Kevin McAdam
English 10 Honors/ Mr. George
February 5, 2009
Othello Essay

OTHELLO


Throughout the play Othello, we were provided with many examples of contrast in certain areas such as right and wrong, fair and unfair, and honesty and deception. The theme of deception played a big role in Othello as we were given the question as to whether or not Othello was just a puppet in Iago’s diabolical scheme to get back at all those that had crossed him. Othello was not exclusively a puppet in Iago’s plan because, like all people in this world, he had his own free will to choose which path to walk down. Othello’s paranoia was not brought on by Iago alone, Othello chose to listen to Iago, and Othello chose to kill Desdemona. Iago was not the only person in the play to create Othello’s distrust. It is undoubtedly true that Iago was the major contributor to Othello’s rage, but there had been other pieces laid out before Iago that escalated the matter. Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, was furious that his daughter deceived Brabantio by marrying the Moor, Othello: “She has deceived her father, and may thee” (Shakespeare 1.3 288). That one sentence instantly seared a sense of doubt into Othello’s mind, and from that moment forward, Othello contemplated the thought of Desdemona as dishonest. Brabantio was the person who made the snowball start its thunderous roll down the hill where it would eventually crash with Othello’s death. Being the clever villain that he was, Iago seized the opportunity to take advantage of Othello’s newly acquired suspicion in Desdemona to execute his horrible plan. It was Brabantio, not Iago, who made the snowball of jealousy start its thunderous roll down the slope where it would eventually reach the bottom of the hill with Othello’s death. Once Iago started to initiate his plan, he was in almost constant conversation with Othello, and every so often Iago would make a remark that would link Desdemona and Cassio together. Later, Iago had pointed out so many small instances between Desdemona and Cassio that were seemingly true, Othello chose to believe Iago. Also, the more Othello started to believe these controversial rumors from Iago, the less Othello chose not to believe anything good said about Desdemona or Cassio. Othello’s suspicion about Desdemona and Cassio combined with free will allowed Othello to believe Iago’s comments: “Yours, by this hand! And to see how he prizes/ the foolish woman your wife! She gave it him, and/ he hath giv’n it his whore” (4.1 177-179). Othello chose to hear what he wanted to hear in that conversation, but Iago did a good job of making it sound like they were talking about Desdemona when they were actually talking about Bianca. It is very noticeable here that Iago’s ability to mislead people and Othello’s willingness to listen equally created the growing divide between Iago’s lies and Desdemona’s truth. Iago’s clever scheming abilities made that snowball of jealousy pick up steam as it grew bigger and bigger as they story rolled along down the hill. Othello’s aggressive nature and ability to make difficult decisions is the key as to how Iago succeeded with his plan. One difficult decision that Othello had to make was when he chose to kill the love of his life, Desdemona. Although ruining Othello was Iago’s plan, he never told Othello that he should kill Desdemona. Othello thought of the idea to kill Desdemona on his own. Through the information given to him, Othello concluded that Desdemona was an unfaithful wife and did not think that she deserved to live. If Othello had not been mislead with false information, he would have had different feelings about Desdemona and her unfortunate murder would not have occurred. With the assistance of Iago, Othello made the decision to kill Cassio: “How shall I murder him, / Iago?” (4.1 171-172). However, Othello decided that he was going to murder Desdemona all by himself: “Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned/ tonight; for she shall not live” (4.1 183-184). Killing Desdemona was such an important choice Othello had to make that he would not let someone else make the decision for him. Othello did what he thought was right at the time. In the end, every decision Othello had to make was based, not upon what Iago told him to do, but upon the information he believed to be truthful at the time. Throughout Othello, it was clear that Othello was in charge, not Iago, and Othello was the one making all decisions, good and bad, not Iago. Othello’s decisions in the story were the most important part of Iago’s plan. Othello was not a puppet of Iago because Othello’s paranoia was not brought on by Iago alone, Othello chose to listen to Iago, and Othello chose to kill Desdemona. As any leader would do, Othello makes all the difficult decisions for his people, but not without some input from close associates. Keeping that in mind, Iago was the person he trusted most while in the situation involving Desdemona and Cassio. Obviously, Othello would strongly consider Iago’s advice, but in the end the decision was Othello’s to make. As it turns out, Othello’s anger and jealousy became such an important theme in the story that it made it seem like Iago had complete control over Othello throughout the play. Finally, the snowball of jealousy that had once started out as a seemingly insignificant line from Brabantio, soon became the reason for all of Othello rage which caused the death of himself and, of course, his sweet, innocent Desdemona.