The Jealousy Begins/Othello

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This play is filled with many emotions and feelings.

There were four main flaws that lead to the tragedy of Othello and the others in this play; racism, love, betrayal, but it was jealousy that played a major part. It can destroy many relationships and take over the mind tremendously. Jealousy can also be overwhelming; by making one obsessed with ideas. They all fall victim to jealousy; it makes them act outside of their norm.

I will talk about the he five main characters of this play and they are all encased with jealousy in their own way. They are: Iago (the antagonist), Emilia, Bianca, Roderigo and Othello (the protagonist), who all display their sense of jealousy throughout the play. They all find different ways to sustain them. Iago enunciates his jealousy in the beginning of the play. He decides to plot his revenge on those who he feels has done him wrong. The first two jealousies he expresses are of Cassio, because he keeps his job as a lieutenant and gets promoted. He feels this should be his job (e-notes 2011). The second is of Othello; he believes that Othello slept with Emilia (his wife). “It is thought aboard that ‘twixt my sheets” (I.iii.369-370). As he becomes fixed with revenge he speaks by saying, he will not be satisfied “’Til I am evened with him/wife for wife/ At least into jealousy so strong/ that judgment cannot cure (2.1.299-302). In the end Iago is forced to expose his actual nature.

Emilia is close to Desdemona and it may be that her jealousy is resentful, because of her low social status, unhappy with her job, Desdemona being married to Othello or Desdemona’s innocence. It could also be because she is jealous that Othello and Desdemona love each other and have no jealousy between them. Emilia’s chara...

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...lo was written many years ago, and we can still relate to its tone and setting within the play, especially when a person can feel when jealousy is present. This is one play people relate to, because we all want to be loyal in some way and we all know how messy it can be when someone decides to take advantage and advance himself on someone else’s jealousy. It’s terrible but jealousy can change a person in some terrible ways. “No two wrongs make it right and no two rights make it wrong”.

Works Cited

William Shakespeare scripts of the acts http://www.william-shakespeare.info/act1-script-text-othello.htm online (2011)

Othello the play http://pages.cabrini.edu/jzurek/shakes/othelloplay.htm online (n.d.)

Othello: Summary." emotes: Othello. Ed. Penny Satoris. Seattle: Enotes.com Inc, October 2002. eNotes.com. 18 April 2011. .

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