Analyzing Jealousy In Othello English Literature Essay

Analyzing Jealousy In Othello English Literature Essay Shakespeare’s play of Othello is largely driven by a grand love story, and filled with jealousy. Through the juxtaposition of Othello’s credulous nature and Iago’s pernicious villainy, the image of jealousy is truly personified as an all-consuming â€Å"green-eyed monster†. Because of this venomous nature of the beast of jealousy, the events of the play manage to unfold in Iago’s lustful authority, which bring down the eponymous character to his tragic downfall. In human psychology today, the modern definition of jealousy remains relatively unchanged from Shakespeare’s time, albeit being expressed in more modern scientific terms. It is defined as â€Å"a complex of thoughts, feelings, and actions which follow threats to self-esteem and/or threats to the existence or quality of the relationship †¦ generated by the perception of a real or potential attraction between one’s partner and a (perhaps imaginary) rival.† (White, 19 81, p. 24). In scenes of jealousy, there are typically a triad of people involved: a jealous and threatened individual, a partner of the opposite gender, and his/her third party rival. In the case of Othello, there are certainly three important people involved at the beginning: Iago being the jealous individual, Desdemona being the partner, and Othello being the third party rival. Iago definitely feels threatened by Othello’s dominance over him, both in his military rank and his relationship with Desdemona, as portrayed upon Iago’s words, â€Å"I hate the Moor!† (I,iii,377). Iago then manages to spread his jealousy to his impending victims, such as Othello; as the subject of his jealousy is partly the sheer beauty of Desdemona. In the plot of Othello, the most devious and perfect example of a human incarnation of the â€Å"green-eyed monster† is Iago. Iago originally becomes jealous when Othello succeeds in convincing Desdemona to marry him. Iago’s searing hate of Othello deep within him also contributes to his extreme jealousy. He is also very envious of Othello’s military rank of the General of the Venetian Army – in military terms, Iago is ranked two levels below him. The jealous Iago crafts his plans with the intention to bring down Othello exactly in these two areas: to eventually force Othello to lose his position as General (I,iii,395), and to create distrust within him and Desdemona, such that the two will eventually split (I,iii,339). Iago’s inner personality is ideal for a villain; he is innately a very sly, manipulative and venomous man, who is willing to take every risk to ensure that his plans are carried out successfully. However, despite his intense jealousy, Iago astutely manages to control his feelings and hide his jealousy, such to the degree he earns the informal title â€Å"honest Iago† among the characters of the play. Because of Iago’s pernicious and duplicitous charact er, his kind of jealousy can be perfectly portrayed as the pernicious â€Å"green eyed monster† – it strikes slowly, stealthily and deceptively, but once it hits, it is lethal and very contagious. A direct example of how Iago’s jealousy is key in giving his schemes their devious characteristics is shown in a crucial scene in Act 3, when Cassio spontaneously finds an anonymous handkerchief on his bed. That scene, in short, is a perfect testament to Iago’s manipulative genius and sly deceptiveness. From the pure coincidence of Emilia placing the handkerchief onto Cassio’s bed, to Iago’s luck of Bianca scolding Cassio and assuming him of leaving her to another woman, we can see how intricately weaved and devious, yet perfectly planned Iago’s scheme is; he is ALWAYS thinking. Yet, Iago is very patient in his scheme – the whole episode evolves not in seconds or in minutes, but in a matter of hours or even days. In addition, Iago man ages to see this part of his scheme unroll successfully, without even being noticed or brought into the picture at all! As such, from the flawless manner in which Iago’s scheme unrolls in this episode, we can perfectly see how and why Iago seems like the ideal, pernicious villain, whose intense jealousy strikes not unlike Shakespeare’s â€Å"green eyed monster† – slowly, stealthily, but lethally.