Paste your essay in here…Throughout the entirety of history there has been a universal understanding that one cannot trust appearances. Everyone perceives life the only way they have lived it, Shakespeare who is still today renowned for his insight into human nature understood and often commented on the idea of appearance versus reality. This is seen throughout Othello, the characters are incredibly dimensional and through their strengths and weaknesses the message of appearance vs reality is constantly reinforced. One of the root questions of all philosophy is one of appearance deceiving reality. Often especially in modern times we find ourselves asking what is real and what is merely an appearance; and how do we differentiate these two thing. Reality is often seen as eternal whereas appearance is portrayed as temporary. Even today modern authors still use appearance vs reality to portray their characters. The fallbacks of Othello and Iago’s characters constantly reinforce this message.
Othello taught me that we cannot trust appearances this is shown through Iago’s reputation for honesty. Iago is seen as a series of unsolvable puzzles and challenges. To the audience every line Iago presents is a cause of worry. Although he is reputable for being honest and plain speaking he actually invents elaborate lies and constantly plans and succeeds to exploit and manipulate those closest to him. He seems to have very little empathy and instead treats those closest to him as pawns for his own pleasure. Despite this he is married and presumably at one point cared deeply for her. He seems to care about noone but yet is happy to devote all his time to revenge rather than just seeing himself as superior and walking away from everything. He strongly believes in lying and being deceitful for no given reason yet Shakespeare places some of the most beautiful words into Iago’s mouth; Iago has the largest role within the play speaking a total of 1097 lines compared to the plays namesake Othello who only speaks 887.
Iago has this reputation of not only honesty but reliability, throughout the entire play many characters including Othello constantly refer to him a “honest Iago” this shows how deceptive and devious he truly is. He has been able to rise through the ranks and has become an ancient to Othello- a many with a great military judgement. Through his strengths of manipulation and insight he is able to full embody the idea that people are not who they present themselves as. Although Iago is seen as someone reputable and honest throughout the entirety of the play he egregiously leads all characters particularly Othello into a world that he has created full of deceiving truths. Iago states early on in the play “I follow him to turn upon him,” we the reader can see through this and know that he intends to destroy Othello from within by portraying himself as a good service so then when his plan plays out he will not appear as suspicious. Instead of seeking immediate revenge he is incredibly intelligent and methodical he encourages the other characters namely Othello and Roderigo by provoking them to misinterpret everything they see. Othello is incredibly susceptible to Iago’s plots because he is so honest and straightforward. We see Shakespeare uses techniques challenging appearance vs reality in many different ways. The language of the play constantly refers to dreams and trances this constantly highlights the way that what appears to be real is often fake.
Another technique used by Shakespeare to extend the message is that of playwriting and acting. Much as the handkerchief is transformed from a prop to a character, Iago is transformed from a character into a sort director. As his plot against Othello develops Iago creates scenes within every scene and constantly is given asides and soliloquies integral to the plays plot progressions. He constantly sets up conversations between people and then has another play the role of the spectator; an example of this is when Desdemona and Cassio have a conversation and Iago positions Othello as a spectator. He also has Othello watch him speak to Cassio and Bianca. This shows that Iago has the ability to manipulate Othello into seeing and believing exactly what he wants him to and because of Othello’s gullibility and Iago’s mastermind he is able to completely redesign Othello’s concept of reality. In this way Iago takes on the role as a director as well as an actor within the play. Iago’s character is a mastermind locked in the body of military veteran, he is incredibly obsessive,genius and relentless but his motives are very questionable; he in fact has been described as a “motiveless malignancy.” Throughout the text Iago gives a list of implausible motivations all differing slightly. Some reasons he gives is resentment of Othello because he passed him over for a promotion for Cassio, he also thinks that both Othello and Cassio have slept with his wife. Cassio and Iago are similar in the fact they both share a hatred for Othello, however Cassio has a strong love for Othello’s wife Desdemona. The first line of Act 1 Scene 1 is Cassio saying “Tush never tell me! I take it much unkindly. That thou, Iago who hast had my purse. As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.” This statement demonstrates how Cassio perceives Iago. As Iago works through his plan we also notice how easily he convinces others with no proof other than his own oratory. This links to society today as specifically in politics people can be easily coerced without any proof so long as the knowledge is delivered in a confident fashion you can manipulate people into believing anything.
In Act 1 Scene 2 we as an audience are able to see how easily Iago manages to switch personalities, he has no hesitation in hurting others. A major strength of Iago’s is his relentlessness, in the previous scene he was so full of hate and resentment whereas he is quickly able to transform into someone Othello could “confide in.” It’s an incredible skill to be able to hold onto an act especially when it’s someone who is seen as superior to him.Ironically Iago is able to look beyond appearances and figure out anyone’s weak spot. Iago is confident in his ability to twist and create anything within Othello’s mind.We can see throughout his actions that Iago has an incredibly twisted personality but somehow he is able to hide it entirely once again linking to the idea of appearance vs reality. Shakespeare demonstrates how easy it is to be fooled by someone as Othello is the victim of the fake appearance Iago acts out. Kenneth Muir states “It has been suggested that the question had a professional interest to Shakespeare. If an actor could play the role of a saint or even a woman so as to convince an audience, how was it possible to tell in real life whether a man was what he seemed? Iago,in a sense, is the apotheosis of the author.”
As well as clearly being a prevalent theme throughout books and film the idea of appearance vs reality is a key part of society and culture. In life everyone sees things differently to how they actually are. People are constantly trying to alter reality for their own benefit and whether that’s on a massive scale or just in our everyday life it’s still just as mind boggling. Our society and many of our leaders are able to switch personalities very quickly and although it may not be exactly as deliberate or obvious as we see throughout the play we are still very much being manipulated constantly. The idea of “I am not what I am” seems evil and we as an audience see that as a total red flag whereas we are probably not what we are either. Humans are contradictions our appearances are certainly not our realities; although not necessarily as extreme as Iago we are constantly pushing parts of ourselves to the foreground and hiding other parts in the murky background. This play teaches us to trust nobody not even ourselves. The idea of appearance vs reality is seen in everyday life including religion, politics and relationships. Undoubtedly appearance vs reality is a theme used constantly in characterisation and plot strategy within todays film, literature and plays. This stems from the trait we all hold and the one Iago is without; the ability to perceive and judge our surroundings and the trait that we all including Iago possess the need to appear the way we want others to view us. From Shakespeare’s times to now this is an incredibly relevant theme within the play and society.