Othello is shown time and time again as a very trusting person. This is in part because he does not wish to see the evil in people. This characteristic is shown when Othello says “I swear ’tis better to be much abused / Than but to know ‘t a little” (3.3.386-387). This shows us that Othello would rather be deceived than to be suspicious of other people. His trusting character allows Iago to manipulate Othello easily because he can plant suspicion without being accused. The small hints Iago provides Othello that there is something between Desdemona and Cassio slowly lead Othello to the conclusion that he is being cheated on. All of this happens but Othello never questions the source of this information. The only reason Othello does not believe Desdemona later on is because he is already accepted the “facts” that Iago has presented. His inability to doubt people lead him to trust the wrong person with ill intentions. He himself admits that he would rather be lied to than to doubt someone he trusts. This includes Desdemona but Desdemona does not get a chance to convince him otherwise before he decides her fate. This passage is significant because it furthers our understanding of what kind of person Othello is. Iago has said multiple times that Othello is a fool, but this passage shows Othello admitting he is a fool. Othello’s character is the source of most of these problems because it only took Iago a short amount of time to convince him that his two most trusted people, Desdemona and Cassio, are betraying him. While he refuses to see this “betrayal”, he does not immediately cast away Iago either. He believed that Iago could be telling the truth because he does not think that anyone would lie to him. This allows Iago to not only plant the doubt in Othello, it also allows the doubt to turn into a murderous rage.
