Jealousy In Othello Research Paper

Jealousy in the Play, Othello

Othello is one of the best and most famous literary works of William Shakespeare's that expresses the danger of jealousy. The play studies how jealousy can be accelerated by ordinary circumstances evidence leading to the destruction of lives. The protagonist in the play succumbs to jealousy brought about by people leading to death at the end of the play. In the play, jealousy takes many different forms from professional competition to sexual suspicion, but whichever the form, it always leads to destruction. This paper focuses on the theme of jealousy depicted in Shake spheres play expressing what it drives people to do.

Envy and jealousy are the most profound themes in the play from the start to finish. As the

play unfolds slowly it is clear that jealousy leads to a lot of dramatic events which take place throughout the play. Lago says that “jealousy is a green-eyed monster," (Act I, Scene 3) green depicting envy's color and the monster expressing the destruction it causes leading to a lot of vicious actions. The words are described by one of the characters called Lago who has a manipulative mind. It is ironic how the character tries to warn the protagonist, yet what drives Othello to his deeds and jealous acts. Jealousy is a controlling emotion that blinds people from seeing and accepting the truth. The writer of the play emphasizes this theme heavily continuously in the play. Othello, the protagonist through his deeds is an influence of envy. Lago, on the other hand, uses his character to cause deception and manipulate the truth. His deceit and fake promises lead to the demise of many characters in the play. However, the protagonist is easily deceived due to his powerful jealousy. Shakespeare is trying to express the evils of jealousy that can even lead to unbelieving of the facts. The play starts with Lago and Roderigo standing on the Venice streets. Lago starts planning his devious scheme. Roderigo has eyed Desdemona for a while and continuously asked her father for her hand in marriage always to be turned away. News later reaches the people on how Othello the general and Desdemona have eloped. This information angers Roderigo and Lago promises to help him get Desdemona as his wife if things go as planned.
Lago acts to his own advantage using Roderigo to get back at Othello. Lago has hatred for the protagonist for promoting a younger man who he considers to be incapable as a solder hence using the private marriage to his advantage. He advises Roderigo, “go wake Brabanito and explain the elopement issue” (Act I, Scene 1), while he goes looking for Othello to warn him of Brabanito seeking to destroy him. Brabanito gets angered with the news promising not to rest until the protagonist is beheaded accusing him of seducing his daughter using witchcraft. It is palpable that from the first act, the reader can see how Logo plays with Rodrigo's emotions to get individual revenge on Othello. He uses Roderigo as a pawn in his plan knowing that he has his undivided loyalty. Jealousy is not genetic in an individual but caused by severe actions of their character. The protagonist is inundated with his pride and ego lead to his demise. Otherwise, Othello is a very romantic character full of deep feelings to a person he loves. Apart from the main character, other characters are also affected by resentment and jealousy in the play. For instance, Roderigo suffers from jealousy. He is determined to be with Desdemona, despite her being a wife to another. His racial comments to Othello describing his lips as thick just because of him being black expresses how envious he is of Othello as he has the love of Desdemona. The act of love between Othello and Desdemona leads to a lot of envy in the community because the girl was admired by all men in that society.
As previously mentioned, the protagonist does not get affected by jealousy instantly.

It is clear that the love he shares with his wife is real and true despite the doubts of the people who try break them up. Brabanito also shows jealousy of their love describing it as being bound by magic. He said that, “my daughter is showing more love to Othello instead of me, her father” (Act II, Scene 1). To answer the questions on witchcraft as the cause of their love, Othello says that the love was caused only by the dangers he underwent. In the books explaining Othello, the tragic hero in the play and the commander of armies in Venice celebrated as a heroic figure who is open-minded. However, he allows Lago to twist his love for Desdemona into a strong jealousy. Desdemona is the most sympathetic character who loves her husband deeply thus having her purity contrast the wickedness of Lago. Meanwhile, Othello defense appointing Cassio as a lead solder instead of Lago shows nobility and honesty as early expressed from his speeches. Othello's rage of jealousy begins in the third scene of the play, as he spies on Desdemona and Cassio conversing in the garden. However, when Cassio notices Othello approaching them, he swiftly exits. Lagos seems how to act on his plan by putting ideas on Othello's mind that Cassio walked out of guilt of luring his wife. By using the words of guilt. Lagos is trying to show that Cassio had been doing something bad and filled with wrong intentions. The garden is also symbolic to represent the growing jealous of the protagonist and Lago's deceit towards Cassio and Othello. Furth more, a significant symbol in the play is the handkerchief bestowed by Othello to his wife. Jealousy changes the handkerchief to represent reality instead of her own words. She tries to speak to her husband and explain her point of view but he doesn't want to hear any of it. Instead, he keeps repeating, “the handkerchief” (Act III, Scene 3). This depicts his journey. Napkins

are usually used to wipe clean. In the play, napkins symbolize how it wipes the protagonist sanity clean and replaced the sanity with jealous. It expresses that the napkin has been everywhere Desdemona has been.
The encounter of jealousy over love can be expressed through Othello and Desdemona. Been enrage with jealousy, Othello, usually redirects it to his wife in anger and at one point strikes her face. However, despite all the rage and fury directed towards her, Desdemona remains loving and loyal towards her husband. The conflicts between the characters demonstrate the unseen battles between love and envy. The attitude of the main character illustrates the corrosive nature of jealousy while Desdemona's continuous love shows how true love endures abuse. In the play, Othello is viewed as an outsider, been the only black person making him feel inferior. His wife shows the opposite of this while she cares, loves and fills his with affection. The powers of jealousy get hold of Othello controlling his views to lead to evil deeds upon his wife. The acts of envy are beyond comparison. Throughout the play, jealousy gets a comparison with otherworldly things. The comparisons not only show the strength of envy but also expresses how jealousy is a negative emotion that is distorted, diabolic and malicious. The jealousy experienced by Othello ended poorly, as he ordered the killing of Cassio and murdered his own wife (Act IV, Scene 4). Jealousy made him trust someone he shouldn't have and in returned shunned his wife. Envy affects even the strong warriors due to deception. Clearly, envy is a monstrous act.
Clearly, love and jealousy are strong emotions that could cause behavior that otherwise should not be encouraged. In the play, Othello, jealousy is a significant part of the play. Lagos manipulates Othello through jealousy to commit different acts against one of his soldiers, Cassio, and his wife. It is evident that power of jealousy is the greatest theme in the play because it focuses to illustrate how the protagonist is subjected to malicious emotions and deception can transform the strongest love to unstoppable jealousy blinding a person from the truth. In short, the play focuses on the forbidden love between Othello and Desdemona. Roderigo, a rich man is envious of the relationships and yearns for Desdemona to be his. He thus pays Lago, to help him get his love. To achieve this, Lago generates a cascade of events making Othello be full of jealousy. The jealousy makes the main character to lose himself and those he cared for deeply. He also uses Cassio as a pawn to revenge for him taking the position of lieutenant which his greatly desired. Lagos plan works excellently leading to the protagonist killing his wife out of jealousy and the fake truth presented to him of her cheating on him with Cassio. Evidently, Jealousy is an ugly evil that drives even the best of people to be their worst selves.