Essay: Jealousy and Envy in Othello

To understand the many dramatic occurrences that happened in this tragic story, A person must understand the motives of every character in the book. In the play Othello, jealousy and envy are prominent themes within the characters from the beginning to the end (Shmoop Editorial Team). As the play slowly unfolds it is evident that jealousy is the cause of most of the dramatic scenes.
There are plenty of characters that are affected by jealousy and resentment in the play but, most importantly one of the main characters Othello. There is an antagonist character named Roderigo, who also suffers from jealousy. Roderigo is very eager to be with Desdemona, who is Othello’s wife. He refers to Othello as “thick lips” because Othello is a black man. Using a racist comment also shows how much Roderigo envy’s Othello as Desdemona loves him and not Roderigo.
Also Iago’s scheme would not have worked without the underlying atmosphere of racial prejudice in the society, a prejudice of which both Desdemona and Othello are very aware. Shakespeare’s Desdemona copes with prejudice by denying it access to her own life. Her relationship with Othello is one of love, and she is deliberately loyal only to her marriage.
Othello is not affected by the jealousy instantly. It shows that his love for Desdemona is true. Although people have doubted if their love for each other is true.
Brabantio refers Othello’s love for Desdemona as “if she in chains of magic were not bound” this shows that Brabantio is also feeling jealousy. Brabantio’s relation to Desdemona is her father and he thinks that Desdemona is showing Othello more love than she is showing to him. He is saying that Othello has used some sort of “magic” to make his daughter fall in love with him. Nevertheless, Othello has used nothing because their love is true.
Othello’s jealousy and envy comes from his public insecurity due to the fact that he’s black, and wont have the same treatment or level of respect as the other characters. Which makes him jealous of Cassio. Othello’s envy is so strong that It allows him to believe that Cassio has slept with Desdemona. What is fascinating about Shakespeare’s Othello is the way in which jealousy between the major characters is sexualized. That’s what makes Othello so disturbing is how quickly this sexualized jealousy turns into hate. For Othello and Iago love becomes hate, and hate becomes love and the difference between the two feelings are always being blurred.
The reason that Iago hates Othello is because Iago hates himself. He hates himself because he is jealous of all the things that other people have in their lives and he doesn’t. Iago’s ambition in the play shows that he will do almost anything in order to get what he wants. Iago’s jealousy fuels his fiery hatred towards Othello and Cassio, as well as all of the other people in his life. At first Iago is jealous of Cassio’s position as lieutenant, but then it turns into more than that.
Cassio had violated Desdemona’s purity and ruined the bond between Othello and himself. The bond between Othello and Cassio is symbolized by the way in which Othello makes Cassio his second wife after Desdemona. Cassio and Desdemona serve the same role in Othello’s life. Othello loves them both because he believes both possess what he lacks: culture, and noble blood. And both Desdemona and Cassio bring the respectability that Othello so desperately seeks out.
It is important to note that Cassio and Desdemona provide no emotional support to Othello. This is because Othello’s idolization of both Desdemona and Cassio prevent him from confiding in them. Othello in the end comes to turn his love and admiration of Cassio into hatred in the same way he turns his feelings toward Desdemona into such a hatred that he was willing to kill her.
Iago becomes jealous of Othello and Desdemona’s relationship doing anything he can to put a stop to it. Iago sees qualities that are in Othello and Cassio that aren’t in him and it makes him hate himself. In Othello, Cassio is the first person that Iago becomes jealous of. Cassio gets promoted to lieutenant, which angers Iago. It is because of that situation Iago dislikes Cassio. There really is no indication of why Iago acts in such a way which causes him to be even more frightening. He is masked with jealousy to which he wants everyone else to feel. In doing so, Iago causes the deaths of many and the downfall of himself.
Although he hates him, Iago hates himself even more for not being able to secure his spot as lieutenant. Iago, being the villain of this tragedy, appeared to have a desire to reach out and destroy the loving, as well as the good in everything. For example, after he unsuccessfully tried to enrage Brabantio with Othello and Desdemona’s secret, he began the endless web of lies. As a result of all of Iago’s lies, each character gains a false feeling of jealousy. The reason the feelings are false are because, none of the lies are even close to being true. All of the characters are jealous for no reason considering everyone was innocent.
Iago noticed Othello’s tendencies about his insecurity and overreaction, but not even Iago imagined Othello would go as far into jealousy as he did. Jealousy forces Othello’s mind so tightly on one idea, the idea that Desdemona has betrayed him with Cassio, that no other assurance or explanation can peek through. Such an obsession shows Othello’s reason, his common sense, and his respect for justice. Up to the moment Othello kills Desdemona, Othello’s growing jealousy maddens him.
Upon seeing that she was innocent and that he killed her for no reason, Othello recovers. He can again see his life in proportion and grieve at the terrible thing he has done. Once again, he speaks with calm rationality, and finally killing himself. That’s what’s so tragic and also dramatic about the play. Othello didn’t deserve to die because of Iago and Cassio’s lies.
In Othello, love is a force that overcomes large obstacles and is tripped up by small ones. It provides Othello with intensity but no direction and gives Desdemona access to his heart but not his mind. Types of love and what that means are different between different characters.
Othello finds that love in marriage needs time to build trust, and his enemy works too quickly for him to take the time. The main attraction between the couple works on passion, and Desdemona builds on that passion. Which Othello cannot equal.
Iago often falsely professes love in friendship for Roderigo and Cassio and betrays them both. For Iago, love is leverage. Desdemona’s love in friendship for Cassio is real but is misinterpreted by the jealous Othello as adulterous love. The true friendship was Emilia’s for Desdemona, shown when she stood up witness for the honor of her dead mistress, against Iago, her lying husband, and was killed for it.
Appearance and reality are important aspects in Othello.Also they play a key role for the jealousy in Othello. For Othello, seeing is believing, and proof of the truth is visual. To “prove” something is to investigate it to the point where its true nature is revealed. Othello demands of Iago “Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, be sure of it, give me the ocular proof” (Act 3, Scene 3).
What Iago gives him instead is imaginary pictures of Cassio and Desdemona to feed his jealousy. As Othello loses control of his mind, these pictures his thoughts. He looks at Desdemona’s whiteness and is taken into the traditional symbolism of white for purity and black for evil. Whenever he is in doubt, that symbolism comes back to haunt him and even with his experience, he cannot help but believe it.
In Conclusion Shakespeare’s Othello takes the readers and audience though an emotional journey. Anyone who reads the book can look back on what they have gained from each aspect of the play and apply it to modern day times. The way Shakespeare’s play intertwines with modern day society makes the book valuable no matter what time period a person is in. It holds the issues of jealousy and how it will always be around. I think Shakespeare play could possibly expand the minds of everyone and show how real jealousy can get and how it can get fuled in all different kinds of ways.
It is shown that basically, Shakespeare has included the antagonist nature of Iago, and the destructive, powerful nature of Othello to show a “theme and variation” on the typical image of jealousy the “green eyed monster” feeds on. Because of the powerful toxic nature of this beast of jealousy, the feelings of jealousy are able to be spread rapidly and contagiously in the different events in the play, from character to character, in Shakespeare’s play, Othello.