Envy and deceit are catalysts for revenge. William Shakespeare idolized Geoffrey Chaucer and allowed him to influence his plays and poems. All of his works were written in a poetic language. In the tragedy, Othello, Shakespeare uses characterization and external conflict to create Iago’s deceptive, vengeful, and envious motives. Using the characters’ relationships against them, the play reveals the power of deception and misinformation to destroy trust and loyalty. Othello was published in the early sixteenth century. Commedia dell’arte, a popular comedy in Italian theatres, persuaded Shakespeare’s motives when writing Othello. Shakespeare writes this play with a “disturbing, tragic ending, not the traditional romantic tragedy that has puzzled …show more content…
Pride, greed, and lust drove Iago to poisoning Desdemona 's father and eventually ruining the marriage between Desdemona and Othello. In his play, he approach the problems the world faces in a comedic manner. People let greed and lust persuade them to do crazy things. Othello and Iago are foil characters in Othello. Iago let his vengeful ways and deceitful motives alter his decisions while Othello appears in the opening acts as the very personification of self control”(Harbage). The two characters are meant to balance each other out, but Iago gets too deep in Othello’s head, leaving him susceptible to lash out. Shakespeare wants to bring attention to the fact that no matter how hard one tries, the darkness creeps on eventually and wins. By this point in the play, all the character’s true colors have been shown. “Othello is forced to recognize that he lives in a tragic world, and he pays the price” which causes him to have his tragic downfall(Harbage). Othello saw the good in people, until his peers lied to him and betrayed him. Shakespeare is trying to saw to watch who you put your trust in, for not everyone is who they