More handpicked essays just for you.
How important is honesty and deception to the meaning and effect of the play othello
How important is honesty and deception to the meaning and effect of the play othello
How important is honesty and deception to the meaning and effect of the play othello
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Deception is what makes us human as seen in the books, The Color Purple, Medea, Cyrano De Bergerac, A Clockwork Orange and Othello. The theme of Deception occurs in all of the books, but it occurs for different reasons and in different ways. In the five books we see, a husband deceive a wife out of spite, the deception of a husband for revenge, the deception of a cousin out of misguided love, an adolescent who deceives people for fun, and the deception of a friend due to jealousy. It is a part of human nature to lie and the characters in these books are shining examples of our natural deceptive nature.
William Shakespeare’s “Othello” was a great example to showcase sacrifices made by characters to accomplish revenge or obtain power. Shakespeare told the story of Othello, a tragic hero, who was manipulated by Iago, which motivated him to kill his own wife. From this story, Shakespeare’s main goal was to portray characters making sacrifices for their ambitions. From this play, Shakespeare puts forth the idea of sacrifice through pointing out the importance of reputation and how sacrifices must be made to silence the truth.
Deception always has many perspectives; the truth, the fabrication, and how it is interpreted. An individual’s ability to deceive defines their effectiveness as a perpetrator. Within Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies and William Shakespeare’s Othello, the antagonists of each convey themselves as divine, therefore attempting to distract from their misconduct and represent themselves sincerely.
The idea of honesty plays a prominent role in other Shakespeare works, with the word honest appearing multiple times in many of them. However, the word honesty plays the largest role in Othello. The use of the word honest to describe both Iago and Desdemona allows Shakespeare to heighten the dramatic irony in Othello. The use of the word honesty enhances the contradiction between people’s opinions of Iago, and his true nature, therefore; it magnifies the dramatic irony.
To Othello, Iago is more reputable now causing Iago is, at this point, reputable, meaning Othello will to believe anything that Iago says even if it is a lie. Iago’s psychopathic manipulations of Cassio then ultimately cause his downfall once Othello discovers that Iago has been dishonest, his punishment of torture and imprisonment at the end of the play is his downfall. Iago’s Throughout the play, since Iago is trustworthy to Othello, Iago plants seeds of jealousy in Othello’s mind. In Act Five, scene two, Othello shows the audience how he believes that Iago is “most honest” (Shakespeare 1302).
Shakespeare’s Othello chronicles the downfall of a noble Moor, Othello, who is deceived by a man he considers his friend, Iago. Throughout the course of the play, Iago toys with Othello and eventually leads him to murder and lose his love, his new wife Desdemona. Iago exploits the unquestioned trust Othello places in him to achieve evil ends. As such, trust is a central theme in the story.
In the play Othello, by William Shakespeare we are introduced to Othello who is the protagonist and faces a lot of obstacles, one of them being betrayal. Throughout the whole play we witness betrayal from many of the characters through their irrational behavior and actions. However the biggest betrayal we see is from Iago, who is the antagonist, in other words, the villain of the play. Iago plans on having his revenge and betraying Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, Rodrigo and even his wife, Emilia. Betrayal is wrong and something that can’t be forgiven, at the end betrayal breaks friendships as well as lives and trust which never works out well in the end.
Unfortunately, he trusted the wrong person due to his growing lack of self-esteem. Iago, a hypocrite who hid his evil thoughts by appearing as a man of extreme honesty, saw that he could erode Othello’s self-esteem because of who he was, a moor living in European society. He realized he could manipulate Othello for his own evil ends. He slyly used pathos to gain his trust, saying, “My Lord, you know I love you” (III.iii.118) to convince him of his honesty and reliability. Then he suggested the unpredictable nature of Desdemona by saying, “Ay, there’s the point: as, to be bold with you, not to affect many proposed matches of her own clime, complexion, and degree, whereto we see in all things nature tends - Foh!”
“Othello” written by William Shakespeare revolves around this protagonist who is depicted as strong and powerful. To everyone he is known as Othello or the Moor. Throughout the play, Shakespeare portrays numerous counts of jealousy and manipulation around many of the characters. It is mainly illustrated through Iago, the antagonist of the play, who manipulates other to their downfall. Iago who is known for always being true and honest towards others has easily earned the trust of everyone around him, thus giving himself an advantage on his schemes.
Iago embodies dishonesty using lies and deceit to entangle everyone in his trap. In Act 1, Roderigo questions Iago’s faithfulness to Othello. Iago answers by saying, “Whip me such honest knaves,” meaning he only pretends to be faithful and loyal to Othello, fooling him into trusting Iago (1.1.49). As the play progresses, people describe Iago as honest; however, Iago decieves everyone into believing his word. Othello frequently describes Iago as “A man he is of honesty and trust” (1.3.284) as well as “most honest” (2.3.6).
Due to the fact that there is not a single relationship in Othello that demonstrates true friendship, the tragedy unfolds and results in all characters ' demise. This can be seen when Othello vilifies Desdemona for being a disastrous wife and says, "I will withdraw, To furnish me with some swift means of death, For the fair devil [Desdemona]. Now art thou my lieutenant" (3.3 543-545). As a result, this shows how arguably the most sacred friendship is not even true in between Othello and Desdemona. Othello is notably naive in this instance due to the fact that he puts his wife on death row based on the suspicion Iago planted.
More than half of the time that honest is used in the play, Othello; it is used as “honest Iago”. This is ironic because honest is seen in the play as loyal, trustworthy, a man of his word, etc and Iago is anything but all of those characteristics. There is not character in the play that does not think that Iago is an honest man. When you look at the name of the play, Othello, you can see that the name implies that Othello is an outsider in the
Thesis Statement: Othello’s generosity and integrity, let the false accusations that Iago told him get to him because he was too focused on one part of the story that was being told. Forecast: As Othello kept listening to Iago 's lies he became very heated and ended up killing
When he does not get the position he wants and also heard that Othello has been sleeping with his wife Emilia, Iago’s manipulation increases. Iago plans his scheme based on, “[Othello] has done my office, I know not if’t be true/ But I, for mere suspicion in that kind/ Will do as if for surety” (I. III. 431-433). This use of manipulation is all based on an assumption that Othello has slept with Iago’s wife, and this assumption leads to even more horrible events.
In William Shakespeare’s Othello the two main characters are Iago and Othello. The entire story centers around Iago 's plan to achieve revenge on Othello for not promoting him to lieutenant. Throughout the story Iago tries to convince Othello that his wife Desdemona has cheated on him with his lieutenant Cassio. Iago’s plan is successfully and easily executed. Othello is tricked into believing that desdemona has been unfaithful and in the end he kills her.
