Jealousy In Shakespeare's Othello

William Shakespeare was an actor, poet and playwriter who is known of as one of the greatest writers in the English language. His work consisted of comedies and tragic plays which portrayed situations and conflicts that are still relevant to events taking place in present time. In the play Othello, the tragedy puts focus into the fall of Othello and other characters due to jealousy. The presence of jealousy creates many conflicts involving characters and their emotional distress from the events taking place around them. These feelings of jealousy alter a characters' perception of reality, conditions them to jump to false conclusions, and makes them act irrationally in the height of their emotional conflicts.

Jealousy is one of the most

catastrophic of human emotions. It runs the characters' lives and thoughts causing Iago to plan turmoil on Othello and allows Iago to use Othello's emotions to turn against his own rational thinking. Iago used everyone he could as his puppet to build up on his turn against his enemies. Early on in the play, jealousy becomes present with the introduction of Roderigo's love for Desdemona all the way through the end of the play where Othello's envy and wrath cause him to believe in the alleged affair between his wife and Cassio. Iago's selfish mindset leads him to persuade everyone to change their thoughts, perceptions and actions by using false claims and evidence. His motivation for these actions is caused by the promotion of Cassio to lieutenant and hatred of Othello for choosing Casio over himself for the position.

Although his closest interaction with Desdemona is simply gazing at her beauty from afar, Roderigo falls deeply in love.

He becomes envious of Othello because of his relationship with Desdemona, the desire for her love causes Roderigo to pay for Iago's help to win her over. Iago uses this as an excuse to take out his envious emotions and begin his plans for the destruction of Othello. The first step of his master plan is to put a dent into Othello's reputation. He uses Roderigo to get Barbantio's attention of the unknown relationship between his daughter and Othello, "Call up her father. Rouse him, make after him, poison his delight," "Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags! Thieves, thieves!", "I am one sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the moor are now making the beast with two backs." (1. 1. 69-70, 82-83, 117-118). Although he truly does not care for helping Roderigo, the situation allows him to become closer to his goal. Iago's clever, quick witted thinking allows him to say the right things at the right time to portray himself as caring for other people's

problems.

Throughout the play the main characters displayed their insecurities by perceiving events in a selfish, jealous way.

Iago's failure of becoming lieutenant is a driving factor into the way he resolves his emotions. By using his jealousy to persuade characters, Iago pushes and tricks Othello into believing lies about the apparent affair between Cassio and

Desdemona,

OTHELLO. Hath he said anything?

IAGO. He hath, my Lord; but you well assured, no more than he'll unswear.

OHELLO. What hath he said?

IAGO. Faith, that he did – I know not what he did. (4. 1. 29-33).

People sometimes don’t want to alter their perceptions by believing they are right in what they remember, hear, and say. Iago perfectly uses this to his advantage and manipulates Othello to have the thought of Desdemona and Cassio together running through his head. This makes Othello pick between the possibility of an affair or the loyalty of his wife, in which he chooses the thought that his wife is cheating on him. According to Shahram Heshmat, a professor at the university of Illinois, this mindset can be described as "Confirmation Bias" where your mind focuses on what supports your idea and does not focus on what evidence proves it inaccurate. In this case, Othello's jealousy will not allow him to believe any evidence that supports the idea that his wife is loyal to him.

Allowing emotions to creep into their rational thinking, the characters are conditioned to easily jump to false conclusions about their insecurities. Through his devious method of action, Iago avoids answering questions by asking another question as an answer. Iago waits to respond by saying something that will make Othello's thoughts wander increasing his fury. When Othello asks Iago about Desdemona,

OTHELLO. What dost thou say?

IAGO. Nothing my lord; or if – I know not what.

OTHELLO. Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?

IAGO. Cassio, my lord? (3. 3. 36-39).

Othello's question was never truly answered by Iago, but Othello came to his own conclusions based on jealousy and reacted on his own assumptions of the situation. According to Niccolo Viti and Torquato Tosso, Jealousy is an affect, related to envy and fear. In this case Othello's jealousy is based off of fear of the alleged affair between Cassio and Desdemona. Bendetto Varchi describes jealousy as poison, suffused through the veins. ("The Green-Eyed Monster") In Othello's case the emotional distress he is in can be considered poison to his relationship with his wife and his counterparts. If Othello was in a rational state of mind, the lack of evidence presented by Iago should have allowed Othello to come to his senses and confront his wife, asking her personally about the affair. This is not the case though because he became jealous due to insufficient evidence, giving him the traits of someone who is morbidly jealous. ("Dangerous Passion: Othello Syndrome and Dementia")