Jealousy

Jealousy

1. The play is a study of how jealousy can be fuelled by mere circumstantial evidence and can destroy lives

   • In 'Othello', jealousy takes many forms: sexual suspicion to professional competition. However no matter what, it is always destructive

2. IAGO'S JEALOUSY

   • 'One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, a fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife; That never set a squadron in the field, nor the division of a battle knows more than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric, wherein the toged consuls can propose as masterly as he: mere prattle, without practice, is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had and creditor: this counter-caster, he, in good time, must his lieutenant be.'
     • Act 1, Scene 1
     • Iago is jealous here because Cassio has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant over him when he feels that he is far better than Cassio in the battlefield
   • 'I hate the Moor: And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets he has done my office: I know not if't be true; But I, for mere suspicion in that kind, will do as if for surety'
     • Act 1, Scene 3
     • Earlier, in Act 1, Scene 1, Iago claimed that he hated Othello because he had promoted Cassio rather than him, but here he claims that he hates Othello because it is rumoured that Othello slept with his wife, Emilia
   • This quote isn't about Iago being jealous, but he discusses the theme of jealousy
     • 'O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on'
       • Act 3, Scene 3
       • Iago manipulating Othello
       • Shakespeare may be referencing cats here - often green-eyed creatures who toy with their prey before killing it (mocks the meat it feeds on)
       • Metaphor

3. OTHELLO'S JEALOUSY

   • 'Why, why is this? Think'st thou I'd make a life of jealousy, to follow still the changes of the moon with fresh suspicions? No; to be once in doubt is once to be resolved: exchange me for a goat, when I shall turn the business of my soul to such exsufflicate and blown surmises, matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me jealous to say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company, is free of speech, sings, plays and dances well; where virtue is, these are more virtuous: nor from mine own weak merits will I draw the smallest fear or doubt of her revolt; for she had eyes, and chose me. No, Iago; I'll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove; and on the proof, there is no more but this, - away at once with love or jealousy'
     • Act 3, Scene 3
     • Othello claims that he won't be destroyed by jealousy. He reasons that Desdemona 'had eyes, and chose [him]' despite, presumably, the fact that he is black. But, then, Othello lets slip that he may in fact be a bit more jealous and suspicious of his wife than he lets on – he says he wants some 'proof' of Desdemona's infidelity. This suggests that he refuses to admit to his hamartia of jealousy

4. IAGO'S USE OF OTHELLO'S JEALOUSY

   • 'Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ. This may do something'
     • Act 3, Scene 3
     • Realisation that the handkerchief is enough 'proof' to convince Othello that Desdemona has had an affair. 'proofs of holy writ' means that Othello will see the reveal of the handkerchief as the gospel truth that Desdemona has cheated
   • 'The Moor already changes with my poison; dangerous conceits are in their nature poisons, which at the first are scarce found to distaste, but with a little act upon the blood burn like the mines of sulphur'
     • Act 3, Scene 3
     • References to the theme of Heaven and Hell -> 'burn like the mines of sulphur'
     • Iago has been able to manipulate Othello into becoming a different man. One that now expresses dangerous motives towards Desdemona, the woman who he was once madly in love with. This shows the extent of Othello's jealousy and of Iago's manipulation
   • After Othello kills Desdemona (as a result of Iago's machinations), Othello says...'Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak of one that loved not wisely, but too well; of one not easily jealous, but being wrought, perplexed in the extreme'
     • Saying that he wants to be remembered as 'one not easily jealous' highlights his naïvety as even after killing his wife with only a mere handkerchief as proof that she had cheated, he still fails to admit that he is prone to extreme jealousy. Othello killing Desdemona shows the effects of jealousy and how it can quite literally, destroy lives