This past week in class we talked about the first 2 acts of Othello. We had to read Act 3 for next class. Act 3 takes place in the island of Cyprus and it continues to unfold Iago's plan of making Othello believe that Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio. I continue to think that Iago is very similar to The Joker because everything he does seems to be done easily and well planned out because Iago know how the people will react and he doesn't really even do anything. I watched The Dark Knight over the weekend and I was observing how The Joker doesn't really plan things but he knows how to make people do what he wants. For example in the movie The Dark Knight, The Joker sets up bombs on two ferries that are full with people and he lets the people decide who wants to live because only one ferry full of people can survive. One ferry is filled with criminals and the other is filled with "good" citizens of Gotham city. In the end none of the ferries decide to pull the trigger to blow up the other ferry because they don't have the heart to kill people. While all of this is going on, The Joker is standing on a tall building just waiting for everything to unfold and to see fireworks, but this time everything he thought was going to happen didn't and Batman comes and captures him. Iago is the same as The joker because he starts to fill Othello with ideas and make Othello question Desdemona's fidelity. Iago makes Othello become jealous and doubt Desdemona and and he is blinded by his jealousy to see that Iago is controlling him by feeding him false observations. Iago controls everything and makes everything seem as something that it is not. For example, Iago tells Othello to observe how Desdemona acts when she is with Cassio and that Desdemona will try to convince Othello to give Cassio back his rank as Lieutenant but Iago tells Othello that the reason Desdemona is trying to convince him in doing so is because she is cheating on him with Cassio. At the end of act 3 Iago has convinced Othello in getting revenge on Desdemona and Cassio and he has also been promoted to Lieutenant. So far Iago has manipulated Othello supposedly because Iago thinks that Emilia slept with Othello. I think that the moral behind the story of Othello is that jealousy makes people blind and make people think and see things that are not true and that they often lead to violent acts by the person who thinks he is being cheated on because jealousy spreads like a deadly disease.
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While I was reading the play I also notice that Iago is very manipulative towards everybody, especially towards Othello. It's interesting you mention that the joker is also very manipulative because he knows how people are going to react and he uses people's emotions to get him what he wants them to think just like Iago. I also think jealousy is a bad trait because like you said, "jealousy spreads like a deadly disease."
ReplyDeleteI like pulling in the idea of the Joker and the two boats and how his plans seem to unravel at that point. I think there's a parallel between that scene and the way that Othello ends as things unravel around Iago. This may be worth talking about in class.
ReplyDeleteIago's plans were very organized yet very maliscious. It amazes me that even though he has caused such chaos, he was still able to tell the truth most of the time. Even though his intentions were to cause harm, he was a very intelligent man and was able to convince people easily. He succeeded at what he planned to do all along, and no that many people could have pulled this off.
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