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OTHELLO THEMES By showing us fictional characters wrestling with their…

- - - - Iago reveal his deceitful nature by confessing "", emphasising the dangers of manipulation
      - Iago uses “shows of service”, facades and performances to pretend to serve Othello whilst serving himself - people play roles for self-gain
      - Shakespeare juxtaposes Iago’s private image, where he is characterised as self-interested and duplicitous, where he appears to be loyal, considerate and courteous Iago
    - - Othello falls victim to Iago's schemes and jealousy - falls victim to his own gullibility
      - unknowingly submits to Iago’s schemes by placing trust in Iago
      - Iago exploits his self-knowledge of man’s inclinations in common to manipulate
      - Othello misplaces his trust in Iago - manipulated by Iago's seeming of trustworthiness
    - - Irony undercuts the trustworthiness of his statements and foreshadowing his own manipulation of Othello
    - - Where Othello's flaw lies - Tragically ironic as it is that he has faith in appearance
      - motif of the eyes is symbolic
- - - - where tragedy lies in the play - Othello's downfall and hamartia is a result of his jealousy, as he falls victim to his emotions
      - corrupted his moral values, feels morally convicted to take her life - He has deluded himself that this is the right thing to do
      - Becomes unable to distinguish the difference between passion and logic and his mind slowly degenerates into murderous passion- Iago leaves Othello convinced of his wife’s infidelity,
      - Othello: hyperbolic declaration of his love for Desdemona - “My fair warrior!” - epithets of praise (p.15)*
        
        Character shift - what he was juxtaposed to what he becomes - Love for Desdemona has become hatred
        
        Othello’s speech disintegrates as he begins to lose his mind - initially it is poetic but it comes to mirror and parallel the bestial imagery of Iago
      - Othello: Iago attempts to goad Othello into anger against Brabantio (p.15). Othello, although he that "my blood begins my safer guides to rule" and that the evening’s disruptions have angered him, he remains calm and rational, saying 'Tis better as it is” that Iago should not kill him
        
        Self-knowledge - acknowledging that although his emotion are getting the better of him, he is not letting it ruling him nor does he lose his control/temper
        
        Begins as a man of reason and self-knowledge - Othello is initially characterised as not easily angered.
      - Othello asks Iago to kill Cassio and says he will kill Desdemona (p.129)
    - - hates Othello because Othello has promoted Cassio to be his lieutenant instead of him - indignation and fuels his desire to seek revenge against Othello.
      - Iago is driven by jealousy, hatred, contempt, disdain, envy
      - Pursuit of revenge is defiant of God’s preordained order, the Great Chain of being, where every existing thing and person was arranged in a certain order, which cause disruption and disorder :
      - Iago is predator, creating a web and entrapping his prey - delights in suffering of his prey
    - - Iago takes advantage of Cassio’s hasty departure
      - avoids explicit accusation instead hints that Cassio is guilty of having an affair with Desdemona - plants suspicion which can be created by insinuation and be left to feed and grow upon itself.
      - Iago immediately begins to sow seeds of suspicion in Othello’s mind, subtly at first and then more obviously, suggesting that something is going on between Cassio and Desdemona
      - evil starts with a tiny seedling of doubt or jealousy, then proliferates until the entire play is choked with sin.
    - - Jealousy is dangerous, destructive, animalistic, barbaric and man is the meat as jealousy feed and torments men, removing their dignity
      - Foreshadows that Othello will be overcome by it
      - causes destruction to the individual and those surrounding them
      - Knows that passion can overpower judgement and uses this self-knowledge to manipulate
    - - lack of self knowledge
      - suspicion
      - pursuit of revenge stemmed from his deep love for Desdemona
- - - - Iago emphasises and manipulates Othello's difference as a stranger to Venetian society - high status is incompatible with is race, highlighting the insecurity of his position
      - Iago's hatred is racially motivated
      - Othello’s name is omitted and instead he is perceived merely through dehumanising racial stereotypes - affirms contextual values
    - - Othello falls victim to racial ideology because initially is confident of his position and his own integrity but he succumbs to the racist stereotypes himself and becomes insecure internalising the racism against him and prejudice
      - echos the racist attitude of the other characters of the play - accepts without question that a white woman could not truly love a black man
      - echos Iago's description of the union of Othello and Desdemona; “the beast with two backs”
      - In many ways, Othello is merely conforming to a narrative already written for him by his society - doomed from the start, destiny was already determined.
      - Shakespeare’s characterisation of Iago as a Machiavellian villain and Othello as a tragic man who falls from grace enables him to critique the power structures of his own society and explore the extent to which racial ideologies lead to Othello's downfall
      - Othello’s transformation is almost instantaneous, because he was in a place nobility and out of his depth.a
- - - - Othello's downfall is succumbing to the gender ideologies of his society -adoption of Iago’s Iago’s habit of making sweeping and general statements, suggesting that all women are fickle and unfaithful
      - men in the play characterise women as property, the ownership of which reflects a man's masculinity -
      - natural for men to distrust women as a woman's infidelity is a threat to one's manhood
      - Othello fails to realise that he has believed false narratives about his wife
      - accuses her of being a prostitute
      - Othello accepts Iago' word against Desmona's because Iago is a man
      - Emilia: they are all but stomachs, and we are all but food/They belch us
        Emilia - metaphor
        
        Emilia presents that it is the misbehaviour of men that causes women to fall and that women have the right to live by the same moral standard as men
        
        metaphor that is used to describe men - men discard, dispose, women, women are no more than a possession
        
        challenges hypocrisy of patriarchal ideology which sets different standards of behaviour for men and women
      - Affirms the contextual values that women considered worthless without their sexual purity
    - - characterises Desdemona as an animal of aggressive sexuality and promiscuous - not ideal Jacobean women
    - - Deludes herself into believing that Othello is not to blame
      - Desdemona’s is being tortured over the false preconceptions that Othello has adopted
      - Unquestionable submission and loyalty that leads to her tragic death - remains helpless, vulnerable at the hands of Othello and submissive until her death - ideal Jacobean woman
- - - - reputation is, precious, important
    - - loss of reputation - downfall of Othello - pursuit of redeeming his reputation has led to his loss of reputation
      - Love for reputation/self-mage/ honour - arrogance, self-righteousness causes destruction
      - When it was threatened he acted irrationally