In William Shakespeare’s “Othello” (1603) and Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” (1980), both the main protagonists and antagonists, Othello and Iago in “Othello” and Mozart and Salieri in “Amadeus”, of their respective texts are portrayed as outsiders. Othello is alienated because of his race, Iago doesn’t allow himself to tell the truth to anybody, Mozart is looked down on for his arrogance and Salieri feels as if God is punishing him. The common theme between the two texts, as well as outsiders, is jealousy, this is the main cause that influences the antagonists to manipulate the protagonists. The main areas where the characters are considered to be outsiders are with their family, nationality, religion, class division, personality and their work positions. The isolation that each of the characters experience from the rest of …show more content…
He manipulates and constantly lies to everybody. It is suggested that Iago is a compulsive liar, who likes to be in control of the situation and keep secrets, as this increases his feeling of self-importance. His hidden personality prevents people from getting to know him, keeping himself alienated while feeling powerful over others. Iago only stays friends with Roderigo because he is taking money from him. Iago used manipulation to make Othello believe that his wife, Desdemona, was cheating on him with his Lieutenant, Cassio, who had been promoted over Iago.
Salieri used manipulation to make the other composers dislike Mozart, which lead to him falling into poverty and dying of disease. In the context of the script, historians say that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died of rheumatic fever, when Salieri claimed to have poisoned him. My interpretation was that Salieri wasn’t suggesting that he had physically poisoned him but felt guilty of manipulating him to be in poverty which caused his health