Abuse Of Power In Othello's Jealousy

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Power is the ability to influence or outright control the behavior of people; however, many of people make bad use of their power. They abuse their power by taking control of another person or a community to gain and maintain their power. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, the Moor of Venice, the antagonist, Iago abused his power to destroy and led to the downfall of Othello, the General of the armies in Venice. In “The pieces of silver” by Karl Sealy, the acting headmaster abused his power to abuse and discriminate against poor and rich students. Both texts are centered on a theme, abusive power, they abused their power to take control of others, but each is used for different purpose. While Iago wanted to gain his power, the acting Headmaster wanted to maintain his power …show more content…
In Othello, Iago abused his power of persuasion to mislead Othello by using his weakness, trust, and jealousy. In the beginning of the play, Iago told Roderigo, "I follow him to serve my turn upon him" (1,1 2), Iago reveals his remorseful and malicious intent to gain power using Othello. Othello was a highly esteemed general in the service of Venice, “Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you/ Against the general enemy Ottoman” (1,3 47-48), so In able to destruct him, he had to demonize Othello first. Roderigo was an innocent, and a foolish man who fell in love with Othello’s wife Desdemona. Iago was trying to use Roderigo as a puppet for his plans to destroy Othello. He convinced Roderigo that if he helps him to bring down Othello, he will help Roderigo to win over Desdemona. Iago and Roderigo Successfully demonize Othello by convincing Brabantio that his only daughter Desdemona was abducted by the ‘The Moor’ Othello. The news about