Right from the outset of the play, Othello is shown to be an intelligent, slightly aloof but always just man, who is brought down by the scheming and conniving of his trusted ensign with a seemingly baseless and unprovoked evil plot against him: his first line is,
“’Tis better as it is” Act 1 scene 2 line 6
His subsequent speech affirms his status as a good, careful man who has given his life’s service to Venice and is brought down by the evil scheming of one to whose behaviour he is unsure of how to react. However, Iago’s deception of him causes him to descend into jealousy and complete helplessness of position, and he eventually destroys himself. Through all this, although he becomes suspicious of Iago at one point, he believes him unconditionally after Iago gives him fabricated circumstantial evidence. Iago has the complete trust of Othello, as is demonstrated by Othello’s lines,
“For such things, in a false and disloyal knave
Are tricks of custom, but in a man that’s just
They’re close dilutions, working from the heart,
That passion cannot rule.” Act 3 scene 3
This actually tells us that if Iago were a deceitful person, Othello would not have believed him. However, since he believes Iago to be completely trustworthy, he does take his word as the truth. Similarly, Iago strengthens his position by telling Othello to beware of jealousy, but succeeds in his real aim of coercing Othello’s trust and turning his mind to the possibility of Desdemona being unfaithful.
The theme of jealousy in the play is portrayed by Othello’s descent therein, eventually culminating in his suicide. Throughout the play, Desdemona cannot understand what Othello is worried about, which throughout the play Othello takes to be abject denial and in so doing strengthens his jealousy. Desdemona is the object of this jealousy, in which Othello becomes suspicious of a relationship between Desdemona and Cassio. Her requests for Cassio’s reinstatement serve only to strengthen Othello’s final judgement, (and to make Cassio’s reappointment by Othello even more unlikely) which by then is to kill her. Shakespeare here portrays how jealousy can not only cloud the judgement but also bring a levelheaded and sensible man to do something that is in fact entirely unhelpful to his position. The realisation of what he has done in committing this act eventually drives Othello to kill himself.
Through this detailed assessment and evaluation of these themes, I have made it clear how Iago deceives everyone everybody who knows him with his quickness of mind and meticulous planning combined. By the end, however, he is not in control of the situation and can only try to change events, as is revealed in his line,
“This is the night, that either makes me or fordoes me.”
Act 5, scene 1
I have also noted how Iago’s deception leads to Othello’s jealousy and its counterproductive (at least for Iago, and everyone involved) outcome, heavy with the moral that Iago’s plotting and scheming does not work and is his eventual undoing.
The complete futility and heartlessness of Iago’s most evil of plots is summed up by one of the final lines of a character whose death is an unneeded by-product of Iago’s cold-hearted plot, Desdemona:
“A guiltless death I die”
Desdemona, Act 5 scene 2, line 123
