The Tragic Transformation of Othello: Unbecoming Emotions

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The Tragic Transformation of Othello: Unbecoming Emotions

Introduction

Everyone lies at some point or another in their life. Some do it out of shame, others guilt, and still others because they are afraid of the truth. In Shakespeare’s work, Othello, Iago tells one lie that will spiral to the deaths of 4 people, all out of hatred for his commanding officer, the Moor, Othello. Othello wants nothing more than to enjoy his life with his beautiful bride Desdemona, but in the end, his changes in character lead him to kill her instead. This drastic shift did not happen without cause, and it did not happen without the manipulation of the protagonist, Iago.

Body

The Initial Upright Character

However, the major issue that Othello faces is not the lie that is told but rather the way he reacts. Othello not only experiences his feelings but embodies them. This all-consuming absorption of his emotions changes his character over the course of the play and eventually overwhelms him to the point of plotting, killing, and, finally, suicide all because of one lie.

Manipulation and Insecurity

Othello begins as a noble character. He is an upright man. He is respected and presented as someone to look up to. He is a leader in the military and is known for his way of waging successful war. As he was introduced to Desdemona’s family, he told them of all of his horrible experiences as a black man and all of the horrible things he had seen as a soldier, yet he still managed to be such a tender-hearted person. He tells the family this, and Desdemona cries, and Othello recounts her response as “She wished she had not heard it, yet she wished that heaven had made her such a man. She thanked me”(01.03.165).

Desdemona is virtuous and pure, and they marry and spend the beginning of their married life together with an unconsummated marriage even as they arrive at Othello’s next military post on the island of Cyprus. This, again, is an exaggeration of the upstanding couple. This is the first glimpse of the type of extremes that Othello operates in for the remainder of the writing. It truly almost foreshadows the transitions that will take place in Othello in the coming days.

Jealousy and Spite

These changes dodge sharply and seemingly out of nowhere. It begins with Iago’s plan to cuckold Othello for Rodrigo to come in and take Desdemona all for himself. Rodrigo takes on Iago’s plan and understands that Iago hates Othello, and as such, it would be a win for the both of them. Rodrigo, at Iago’s advice, get’s Cassio drunk all the time, knowing that Cassio has a tendency to be violent.

This unfolds accordingly, and Othello hears about Cassio’s unbecoming behavior and sharply reprimands him, ultimately removing him from his post. This, again, to the aware reader, is a sign that Othello remains upright and dutiful. Desdemona sees her new husband’s overreaction to this seemingly harmful mistake on Cassio’s part and pleads for Othello to forgive him and receive him back again. Othello begins to see this and entertains the thought, but for a moment, when his emotions are once more accelerated.

The Path of Regret and Remorse

Iago steps in to seize his opportunity to strike Othello down. He cunningly takes advantage of the fact that Desdemona was pleading on behalf of another man to make it look suspicious to Othello. Knowing that Othello is an extreme feeler of sorts, Iago begins toying with him, saying half sentences and talking under his breath. Othello, curiously, demands that he speak and share his true thoughts. “‘Think, my lord?’ Alas, thou echo echoes me as if there were some monster in thy thought. Too hideous to be shown. Thou dost mean something. I heard thee say even now thou likest, not that when Cassio left my wife. What didst not like?” (03.03.110-115).

Truly, what unfolded here was that Othello started to become insecure that he was missing something obvious, and with that open mindset, suspicions walked in. When Iago finally makes the actual accusation, it sounds so outrageous to Othello that he wants to dismiss it; however, having seen the glimpse of Othello’s insecurity Iago slithers on. As Iago paints a plausible picture of Othello, they both settle into this new reality, and Othello transitions from insecure to jealous.

Iago once more, seeing an opportunity, plants a handkerchief that belongs to Desdemona at Cassio’s house and knows that he has now sealed his friend in his box of hyper-emotionalism. Iago even points out how over-emotional Othello is by saying

“I will in Cassio’s lodging lose this napkin And let him find it. Trifles light as air Are to the
jealous confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ. This may do something. The Moor
already changes with my poison. Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons Which
at first are scarcely found to distaste, But with a little act upon the blood Burn like the
mines of sulfur (03.03.330-340).”

Final Reflection and Tragic End

This situation here is the ultimate example of Othello’s emotional state. Later in the narrative, when Othello finds out that Cassio does indeed have the handkerchief, he then decides to kill not only Cassio but also his dear Desdemona. His now spite blinded him. He believed what he wanted with no regard for what was clearly under his nose.

As his plan to kill Cassio unfolds at the hands of Iago, he begins to allow his spite to turn into rage. These feelings were clearly taking hold of Othello. He was no longer acting himself, even leading him to hit his wife. It’s important to point out here that only a short while ago, he was swooning her into loving him and vice versa. Desdemona even pleads with him to act himself. She says to him, “What horrible fancy’s this?”(04.02.29) He does not give in to this plead for him to act normally once more; instead, he continues his plan with Iago.

Ultimately, Iago enlists Rodrigo to kill Cassio, to which he fails and is then killed by Iago. Meanwhile, Othello suffocates Desdemona, Emilia comes to clear everything up and is killed by her husband, Iago, and finally, when all comes clear to Othello, he moves into instant regret by shouting, “O fool! fool! fool!” (05.02.339). And then stabs himself once more, demonstrating that his feelings were not only relevant to him, but they became him each and every time.

Conclusion

While reading this play, it is easy to see that Othello lived to the extreme when it came to his emotions. He not only went from absolute love to murder but also from being so sure of himself to so insecure and from jealousy to spite. All over a clear lie by a clearly unrighteous man, all in a matter of a week’s time or less. Near the end, even Othello talks about just how emotional he was “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 (05.02.360). The simple truth about Othello is that what he liked, he loved; what he was unsure about, he was insecure about; what he wanted, he was jealous of; what he disliked, he hated; what he wished he could change, he spat; and what he regretted he ended. In the end, he regretted himself because he was what he felt.

References

“Othello: A Critical Reader” edited by Lee A. Jacobus
“Othello: New Critical Essays” edited by Philip C. Kolin
“Othello’s Alienation” by Edward Berry
“Othello and Interpretive Traditions” by Edward Pechter