Jealousy And Deception In Shakespeare's Othello

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William Shakespeare’s play “Othello”, takes place in the 16th century in Cyprus and Venice. In the play, Othello a noble black man marries a white woman named Desdemona who is the daughter of the senator named Brabantio. Eventually Brabantio finds out about Desdemona and Othello and disowns Desdemona. Iago has a secret jealousy and resentment towards Othello because the Lieutenant Cassio has been put in the position Iago wanted. Wanting revenge, Iago plans a devious comeback to plant suspicions in Othello’s mind about his wife Desdemona and Cassio. One may perceive deception as the theme of Shakespeare’s “Othello”, which is accurate because the idea of deception and deceiving is surrounded by Iago, the mastermind behind all the deception in …show more content…
The metaphor of "feeding" Desdemona's ear with his stories saying Othello won Desdemona by telling her stories, and Iago will "win" Othello by doing the same. In the final scene of Act 1, the quote “To get his place and to plume up my will In double knavery—How, how? Let's see. After some time, to abuse Othello's ear That he is too familiar with his wife”(I, iii, 436-439) Is stated and it states the beginning of Iago's plan to deceive Othello, Iago will make Othello believe that his wife is having an affair with Cassio. Iago plans to plant the seeds of deception in …show more content…
“You told a lie, an odious damned lie: Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie! She false with Cassio! Did you say with Cassio?”(V, ii, 216 - 218). Emilia says that her husband has deceived Othello and that what he did was wrong. But Iago deceitfully defends himself by saying, “I told him what I thought, and told no more Than what he found himself was apt and true”(V, ii, 212-213). Iago says that all he did was say what he thought, and nothing more. So Iago asks what he did wrong, he says he told no lies, just opinions and that there is nothing wrong with that. He said what Othello believed was not his fault because all he did was say his opinion and give advice. This is showing the deception of both Emilia and Othello, Iago doing something with the intention of causing harm to another person. Iago tried to explain himself to the other characters by this statement, but it did not work for Iago because he didn’t even believe it himself. Earlier in the play Iago asks himself if he does anything wrong, he says, “And what's he then that says, I play the villain, When this advice is free I give, and honest,” (II, iii, 356-357) this, once again shows that Iago feels that he does nothing wrong. He says that he gives good, honest advice, and that Othello was under no obligation to follow the advice. What Iago does is obviously deceitful, but Iago still honestly believes that what he does is not
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