Othello essay ( beginning of the year)

Revised Ap Lit essay: Othello Anna Jorgenson

In Shakespeare’s Othello, A play about a group of military men and their families including their wife’s and their friends and family who are all connected to each other and the jealousy one has (Iago) of the Most important character (Othello) to tear Othello and his wife Desdemona apart in the hope to gain power with it .Shakespeare in this play uses trust/honesty to show the fault in humanity to believe in what they are told without proof that it is true. Shakespeare shows this trust and honesty through the interaction and relationships between Othello and Iago, Iago and Cassio, and the interaction between Brabantio and Iago/ Rodriego. This is not only shown as a hidden trust between two characters but also with the use of the word trust and honesty within the text. Rodrigo and Iago speak to each other about their hidden plans to tell Brabantio about his daughter’s relationship with the moor, and then decide to go to the Brabantio to tell him of his daughter’s whereabouts .When they get to Brabatios house and finally lure Brabatio out onto his balcony they begin to speak. At first, when Iago says “I am one sir that comes to tell -you your daughter and the moor are now making the beast with two backs” (1.1. 129-131). Brabatio does not believe what Iago says and calls him a villain to say so just because he does not know Iago. So, if he does not know him he can’t trust him. Later on though in act one scene one after Barbatio hears what Rodrigo says he speaks “It is too true an evil. Gone she is…Now, Rodrerigo, Where didst though see her?”(1.1. pg17. 178-181).This is Brabantio speaking directly to Roderigo showing that he trusts him to ask where he has seen his daughter. In this scene Barbatio does check to see if his daughter is in her room. But just in the act of him checking shows that he believed that Roderigo was honest in what he was telling him. If Brabatio never believed what he was being told he never would have checked to see if she was there. This would have prevented later on the argument with the moor and his daughter, and in the end making her seem like she will betray the ones she loves easily. Later on in the unfurling of Iago’s plans to power, Iago speaks of tricking the people into believing that Cassio, the dear Lieutenant of the moor who is highly respected and well behaved has his “party side” and that in fact he acts this way a lot. Cassio had already drunk some alcohol that night and to make him seem that he is not this noble person. Iago taunts him to drink some more. After a while Iago convinces the rest of the men they are with that Cassio is drunk, Cassio who this whole time denies the truth leaves infuriated. Iago sits there speaking to Montano saying “Not I for this fair Island. I do know Cassio well and would do much to cure him of this evil” (2.3. 149-151). Iago uses his trustworthy character to show make Montano believe in what he is saying. This shows the fault in Montano because he knows how Cassio really is. Montano has worked with Cassio for so long but now as Iago tells him that Cassio acts this way on a daily basis Montano believes him easily. Just because Iago is deemed “trustworthy” by the moor whatever he says is deemed as the truth. Iago, being the “good person” he is says he must tell the Moor about a supposed affair going on between his wife Desdemona and the Valliant Cassio. When the Moor disregards Cassio for being his “Drunkard self” they all disperse but, Iago and Othello stay together and talk about the “honest feelings” Iago is having twords the nonexistent relationship Cassio and Desdemona have. Iago speaks as if the platonic relationship is more than it seems. Iago then tells Othello about the handkerchief that Cassio seems to have, the same handkerchief that the moor bestowed upon his wife. At first Othello does not believe what he is hearing “Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips- is’t possible? Confess – handkerchief- O, devil!”(4.1.48-52).Believing in the honest nature of his wife and his friend Othello does not believe what he is told at first but in his mind he is thinking if “honest Iago” says so there must be some truth or some reason for him to make such an accusation. As the play continues Iago makes the innocence of what Cassio says seem to be of the moors wife as the moor is watching but the truth is that it is about his woman Bianca. Iago plants the handkerchief into poor Cassios position and with one look the trust and honesty the moor had for Cassio flies out the window. “ Ay, let her perish and be dammed tonight, for she shall not live. No, my heart is turned to stone. I strike it, and it hurts my hand” (4.1.201-202).Using the harsh switch in judgment it seems that without even talking to his wife about the rumors that are told he begins to act irrationally. The relationships in this play are exactly how the world is today. People are told things from others and they soon believe what they are told is true. Lies and truth mashes together and the one who is most trust worthy wins as the other gets the short end of the stick. It seems that “Honesty” and “trust” do not really exist but are only used in the deception of others. Even though at the end everything works itself out it shows that the road to destruction starts with humans believing in what they are told without the means behind it to see if what they are told is true or not. With all the “trust” and the “honesty” in the world from sources who are not truthful leads to the downfall in any ethnicity all around the world.