The Corruption Of Jealousy In Shakespeare's Othello

In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, jealousy is the downfall of many characters. Jealousy was used to fuel hatred, disgust, and motivation for betrayals. One of the biggest betrayals in the play was by Iago. With his cunning use of manipulation and rhetoric, Iago was able to fool and trick many of the people close to him. Although Iago was considered a trustworthy friend to Othello, Iago betrays Othello out of jealousy, proving how jealousy can corrupt. Othello was very trusting with Iago, which made it easy for Iago to manipulate him with the useage of rhetoric. In order to gain Othello’s trust, Iago would constantly use ethos and pathos with Othello in order to establish how much Iago supposedly cared for Othello’s wellbeing. Iago had insisted

Iago was originally only trying to make Othello feel what he felt when he believed his wife was sleeping with Othello, however; Iago’s jealousy caused his plan to take more drastic turns and develop more villainous goals. He planted the idea of murder into Othello’s head when Othello was the most vulnerable, saying that Othello should “strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated” after he successfully manipulated Othello into believing that Desdemona had slept with Cassio (4.1.206-207). Although he did not originally plan for the murder of anyone, Iago’s jealousy caused him to escalate his plan to involve the murder of several people. His corruption became the most apparent when he explained how “whether [Roderigo] kill Cassio or Cassio him, or each do kill the other, every way makes my gain” and how he has gotten to the point where he only sees everyone else as mere pieces of a game that he attempts to win (5.1.12-14). Iago had transformed from a person who simply wants revenge to a villain who believes he should be the only person who does not suffer a tragic end out of