Othello

The tragedy novel “Othello”, written by William Shakespear, was written in around 1600s. The

four main themes of the story are racism, love, jealousy and betrayal. The two protagonists in the story,

Othello and Iago, are basically the one's who were responsible for the tragic events. These tragic events

includes the destroyed marriage of Othello and Desdemona, death of Desdemona, Emilia and also the

downfall of Othello. This story questions who was more responsible for the tragic events. However,

both Othello and Iago did some mistakes and wrong choices of their own that leads to an unfortunate

events.

Othello, the main character in the story, was responsible for the tragic events due to his careless

decisions. Othello is also called the “moor” which refers to Othello's black skin and his race of

Muslim. Iago's hatred towards Othello leads him to make up an untruthful story about Desdemona

sleeping with Cassio.Othello was too gullible that he tolerated Iago's words to fool him. This gullible

nature of Othello is the main reason for his own downfall. Another example of Othello's tragic flaw

was when he mishears the conversation between Iago and Cassio. Jealousy towards Cassio made

Othello to be more determined in getting revenge. In order to avenge his pride, Othello decided to kill

Desdemona. In Othello's mind, it was the right thing to do in order to stop Desdemona into

manipulating other men. It was too late when Othello found out that what he believed was a lie. The

guiltiness that Othello felt lead him to killing his own self.

Iago manipulated other characters in order to be satisfied with his own self. He was jealous of

Michael Cassio because Othello chose him to be the lieutenant and not him. Iago also assumed that

Othello is sleeping with his wife, Emilia. These two things lead to his great demise. Iago made Cassio

drunk and got his wife to steal Desdemona's handkerchief. His plan was to make Othello believe that

Desdemona is cheating on him and he did succeed. Iago also took advantage of Othello's gullible

nature in order to bring him down. His character's importance was to show the theme of hate, revenge

and jealousy by bringing Othello down. It was Iago's character who was responsible for the death of

Emilia and Roderigo. Although he was not the one who killed Desdemona with his own hands, he was

still the one who tricked Othello into killing his wife.

Both Iago and Othello were responsible for the tragic events. The act of revenge made them

think it was the right thing to do. Iago wanted to get revenge because he was angry towards Othello

when he was not chosen to be the lieutenant. Othello planted to get revenge to his wife because of false

accusations. They both let hatred control their minds that lead them to do ungrateful things. From the

beginning, Iago was the one who planned Othello's downfall. Othello's fatal flaw was the key to Iago's

plan. Other people got involved and were killed due to Iago and Othello's actions. These tragic events

would have not happened if it was not because of each Iago and Othello's fatal flaws and attitudes.

Othello/Iago Dialectic Essay

J.C Tordecilla
Period 2, September 25/2013
Mr. Hawley