Appearance Vs. Reality In Shakespeare's Othello

While Poison Ivy takes its basic plot from Othello, it draws its influences from a variety of teen comedies, such as Mean Girls. I chose to change Othello into a modern day high school dramedy with gender-swapped characters because the themes in the play easily transfer to issues teenage girls deal with in today’s society. As Mean Girls shows, teenage girls often fight with words and rumors rather than with violence, and that is exactly what Iago does in the play.
Unlike many of Shakespeare’s other works, Othello does not involve fighting in the traditional battle sense. All of Iago’s scheming and revenge derive from his poisonous words and manipulative abilities. Iago is able to convince every single character in the play that he is on
One of the most prevalent themes in the play is appearance versus reality. This is shown in how “fake” teenage girls can be to each other. Ivy pretends to be friends with everyone and a kind, helpful person in general. In reality, she only cares for herself and is trying to ruin everyone else’s lives. The racial prejudice against Othello is able to easily translate to today’s society due to the high racial tensions prevalent in our time. Having Barbara, Desmond’s mother, be blatantly disproving of his son and Ella’s relationship, shows that this casual racism is still common today. This interaction would also perfectly mirror the opening scene of the play. Teenage girls are also often known for their bitter jealousy, something that Iago greatly harbors. The entire plot is essentially because of this. Iago’s motivations are something anyone can relate to. He feels betrayed, overlooked, and jealous of both Cassio and Othello. His way of spreading rumors and manipulating others is the high school setting in a nutshell. Girls gossip and it tends to spread like wildfire. Additionally, in Othello, a major recurring theme how obsessed with cuckoldry the titular character is. In a modern setting, this would translate into the “jealous girlfriend” cliche. This consists of women checking their boyfriends’ phones to ensure they are not talking to any other girls or even going as far to say that
In Othello, Iago has many soliloquies and asides to let the audience know what his motivations are. Movies such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Wolf of Wall Street break the fourth wall, and all of these movies prove just why it would be useful to use this technique in my film. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is the perfect example of how good teen comedies can be when the protagonist breaks the fourth wall. Ferris’ iconic summaries of his plans for the day and how all of his trickery will come to fruition, Ivy explaining her plans to the camera would be a creative way to both tell the audience her plans, and show her true personality rather than the fake one that she shows to all of the other characters. The Wolf of Wall Street shows that the main character does not have to be particularly likable to have entertaining communication with the audience. Ivy is not a hero by any means, and yet, like Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, the audience roots for her anyway, despite doing all of these terrible