Othello is the hero of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, written in 1604. The plot is based on D. Cintio’s story “The Moor of Venice” from the collection “One Hundred Stories,” in which this story is presented as “The Story of the Ensign’s Wife.” Shakespeare transforms the existing plot so that a rather ordinary adventurous, criminal story acquires the features of a high tragedy of the spirit. The story of Othello’s downfall can demonstrate to the audience three basic ideas: jealousy leads to disastrous consequences, innocence offers little protection against those consequences, and revenge can hurt those who seek it. However, Othello becomes a victim of the influence of his friend Iago, who is driven by his manipulative nature, envy, and inability to understand and rejoice in the happiness of others, from which the protagonist subsequently dies.
First, Iago subtly understands Othello’s ethical convictions and bases his manipulation strategy on his moral values and principles of self-respect. He fundamentally warns Othello against jealousy and, at the same time, encourages it in passing, as if to spell it out. Othello accepts Iago as his confederate through this unanimity of principle, even calling him his guardian of honor. It is as if Iago becomes Othello’s inner voice, and he fully surrenders to him the authority of his conscience, his inner judge, on the condition that Iago maintains a picture of complete ethical unanimity. By ambushing Othello, who longs for proof, Iago directly shames him. Courage based on exact calculation, knowledge of Othello’s moral convictions, whom he must cease to respect himself and is therefore grateful to Iago for this inner reprimand. This pretended ethical commonality is also the cause of the hero’s or the other party’s gullibility. Iago tries to gain Othello’s trust by passing off his intentions as good, but the protagonist’s gullibility destroys him.
Second, Iago is somewhat jealous of Othello and wants to take away his chance for a happy life. In the piece, just after the first conversation with him, Othello is still confident in conformity with his principles. Desdemona arrives, showing concern for the protagonist, and they go away, leaving behind a dropped handkerchief. They are succeeded by Emilia, who has found the handkerchief, and Iago, to whom she gives it at an old request. Othello returns, absent from the scene for several minutes, at least for one brief conversation. However, while Iago is trying to manipulate the protagonist, their conversations are already producing results, with the consequence that Othello becomes jealous of his lover. Othello is already at the mercy of jealousy, and his imagination is poisoned. Iago makes the protagonist feel this way because he does not understand happiness. Moreover, Iago tried, by all means, to convince the hero that he was wrong and to seize complete power over his feelings.
Third, Iago uses Othello’s weakness to do him maximum harm, as he cannot understand another’s happiness. He discovers that before he met the love of his life, Desdemona, Othello’s whole life was a test of strength, the life of a warrior with no hope of finding peace. After meeting the woman, reciprocity and a sense of togetherness became for him a revelation, the embodiment of the most refined Western understanding of carnal unity as the indissoluble union of two selves, the finding of the inner in the outer, the complete openness of both to each other. It is these feelings that Iago wants to take away from Othello, for he has experienced nothing of the kind. He wants the protagonist to suffer again from loneliness and deprivation. Moreover, this is where Iago strikes, for he needs Othello to realize the sublimity of the relationship between them. This successful framing of Othello’s tender feelings under a rougher model of jealous behavior further demonstrates that the protagonist’s trust in Iago has ruined him.
The counterargument may be that Othello’s jealousy and gullibility lead to the protagonist’s death. Othello’s failure to heed the words of his beloved and his cruelty in sentencing Desdemona ruin him by displaying all his negative qualities. He gives vent to his cruel impulses, thereby losing all good qualities and motives. However, without Iago’s manipulation, jealousy would not have had such tragic consequences. Iago brings out all the negative character traits in the protagonist.
Thus, Iago is directly responsible for Othello’s death. He was driven by negative motives such as envy and the inability to understand the happiness of others, and his manipulative nature. Iago behaves like a monster, driven by selfish motives and jealousy. The protagonist, in turn, cannot recognize Iago’s malice and jealousy in time; he easily believes the slanderer, quickly abandoning his belief in Desdemona’s purity and virtue. Shakespeare depicts through the example of Iago what manipulative egoists people can be, which teaches the reader to stop blindly trusting those around him. Othello’s trustworthiness and jealousy played some part in the tragedy. However, it was Iago who pushed him down the path of cruelty, which led to tragic consequences and ultimately to the main character’s death.