Essay Comparing Othello And Catcher In The Rye

Making connections between things is a natural reaction for people to do. Connections between different works of literature have been integrated into many education systems. The play Othello by William Shakespeare and the book The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger have similar features, such as the characters. The characters Iago in the play Othello and Holden in The Catcher in the Rye demonstrate similar things such as their shared amusement in egging people on, eve dropping, manipulating others, and interactions with money. It is shown, through the similarities of these characters, that aspects of human nature and behavior have stayed the same throughout the centuries. Holden and Iago both take part in egging people on. In the Catcher in the Rye,

This demonstrates that Holden likes to rile people up. A similar example in Othello is when Iago starts to hint to Othello that Desdemona is cheating. Iago sneered at himself, stating that Othello is “happy now, but I’ll ruin your happiness, for all my supposed honesty”(No 79). Knowing that telling Othello that Desdemona is not loyal will upset him. Iago also says to Othello, “You would be wise to ignore my weak guesses and imaginary suspicions, and don’t worry yourself about the meaningless things I’ve noticed”(141) knowing full well that this would only make Othello look into what he said more. Both Holden and Iago know how to get people riled up and use it to egg people on. Another similar theme of Othello and The Catcher in the Rye in regards to Iago and Holden, is their use of eavesdropping. Holden was at a club and was sitting next to a group of women and he “listened to their conversation for a while”(Salinger 111). He enjoys integrating himself into other people's business for fun. Iago uses eve dropping similarly by telling Othello to “stay here and watch”(197) the conversation that he will have with