Othello
Comments(8) 
(Jealousy at work here)
Othello has many themes to bring to the table but the one that most stuck out to me was that of jealousy. I’ve always known that jealousy can make people act in a foolish manner, everybody has felt this emotion before. However, Othello has taught me how jealousy can change people entirely and make them act selfish, vengeful, and insane. As we may know, Othello gets into a jealous rage for thinking that Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio, thus killing her as a tragic result. Although it is depicted in this play, this happens all the time unfortunately. We hear stories on the news on how individuals kill their significant others over jealousy, especially when they thought their spouses were cheating on them.
Othello isn’t the only character who displays being jealous but so does Iago and Roderigo. Iago is jealous when he founds out that Othello has been promoted to be lieutenant, and vows to get revenge on him. Roderigo is jealous of Othello when he finds our that Desdemona elopes with Othello despite having jewelry to woo her, thus helping Iago in his revenge plot against the Moor. Jealousy once again made these men act selfish, with no heart, and vengeful. The question that I ask myself now, and to the rest of you, is jealousy a dangerous emotion? Does it always cause people to act like fools? Or can jealousy be actually a good thing? Does it help individuals want to become better? What are the pros and cons of being jealous?
Aside from talking about the theme of jealousy, I also found some trivia about Othello and an interesting film adaptation of Othello, which is the modernized film “O”. For those of you who watched it, does it display the same message that other older films and of course the play itself intended to put out? Take a little look see….
\”O\” signs of Odin\’s jealous rage
Interesting Othello Trivia:
You raise some interested questions, although I have to say that since this is my first time reading Othello I’m disappointed I read this because I didn’t know Othello kills his wife–kidding.
Anyway, to answer your question, I think jealousy is an incredibly dangerous emotion; it makes people do impulsive and sometimes terrible things (to other people or themselves) that they would ordinarily never do. But I also think that it’s a very common and natural emotion, that we often learn from. I think that people often define themselves, to others, by how they act in response to these feelings. I agree with how Othello seems to showcase jealousy and all the rotten things people do to each other because of it. Not having read the part where Othello kills Desdemona, I’m pretty surprised. I figured she would eventually die since, after all, this is a Shakespearean tragedy, but I didn’t think Othello would be responsible for it given how they speak to/about each other in the first two acts–a further testament to the power of jealousy.
There is also a movie called “O” which came out in 2001 based on the story of Othello. Josh Hartnett and Julia Stiles play in it..highly recommend it!
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on.
-Iago, Act III, scene iii, lines 165-67
An interesting aside is that this is the birth of the expression “green-eyed monster.” The green-eyed monster is a cat and if you’ve ever seen a cat play with a mouse, you can understand the sentiment Iago is trying to get across.
Just like the Cat catches and releases the mouse, over and over, leaving the mouse in despair, so can jealousy torture us. If ever some proof liberates us from its grasp, satiating us, it’s not long before some small incident once again rouses the monster.
Iago is fantastic at understanding humans and using that to his advantage. Jealousy, especially in a society in which men often posit ownership over women, is rampant and easily exploited
. A question i find more interesting is: if Othello’s two-headed social status (By this i mean the dichotomy between how people view him as a valiant even noble man and at the same time a black man and all the negative stereotypes attached to black men in this society) might have made him especially prone to jealousy? Does Othello buy into the negativity attached to him in such a way that they might affect his confidence and leave him subject to jealousy? Or is this wholly unrelated, and is jealousy as human an emotion as sadnes and prone to occur regardless of the character make-up of a person?
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i always like the Julia Stiles with long blonde hair.~;”
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i like Julia Stiles in pixie or short hair. She has very beautiful eyes:.,
Julia Stiles is very pretty, i love her looks specially when she still have that long flowing blonde her when she was a bit younger. ,’,.` With appreciation health supplements pages