Othello's Jealousy

Surely Othello possesses base characteristics--jealously, self-pity, murderous intent--but they are not presented as central or inherent to his character. They are not symbols of his otherness. "Othello's belief is not caused by jealousy; it is forced upon him by Iago, and is such as any man would and must feel who had believed in Iago as Othello did. His great mistake is that we know Iago for a villain from the first moment." This is the crux of the issue of sympathy for Othello's other status. In his own words, Iago presents the secret which becomes the crucial issue and redeeming factor for Othello's character: Iago is evil, and admittedly so. "Others there are/Who, trimmed in form and visages of duty, /Keep yet their hearts attending on …show more content…
It is Iago's goal, seemingly, to transform the perception of almost every character in the play--from Cassio to Roderigo--to the opposite of what it had been. Even Desdemona shall not escape his injury, "If [Desdemona] be black, and thereto have a wit,/She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit." (II.i.130-1) Desdemona acknowledges the paradoxes in Iago's words, yet still she is unable to prevent these from becoming the paradox of her life. The universal effect of Iago's actions furthers the level of sympathy Othello receives in the text. He is not the only one; they are all victims. In this way, Othello's decline cannot be held up to him because they have all made wine of Iago's dishonest juices. Iago's lures Othello beyond judgment, "I [will] put the Moor/At least into a jealousy so strong/That judgment cannot cure . . . /[And m]ake the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me/For making him egregiously an ass/. . .practicing upon his peace and quiet/ Even to madness." (II.i.300-310) This is Iago's formula. In the face of such, there can only be sympathy for the simple, good 'other' Othello is in the process of …show more content…
"Iago's poison does not work more powerfully through his images than through a corrosive habit of abstraction applied in those unique relations of love and faith where abstraction is most irrelevant and most destructive." This is just how Othello is lured in. Iago appears to be honest in such a way that his words are no longer the key. To Othello, even the spaces between the words of his loyal Iago, are proof enough, " . . . [T]hese stops of thine fright me more;/For such things in a false disloyal knave/Are tricks of custom; but in a man that's just/They're close dilations, working from the heart/That passion cannot rule." (III.iii.120-4) The character of our patient, slow -moving and -thinking hero becomes an accelerated persona whose anger, jealousy, and activity strike his two-sided coin of destruction into motion. Here a madness envelops Othello so that is judgment is not his own, but Iago's and his ocular proof is nothing more than the finely-painted dramas Iago creates for