Comparison of the characters Othello and Iago.

Comparison of the characters Othello and Iago.

Introduction

Othello is one dramatic play based on the Moorish Captain by Willian Shakespeare Othello is the significant characters in the play and is portrayed as a General of the Moorish. At that particular time, he worked like an army.  Shakespeare also portrays another character Iago who have some key similarities and difference with the main character Othello. The two characters can be said to be different in characteristics and colour.  However, the two are similar in the element of their fallibility, as seen in the play (Wain,45). These two main characters are seen to be united by their character similarities and at the same time divided by the differences which exist in their personalities. The two have some particular will of either revenging and or the element of possessiveness. It sees them fall in almost the same state at the end of the play. They are both ends up as traumatic heroes at the end of the game as a result of similarities that those two have. This essay compares and contrasts the characters, Othello and Iago, in the play.

Differences

Othello and Iago in the play Othello are in many ways very different from one another. This is the major contributor to the downfall the Othello experiences in the play.  The nature of Othello is that he is candid, and he tends to be quite an open person and direct in his actions with everyone. He is very courageous in the war and an excellent leader as a commander in the army which he serves. He is seen to be in genuine love with his wife, Desdemona. This earned him the much-needed respect from everyone around him. His ability to control the larger population of military men is as a result of this (Wain, 58). Iago, on the other side, is the exact opposite of this. He has the characters of manipulating people through unclear action, taking advantage of circumstances for his benefit and even scheming through people’s problems and success to enrich his desires at the expense of the other people. He is unable to witnesses Othello and Desdemona’s serene happenings and lies to Othello over Desdemona’s actual faithfulness to her husband.

The two characters have differences in their proper representation in the play. The two characters can be defined as a protagonist and antagonists, respectively. Even though the two are led by their inner emotions in making critical decisions and to act to some extreme manner, Othello’s motives in the play do appear more noble and authentic as an opposed to Iago whose primary purposes are spite and betrayal. Othello as a result of this was made to believe that Desdemona had given the Cassio Othello’s most treasured handkerchief which was a sign of love, one which his mother had given Othello on the last minutes of her life. His mother had asked him to give it to his wife to be, “To lose or give‘t was such perdition As nothing else could match” (Shakespeare, 69). He killed his wife as a result of this but did it as a sign of love for her. She had much respect for his wife that he never wanted to see the relationship tainted or her with another man.

The characters that Iago portrays in the play defines Othello as a character. As the antagonist in the play, he is featured as one spiteful villain of the pay who has nothing but some kind of a very selfish interest in his heart. His insensitivity is in the paly used by Shakespeare to develop the unseen kind of vices for Othello. Iago is critical in the revelation of the vulnerability and the imperfection that Othello has. Iago, at the same time, manages to lie to Roderigo into acting as his puppet and element which portrays how much he is deceitful. His Machiavellian nature also makes him even drag his wife into establishing the handkerchief into Cassio’s room and component, which result in the death of Desdemona. The essential extreme nature of Othello that is seen the play is as a result of the characters or the true nature of Iago.  This portrays the exact opposite of the kind of these two principal characters in the play. Othello’s character is rewarding, while that of Iago is destructive.

In the tragedy of Othello, Shakespeare did develop a story of an individual who is not only different from others just by the colour of the skin but also in physiognomies such as honesty, integrity and trust. Othello is an honest and trustworthy individual, unlike Iago in the play. Iago is different from Othello in almost all aspect as he peddles lies over the relationship that Othello has with Desdemona. The knowledge, however, changes him that his wife is unfaithful on him, cheating on him with his junior in the military, Cassio. The allegation which is brought up by Iago is not well-intended and make Othello changes some much to the extent of even killing his wife out of love (Shakespeare, 73).

Unlike Othello, Iago is very deceptive, underhanded and very manipulative. His valid characters is a character which is full of bitter grudges with others and loathing of the other people as well. He greater urge and the senses of injury is very deep inside him. He has a stronger desire for a cold-hearted means of destroying other people through his plots, and his deceitfulness is very relentless in most parts of the play. He appears wily, and this makes him able to stay ahead of the rest. He is very crucial in taking advantage of the other population, and he learns that Othello is very insecure with his wife, Desdemona. In a situation where Othello chose Cassio over him, as a lieutenant, Iago’s deceitful and the vengeful nature makes him seek revenge for him, he shows his open dislike for Othello.

Iago is very inhuman, unlike Othello. In most instances in the play, Othello is seen to be very instrumental in the development of other people development. He serves the people of Venice with a lot of love and the interest in making their love better. Othello loved his wife so much and was very human in all this element of respect to the point that Desdemona’s father did start believing that Othello might have captured his daughter with a magic spell.  This is a show of Othello’s humanity and the love he had for people.  Even though Othello kills, his wife sit is out of the lies and the false persuasion that he receives from Iago. He, however, confesses his actions and says he did it out of love. Iago inhuman nature is seen in the manner in which he stirs things and even lies about the element of the unfaithfulness of Desdemona, which was not right, and this resulted in her death. It can be considered that Iago level of inhumanity is the primary cause of Desdemona’s death (Shakespeare, 76).

Similarities

The two characters Othello and Iago, have various similarities in their principal characteristics.  The two characters share one most prominent personalities, that I the aspects of jealousy. Despite their differences in the reasons for resentment. Othello and Iago are equally full of the element of jealous. Othello is very suspicious of the love that he has for his wife Desdemona that he kills her out of this same element of jealousy. When Othello learned about his wife’s handkerchief being found in Cassio’s house, the jealous led pushes her to kills his wife, Desdemona. In the same way, Iago is so jealous over the fact that Othello chooses Cassio as a lieutenant that he wishes for anything terrible to happen to him. Iago’s is just an officer, and he has the inner urge of rising above his ranks supersedes that of anything else in life, “Be judge yourself, Whether I in any just term am affin’d to love the Moor,” (Shakespeare, 38).

The two characters Othello and Iago both fall as victims of tragic heroism at the end of the play owing to their similarities in style. Both of them do end up as victims of their action at the end of the play despite the nobleness that is seen in them at the starts of the play. Othello, for example, is seen as a good commander in the army whose role is very crucial to the people of Venice. However, his own action especially ion the basis of the robust jealousy that is seen in him makes him so mad to kills his wife as a result of the allegation that she had sexual affairs with his junior in the army, Cassio. However, this is not true.  Iago, at the same time, ends up losing his wife as a result of his deceitful nature. The two noble characters at the beginning of the play end up with almost nothing owing to nearly the same perspectives of life and the questionable actions which they are involved in (Shakespeare, 89).

Conclusion

The characters Othello and Iago are the play Othello are comparable in a few aspects. The two characters are, however contrasting in various elements.  Despite some instances which make the two appear too similar, in numerous situation, Othello is very different from Iago. Being the only black in the city to ever marry a white, Othello serves others, including the withes without any form of discrimination. He loves everyone’s in the city of Venice and above all, have a straight and rewarding relationship with others in the play. Shakespeare depicts his characters as a noble one and one full of loves for the other people.

On the other hand, Iago is developed as a strange, vengeful deceitful; character. He is very manipulative and above all, a self-centred individual. Each of the two characters in the play is used to develop the extremities that exist in the other individual’s nature since they are the exact opposite of the other.

Work cited

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Vol. 6. Classic Books Company, 2001.

Wain, John, and John Wain, eds. Shakespeare, Othello: a casebook. Macmillan, 1971.

Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. Harper & Brothers, 1881.