Jealousy and betrayal in the play

Jealousy and betrayal in the play

Perhaps the most exotic, exciting, and fascinating character in William Shakespeare’s tragic play “Othello” is the “Honest” young protagonist man lago. In the course of some deep and carefully thought-out activities and words, the young man lago is capable of influencing other characters in the play. Such as Othello, Roderigo, and his wife in performing or doing things that favor him and moves him closer towards his life goals and ambitions. He is the main driving force in this tragic play; he pushes Othello and other characters such as Desdemona and Roderigo towards their sad climax. The theme of the play is jealousy and betrayal, as is made clear lago’s actions throughout the play.

lago is not your typical lousy character. The role and part he plays is somewhat complex and unique, very far from what everyone who reads the play could expect. lago is wise and smart as far as the play is concerned. He is a professional judge of individuals and their behaviors and turns them to his benefits. For instance, he recognizes that his ally Roderigo lasts for the senator’s daughter Desdemona and he, therefore, figures and plan what he will do to have her as his own. lago says about Roderigo, “Thus do I ever make my fool my purse.” By playing on his anticipations, lago is capable of defrauding money and jewels from Roderigo, making for himself a significant profit, while using him to achieve his other objectives. lago also thinks hastily on his feet and capable of improvising whenever something unexpected takes place. When Cassio catches Desdemona’s hand just before the arrival of the Moor Othello, lago utters, “With as little a web as this will ensnare as great a fly as Cassio.” His craftiness and cunning make him a genuinely reprehensible scoundrel indeed. The writer of the play is majorly concerned with the actions performed by lago throughout the play; lago balances his activities and friendship more wisely. For example, when he told the senator about the relationship between his daughter Desdemona and Othello, we see him as a traitor to his friend, who is sourced by jealousy. But he later runs to Othello and pretends that nothing had happened, so when the senator meets Othello with his anger, lago was present on Othello’s side, pretending to be very loyal. He is the kind of an individual who lights the fire and stays aside to watch others burning.

Being smart and intelligent as he is, lago can identify the benefits of trust from his friends and decide to use it as a tool to drive himself to his life ambitions and purpose. He is opportunistic; he understands that even though something wrong comes up after his decision, he will not be mentioned or regarded as the source. All the characters he associated with the play trust him completely; not knowing is a leopard covered in a sheep’s face. Although any reader or audience of the play may think Othello is the primary and significant character, I do not believe so, lago started everything that happened to Othello in the play if it is well thought –out it. Throughout the play, lago is commonly referred to as “Honest lago” he even hi himself says, “I am an honest man…” Trust is one of the hugely powerful emotions that are easily abused in the play. Othello “holds well; the better shall purpose work on him.” lago is a professional abuser in the case of turning individuals’ trust into tools that can assist him in achieving his life ambitions. lago is jealous and hates Othello; he feels devastated after losing the promotion to the rank of lieutenant to Cassio. He plans to ruin Othello by interfering with his marriage as a way of carrying out vengeance.

In my perspective, lago is the triumphant desperado within the play; he is a complicated character – whose accurate purposes are cloaked in the layers of deviance and deception that assist him in building his false countenance. The atrocious crime he plans to achieve is immeasurable, yet without this individual, in the play, it would be slightly more than an illumination romantic play. lago is the scoundrel we love to hate. He makes the story and also breaks all the characters within it; he is the sole troublemaker of the tragic eventfulness within the play. And to lago is the most multifaceted individual within the play. For the writer to fill the plot flow and outline, it was crucial to depict lago as the epitome of evil, and this later fulfilled within this individual’s behaviors in the play. His sharp devious nature appears only within his monologues, and the writer used these to bring to mind frustration within the reader or the audience; the character’s real dramatic sarcasm is shown when these extended asides happen. The purpose of all this was to rouse pity onto other individuals, who are fooled by lago’s split behavior. “Honest lago…O good lago,” Desdemona, in seeking advice from him.

We see the deceiving web that he has wound around every character but himself, and the irony behind is that all the individuals he associate with honestly believe him as an honest folk. The writer has used the term ‘honest’ in the play for over 50 times to characterize lago. Still, I could say that Shakespeare was fanatically throwing words to embellish the contradictory meaning within the play. The cloud of self-obsession of lago remains throughout the play and is revealed to the audience. Towards his friends in the play, he maintains his professional disguise of truthfulness and loyalty, when in the real sense, he is conspiring against them all. We can say all themes that are involved in this play, such as jealousy, tragedy, evil, betrayal, etc. have in some way involved lago. Unlike Othello, who is in some way seems to be the significant character who is engaged in jealousy and vengeance (anger).

On the other hand, we cannot say that Desdemona is the significant or main character in the play because lago only reveals her central part. lago uses her as a tool of revenge against his loyal and trustworthy friend Othello. The innate Iago’s evil is indicated at the climax of the play when all the damage has occurred. The evil concept is overplayed that lago’s actions are seemed motiveless;

lago works like witchdoctor in my viewpoint in the story; he catches fools like we do rats in our house. lago slowly poison the minds and thoughts of his fellow characters, creating opinions and ideas in their skull without implicating himself. “And what is he then that says I play the villain when this advice is free I give and honest,” lago says for himself the profession of deception.

Furthermore, folks rarely ceased to consider the fact that lago the old one could be manipulating or deceiving them; after all, he is the honest lago. In fact, at the beginning of the play, it starts with lago making a fool out of Roderigo, he tells him that he hates the Moor and telling him to make money so that he can give gifts to Desdemona to win her love. Unfortunately, all these gifts are taken by lago throughout the play, and he keeps for himself. After lago faces several accusations from the foolish Roderigo, he provides a piece of advice to him that killing Cassio will aid his cause. We see at the climax of all this, Roderigo dies not on any other person’s hand but in the hands of the “honest” lago. I also emphasize that lago is the most chief and vital character of the whole play, we see him at the beginning and all through the play. All the actors involved in this play are his tools to reach and achieve his life purpose.

The character Cassion, similar to Roderigo, follows the blind advice of lago thinking that lago wishes to assist him, we know very well that lago lusts for the rank given to Cassio by the Moor. And it was the source of antagonism between Othello and lago as he indicates, and all this time, lago is trying to demise Cassio. We see at one night, when Cassio was on watch, lago advises Cassio to drink excess alcohol, knowing very well he could not manage it. Cassio says, ‘I will do it, but it dislikes It.” after Cassio does this, he looks like an irresponsible fool that ends up losing his position of lieutenant. After this incident, we see lago again coming up with another plan of convincing Cassio to beg Desdemona to beg for his cause, which in turn results in mischief and trouble. And still, we see the foolish Cassio tells lago that he has advised him well. “You advise me well.” all these activities are done by lago, and none evade them make him the smartest and intelligent character, not even Othello, the one thought to be the principal character escapes the plans arranged by lago.

Inside every individual, there is a seed of evil and right subsequently it is a perpetual scuffle for us to determine the winning seed; that is the key reason as to why we cannot live without the other. Nevertheless, there are some whose feelings are unbalanced, which results from them to majorly focus on one side more than the other, and most likely, the team that most of the folks prefer to lean is on the evil side. Othello, Emilia, Desdemona, and Roderigo all died at the end due to lago’s vengeance against Cassio, for acquiring the position he wanted and Othello for being an individual he hates the most. The play completes with lago being told that he will receive torture and punishment for his evil actions. All lago’s evil tricks are evident throughout the play; he uses the two women indicated in the play also to fulfill his goals. He tells his wife Emilia to steal the handkerchief that belongs to Desdemona because he knew it was the most precious thing the Moor had given his beloved. He used the handkerchief to trap Cassio and Desdemona, telling Othello that his wife is unfaithful to him. Without even conducting an investigation, he believes his so called trusted friend after he produced some fake evidence that the handkerchief is in Cassio’s room.

Seeing how lago has eventually managed to deceive and manipulate every character in the play by recognizing their weaknesses and vulnerability, we see how Othello’s downfall was as a result of lago’s deception tricks through their weaknesses’ exploitation. So although it was indeed lago who originated with these mistakes since the start of the play and had done everything possible under the sun to bring down Othello and he finally succeeded because at the climax of the play Othello killed his wife and later committed suicide. As the role of lago being the smart desperado result of the demise of Othello, we can, therefore, say that indeed lago is the main character of the play. Every occasion taking place in the play depends on him from the beginning making a fool of Roderigo and senator to their death. The writer illustrates in and out the traits of lago throughout the play, his betrayal, evil, jealousy, and cunning. Again without all this in the play, it would not be a tragic play but romantic.

The individual lago is so layered that everyone could look into appreciably deeper into his personality and nuances; conversely, it is incontestable that lago ‘s role is the main in the development of the plot within the play. With smart and intelligent use of techniques that strike at lago,s anxious personality – the writer is capable of conjuring a scoundrel that has fascinated audiences and readers for decades and centuries. At the climax, we leave without completely understanding the idea behind the catastrophic end; we are left dissatisfied by yet deception lago; an individual who makes the play lively.