The Similarities Between 1984 And Othello

Misplaced Trust in Old Friends

In two separate, yet equally important worlds the same dangers and mishaps of everyday life, cause imminent harm to not only the characters but their entire situations and environments. What affects the characters, eventually unrolls into a domino effect, affecting everything around them. In both Orwell’s 1984 and Shakespeare's Othello, the characters go through dramatic events that shift the ending of the show or novel. In Orwell’s 1984, a man named Winston is constantly fighting against his “doublethink” thoughts and against the ideals forced onto him by the absolutist government plaguing his nation of Oceania. While in Shakespeare's Othello, the main character also is constantly rethinking over his thoughts

and about what he believes to be true versus what is being said to him and in the end this back and forth causes his demise. In both of these works, Othello and 1984, the characters within the novel warn the audience against the dangers of misplaced trust, in those the characters find completely holy and good, and the danger of poor communication between characters.
Throughout the duration of one's life, a person often tends to place trust into the hands of those not capable of holding it.

The image of the one trusted gets twisted and distorted in one’s head making them see the person as someone completely trustworthy while ignoring the fact that they are actively conspiring against them. This is also true in both Othello and 1984, in both of these works the main characters form a close, trusting bond with another character who is not worthy of their trust. Winston's relationship with O’Brien demonstrates this falsified idea of trust. Winston, from the start of the novel, before he even met O'Brien, “Felt deeply drawn to him” and had a trusting connection within himself towards O'Brien. (P) Winston sees him in his dreams and fantasies about meeting him, he falls in love with the idea of O'Brien. Since Winston has already built up such a mental connection with O'Brien, trusting O'Brien the first time they shared words was easy for Winston. For in his mind they have known each other for years. However, this misplaced trust eventually leads him into captivity and torture. Othello's relationship with Iago also demonstrates, to the audience, the dangers of misplaced trust. From the get-go, Iago has it out for Othello, for personal, petty reasons. Iago makes it his goal to destroy the moor simply for his, “sport and profit. He hates the Moor.” (1.3.429) For no other reason than this, Iago seeks out the trust of the Moor and receives it

based on conducted misdoings and sabotage brought on by Iago himself. He injected jealousy into the brain of Othello, who trusted him wholly for in the past he had no reason to. However, believing all of the words that spewed from Iago’s mouth eventually forces Othello into gut-wrenching jealousy and causes him to take both his and his wife's life.
In times of utter chaos, people tend to leave communication in the dust and this ultimately only contributes more chaos due to it being left behind.

When things get rough people like to avoid talking things over for the fear of finding out the truth and instead keep things locked up, hoping to avoid the pain that could occur. This is true in both Othello and 1984 where the main characters avoid communication and find themselves in many unnecessary, grave situations because of it. Shakespeare's Othello demonstrates the indicated wholly. Othello begins the story with strong communication with his wife, Desdemona, for he trusts her and loves her dearly. However, when Iago, the main antagonist of the play, begins communicating to him that his wife is having an affair, Othello shuts off communication to his wife. Often only acknowledging her to yell or question her over falsified facts that Iago had told him. Othello eventually kills Desdemona, out of jealousy, and then he learns that all Iago told to him was untrue. His communication, and trust, with Iago, makes Othello blind to the communication of others. However, if one character spoke up for what they knew to be false, the entire situation could have been avoided. Primarily Emelia, the main cause for Othello's jealousy was by the missing, and rediscovered, the handkerchief that he had given to his dear Desdemona. Desdemona had misplaced her handkerchief and Emelia had picked it up, “And give 't Iago. What he will do with

it Heaven knows.” (3.3.341-342) When Emelia gave her husband the handkerchief, she allowed for him to destroy the lives of others through deceit. If she had spoke up to the fact that she had stolen the handkerchief, lots of character deaths could have been avoided, including her own. The government's interaction with words themselves aides to poor communication in 1984, once again demonstrating the powers of poor communication. Big Brother begins eliminating countless words out of existence for the sole purpose to limit the means in which characters have to communicate. Destroying the primary language of the area, and replacing it with a new, refined version made it indefinitely harder to pass along information. The interaction and communication among people becomes impossible because “ there are no words in which to express it.” (52)
The two works demonstrate two fatal errors that one can make in a lifetime, misplaced trust and poor communication. When given ultimate power in one's life, trust and communication, or the lack thereof, will destroy one’s life in a matter of instances. However, the naked eye can not see that these things are destroying one’s life until it is to late. No one ever thinks that there trusted one is untrustworthy or that not sharing one minute detail will result in death, however it does. Violence and aggression would be nowhere without misplaced trust and poor communication, those two things are the root of all evil.