Othello kills his wife Desdemona falsely believing that she has cheated on him. The reader knows that Desdemona has been faithful to her husband, but Othello thinks his wife has cheated on him because he is tricked by Iago. Iago is able to trick Othello because Othello does not think he is worthy of Desdemona’s love. Iago tricks Othello into believing Othello’s wife has cheated on Othello using a handkerchief. Iago has his wife Emelia steal the handkerchief and he leaves it for Michael Cassio to find. When Othello sees Cassio has the handkerchief he assumes Cassio is sleeping with Desdemona because Iago has told him that Cassio admitted to sleeping with Desdemona.
Othello believes Iago and the reader could interpret Othello as gullible, but
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Oh, curse of marriage
That we can call these delicate creatures ours
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad
And live upon the vapor of a dungeon
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others ' uses. Yet ’tis the plague to great ones,
Prerogatived are they less than the base. 'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death.
Even then this forkèd plague is fated to us
When we do quicken. Look where she comes. (3.3.263-282)
Othello says that Iago is honest and that Iago knows a lot about people. Othello questions if Desdemona has actually cheated on him, and says he will send her away if she has cheated on him. He questions if she really loves him because he is black, getting old, and because he is not like the Venetian chamberers. Othello seems to decide that she in fact has cheated on him when he says “She’s gone, I am abused, and my relief / Must be to loathe her
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Othello is willing to extend faith and trust to Iago, and Othello mistakenly believes that Iago loves him. Othello’s crime is not trusting his wife, and trusting a dishonest character. When Iago tells Othello “Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice?” (4.1.137). Iago is telling Othello that Cassio laughs when he admits to having slept with Desdemona. Othello thinks this is true because Othello trusts Iago, but it would have been possible for Othello to think Cassio was lying to Iago. Othello talking with Iago decides he will kill Desdemona with poison, but changes his mind and decides to kill her by strangling her in bed at Iago’s suggestion. After Othello finds out he has been tricked by Iago into killing his faithful and loving wife he says:
Soft you, a word or two before you go.
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. Of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting
In William Shaspeare play Othello, Iago make Othello believe that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. He does by taking advantage of any situation to make of Othello doubt. Iago make Othello thing a lot of crazy thing on his head, Othello got so jelous leading him to kill his own wife, Desdemona, satisfying iago obseccion for revenge.
Iago wanted Othello’s position and used others to shame Othello and gain stature. Iago dressed himself up a trustworthy man and worked his way into Othello’s trust with tricks and lies. He wore a very convincing mask; often temporarily defending the person he was trying to ruin to further his honest visage. He says to Othello, “Men should be what they seem…” (3.3.127) through these methods, Iago convinces Othello that Cassio, an officer, was having an affair with Othello’s beautiful wife Desdemona. As a vicious result, Othello is driven mad with anger and sadness and throttles Desdemona in their bed. The death and want left by Iago’s deception is vast hurting everyone involved most frequently on a mortal level. When the truth finally comes out, Othello, in his grief and remorse, ends up stabbing himself with a dagger. In the end, many die due to Iago’s deception, through villainy or despair, and none gain what they truly want because of it. This just goes to show that the mask of deception that a man wears can cause an unbelievable amount of harm, bodily and worse,
All Iago had to do was hint at Desdemona being unfaithful and Othello’s becomes very bothered it and eventually starts believing it. The author of an essay does an analysis on Iago and says “He slowly poisons people’s thoughts, creating ideas in their heads without implicating himself. Iago even says himself that the advice he gives is free and honest and thus, people rarely stop to consider the possibility that Iago is fooling them.“ (Shakespeare’s Othello – Honest Iago). So Iago would hint at something going between Desdemona and Cassio so that Othello would become bothered and ask him what he means by that, it was like a game that Iago was playing, he would drop a little hint and then expect Othello to pick up on it and start questioning it and become more even suspicious. Brabantio tells Othello “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee” (I.ii.286-287), So In this scene Brabantio warns Othello that Desdemona has already fooled him and she might fool him too, so be careful, and it turns out, Othello believed in him after all and that’s part of the reason of why he thinks that Desdemona is being unfaithful to him. It leads him to start questioning Desdemona in a very suspicious way. At one point he even hits her in front of a nobleman and that was very shocking to the nobleman because he believed him to be a very calm and collected gentleman but obviously he was a changed man. The nobleman even expresses his shock by saying that “My lord, this would not be believed in Venice, though I should swear I saw’t. ‘Tis very much make her amends; she weeps” (IV .i.217-219). This negative thinking and insecurity was one of the main reasons to Othello’s change in a negative way. A lot of this was Iago’s doing but it was also Othello’s fault to fall for Iago’s
Iago’s artful manipulation of Othello’s mind is done in such a way that Othello no longer realizes what he is doing. Angered by the “proof” Iago gives him, Othello does what he believes was honorable in his situation. When he wishes to kill his wife, it is not because he wants it to end that way, but rather because he feels it is the only way to clear the sins the she has committed. Before he kills her Othello says, “Justice to break her sword! One more, one more!/ Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,/ And love thee after.” (114).
Implicitly targeting Othello’s doubts about marrying Desdemona and insecurities about her actions with infidelity, Iago eventually impacts Othello enough that the General himself confides in Iago about his own wife. Earlier in the play, ‘honest Iago’ needs to first gain Othello’s confidence and he does so by expressing his loyalty to Cassio, “I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth/ Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio”, while Othello is present in a conflict (2.3. 203-204). Then, later in the play Iago baits Othello by suggesting that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair. Immediately, Othello wants more information; however, Iago nervously responds with, “…vicious in my guess-/ As I confess…” and tries to calm Othello by saying, “My noble lord-” (3.3 46-47, 93). When voicing his devotion to Cassio, Iago immediately begins to play on his false reputation as ‘honest Iago’. He enables Othello, and his fellow characters, to think highly of him and to respect that even when his partner, Cassio, has not been following orders, Iago would even endure physical pain and have his “tongue cut from [his] mouth” and proves his locality (2.3. 203). This leads to when Iago responds to Othello’s queries, about
Iago has been to blame for the downfall of Othello because he is the one that created the jealousy within Othello. Iago started this because he was jealous of Othello because he was not made lieutenant, and Cassio was. Iago has been selfish and takes it upon himself to get revenge against Othello.
Once Iago has poisoned Othello’s mind with lies about an affair between Cassio and Desdemona, Othello becomes suspicious and distrusting of Desdemona. He is convinced that his wife is a whore, but never speaks to her about his suspicions. Othello refuses to confront Desdemona because, just as their society mandates, to him women are untrustworthy and decietful. Othello (and society) truly believes that if he asks her about Cassio, she will deny sleeping with him. Because Desdemona is a woman, she is not given a chance to speak on her own behalf. It is this same societal issue that played a part in her death. Othello the man and thus obviously stronger and more logical, suffocates Desdemona without hearing her side of the story first. The society in which they live gave Othello permission to kill Desdemona without her even really knowing why.
Iago claims that all Venetian women are unfaithful to their husbands and are full of deceit and deception. When Iago says, “I know our country disposition well./ In Venice, they do let God see the pranks/They dare not show their husbands. Their best conscience/ Is not to leave ‘t undone, but keep ‘t unknown (3.3.232-236)”, he is using his authority as a native Venetian to convince Othello of Desdemona’s unfaithfulness. Although he does not directly mention her name, Iago begins to plant doubt through words like “see”, “show”, and “unknown” so Othello will form Desdemona’s “single story” as a whore. The second step in Desdemona’s progression of her “single story” begin with Iago’s perceived knowledge of the habits of Venetian
He accomplishes all this without being discovered until the end. During the course of the play, Othello is further deceived by Iago to believe that Desdemona is unfaithful to him. Emilia, Iago's wife, unknowingly helps Iago fool Othello when she gives her husband the handkerchief that was given to Desdemona by Othello on their wedding night. Desdemona always keeps this by her side, as a result of Othello's command. When Iago tells Othello that he has seen Cassio with his gift to Desdemona, Othello becomes enraged and vows to kill her.
Othello is told to trust Iago rather than his wife, he uses fake evidence against Desdemona in an attempt to prove she is cheating on her husband. Iago uses past experiences to persuade Othello into believing he is not good enough for his wife. Othello believes Iago over his wife because she only has her word to back up her story while Iago has evidence. Iago plants fake evidence in the form of a handkerchief owned by Desdemona to lead Othello into believing his wife is having an affair with another man. By mistake, Othello leaves Desdemona’s
Upon proof that Cassio has the handkerchief, Iago gets Othello to effectively divorce Desdemona and align himself with Iago. His plan to kill her is not only persuasive but very clever: he knows that Othello will be put to death for the crime. Othello says,
Throughout the drama, Othello let Iago control him as if he was a puppet under his master’s hands. When Iago first brought up the idea that Desdemona and Cassio might be having an affair, Othello did not believe him, he had faith in his wife. After many lies that Iago planted in Othello’s ears, Othello started to believe him and he dropped most of the faith that he had in Desdemona. Iago told Othello that in his sleep, Cassio said “Sweet Desdemona, let us be wary, let us hide our love”. Cursed fate that gave thee the Moor” (III.iii.416-417).
Iago had tricked Othello into believing that Desdemona cheated on him with Cassio, thus causing him to become jealous. His jealousy overcame his usual respectable, noble personality and he became irrational and violent. His jealousy and rage lead him to kill his wife, something he would never have done if he had not been jealous.
“Othello: I think my wife be honest and think she is not. I think that thou art just and think thou art not. I’ll have some proof.” In 3.3.394-6, Othello claims that he is positive that his wife is in fact not cheating on him, and within the next line he claims that of course Desdemona is cheating on him. Othello is not secure of either option and hence the fact that Iago is emboldening him to perceive his wife as the antagonist, he would rather believe the negative latter.
Othello for not promoting him and because he thinks that the Moor seduced his wife, and he decides to destroy Othello by persuading him that Desdemona has made love to Cassio. Using Cassio and another young man, Roderigo, Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona has been unfaithful. Then he finally gets his wife, Emilia Desdemona’s maid, to steal a handkerchief that Othello gave to Desdemona. Iago makes sure that the handkerchief gets into Cassio’s possession and that Othello sees Cassio with it. At the end, convinced by Iago’s constant insinuations, Othello murders Desdemona in her bed.