassio. Othello has promoted Cassio to lieutenant even though he has never seen war before. Cassio being promoted causes Iago to be extremely jealous of Cassio and annoyed at Othello for promoting him. The jealousy and annoyance is the roots for Iago’s plan to exploit other character’s weaknesses in the play. Throughout the play Iago’s jealousy could have been exploited by Roderigo. During the play Roderigo seems very oblivious to what is happening when it comes to Iago. However, if Roderigo had taken a minuted to stop and think about his conversations with Iago, he would have been able to identify Iago’s jealousy. He would have been able to see …show more content…

Iago only pretends to be loyal to people if it in some way benefits himself. For example he is not loyal to Othello but pretends to be, so that when he tells Othello about Cassio and Desdemona’s relationship Othello believes what is being said without much question. Another example of Iago’s disloyalty is that he does not really care about what Roderigo wants, but likes the money that Roderigo gives Iago for ‘helping Roderigo get with Desdemona’. Iago never does anything that would helps Roderigo’s relationship but just keeps saying that he is, so that he gets more money. Iago’s disloyalty could have been exploited by anyone in the play. If Othello had overheard a conversation between Roderigo and Iago then Iago’s disloyalty would have been exploited because in the conversations between Iago and Roderigo, Iago often calls Othello the moor, which is not a name that a loyal friend would call another

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