Essay on Othello & O. Comparison

Submitted By zheckenberg
Words: 565
Pages: 3

Othello and O. Othello is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, set in Venice and portrays love, jealousy, and betrayal. O. is a modern day set movie at a prep school about a basketball team and follows the main storyline of Othello. The main characters of the book have similar names to the ones in the movie. In the book Othello, the main character Othello is a black man who is a leader in the army and is known for his skills in battle. Othello is discriminated for his skin color and his position in the army, especially by a man named Iago who is a associate of his. In act I scene III Iago says "I hate the Moor". Iago devises a plan in order to get revenge and embarrass Othello and take Cassio's job, he plans to convince Othello that his newlywed wife Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio. Iago also lies to a man named Roderigo and says he will get Desdemona to love him as long as Roderigo pays him. Iago from the help of his wife Emilia, acquires a handkerchief that is Desdemona's which was given to her by Othello. Iago plants the handkerchief inside Cassio's house in order to make it seem like Desdemona and Cassio were sleeping together. Iago feeds Othello lies about Cassio and Desdemona such as saying how Desdemona lied to her father about marrying Othello and she is likely to do it again. When Othello accuses Desdemona of having an affair she has no clue what he is talking about and denies it, this only aggravates Othello more because he thinks she is lying to him. Othello decides that he would kill Desdemona if Iago would "kill" Cassio, Iago then convinces Roderigo his way to Desdemona is getting rid of Cassio. Roderigo misses his mark and Cassio wounds him instead. Roderigo then dies and Iago wounds Cassio and runs away, when Othello hears Cassio’s cry, he assumes that Iago has killed Cassio as he said he would. Othello begins to smother Desdemona when Emilia enters with the news that Roderigo is dead and Cassio is still alive. Emilia spots Desdemona and Desdemona then says that she tried to commit suicide