blog 5:

Throughout the whole play I felt sorry for Othello. Jealousy is an extremely powerful emotion. Once someone plants in your head the idea that someone has cheated on you or has been unfaithful, it causes you to do crazy things, things you wouldn’t normally do under normal circumstances. Iago knew these facts about jealousy, and decided to put Othello through the horrible lies about his love cheating on him. You could tell as the play progressed that it was just tearing Othello apart piece by piece. His world was being town apart, and he did the only thing he thought was possible. While I don’t condemn the actions he did in order to get revenge against his cheating wife, I can understand how the powers of jealousy could drive him to do something so forceful. Hints of infidelity grow as time goes by. When the first idea of Desdamona being unfaithful was planted in his head, everywhere he turned clues popped out at him. Everything she said began to sound like a dagger going through his heart. This is why I felt sorry for Othello throughout the whole play.

I also felt sorry for Desdemona, who did nothing but love Othello. While some scenes portrayed her as a flirt, I believe it was really just Desdamonas kind nature that lead her to act the way she did. While these actions were, in the end, the straw that broke the camels back, they were actions she couldn’t help but do, and in her mind she never thought they were anything more than kindness. Every time she tried to defend her name, Othello refused to listen to it, and at that point, I don’t think Desdemona could have said anything that would have untainted Othello’s opinion. Cassio is also someone I felt sorry for because he was used throughout this whole play as well. At least he was able to make it out alive.

Roderigo is someone whom I feel sorry for too, possibly more than Desdemona or Cassio. He had such love for Desdamona that he was able to be tricked to do things like start a fight, and try and kill Cassio. When ever he would begin to doubt the plan, his doubt would quickly disappear when Iago would mention Desdamona again. I feel bad for him because all he wanted was the girl of his dreams. He wanted her so badly he wqas willing to kill for her, but all of these actions were placed in his mind. If it wasn’t for Iago, Roderigo would have been able to live, and find a new love of his life. She could have been better than Desdamona.

It is hard to go through the whole play and watch Othello get physically ill from jealously, Desdamona getting badly talked about, and watch Cassio get framed so badly. Everytime Iago brought out another lie, I found myself cringing because I knew the story was going to get more and more intense.

In my own life, I have experienced situations similar to this, but of course not nearly as bad, and they never ended in a blood bath like this. But I have experience manipulation, on both small and large scales, lies, and schemes.