The Theme Of Jealousy In Othello

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William Shakespeare has repeatedly used the themes of love, death and revenge in his plays. Othello is a play that played a host to all these themes. Jealousy, however, was the theme that stood out the most and stirred the plot toward one of the most astonishing tragedies in Shakespearian history. Shakespeare’s use of Jealousy was necessary to send a message about how jealousy is a ticking bomb when triggered it can inflict the relationships between human beings and lead to the tragic downfall of a human being.
Since the beginning of the play, Shakespeare threw his ticking bomb and made it set the plot in the direction of a tragedy. When Othello promotes Cassio to the lieutenant position, this triggers Iago’s jealousy and sets the plot in the …show more content…

When the readers first get introduced to Othello and Desdemona, the readers assume that there is nothing in the world that can stand in such strong relationship that had even overcome the obstacle of interracial marriage. However, when Othello’s jealousy start getting into this relationship, we start seeing that the relationship between Othello and Desdemona becomes weaker. Iago feels this weakness and acknowledges that jealousy is its source, so he bases his entire plan on it. He keeps on feeding Othello with thoughts to get him more jealous. When he gets more jealous, his relationship with Desdemona weakens. We can see the difference in the way Othello’s conversation with Desdemona in Act III Scene three, Othello although suspicious, still have this strong bond with Desdemona, and their conversation is sensed to be smooth. Othello foreshadows the destruction of this bond due to jealousy when he says "Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again." We can notice this change at the beginning of Act IV Scene I when Othello asks for her handkerchief, and Desdemona fails to give it to him as she has lost it earlier. The handkerchief was one of Iago’s tools to increase Othello’s jealousy. Othello storms out of the room and this marks the destruction of the relationship between both lovers. The conversation between both lovers in Act IV scene II, then shows how jealousy has turned Othello to a different man, and that his relationship with Desdemona that once overcame the hardest obstacle is now in a downfall. Jealousy by this point has taken over Othello, and it blinded his eyes from reality. This led to what had become one of the most tragic plays in the

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