Othello Illusion Vs Reality Essay

Much of what people think happens in the world is due to what they see, not what is really going on. In the play Othello Iago presents himself as someone who is honest, to make his dear friend Othello believe that he can trust him. In reality, Iago is not someone who is trustworthy, he is actually a pretty vicious person due to his jealousy. Throughout the play Shakespeare shows the theme Illusion vs. Reality by using characters, a variety of situations and ultimately manipulation among characters.

Shakespeare develops the theme of illusion vs. reality through his characters. Shakespeare does this by making his characters in the play see a different side of Iago than the audience does. For instance Othello believes that Iago is the most honest (1.3.7). The audience knows that Iago is not the most trustworthy person, he is putting on an act, to make the the other characters believe he is. Shakespeare also makes it seem like Iago is

reality by using the characters, he also uses situations to develop it even more. At the beginning of the play Iago verbalizes how he is going to execute his vicious plan to the audience when he mentions to himself, “Myself while to draw the Moor apart/ and bring soliciting his wife. Ay that’s the way” (2.3.407-409). Although the audience knows that nothing happened between Cassio and Desdemona, Shakespeare makes sure that Iago finds a way to “prove” to Othello, that in fact it is true, by creating the illusion that Desdemona indeed is unloyal to Othello. Iago does this to make Othello break down and become mad at Cassio. Shakespeare also uses the illusion that Iago loves Cassio very much and would do anything it took to cure him from evil (2.3.150-151) to once again convince the other characters that Iago would never betray a friend he cares dearly about. The audience clearly can see that Iago clearly does not like Cassio and that Iago is being fake to the rest of the