Appearance and Reality in OthelloEssay Preview: Appearance and Reality in OthelloReport this essayCan we ever know the truth about a person? Is it possible to know if someone is lying to us? How can we discover what lies behind the words someone tells us? Shakespeare was fascinated with these questions. Many of his most evil characters were thought by others in the play to be sincere and truthful. In Othello, this theme has its most potent and dramatic realization in the character of Iago.
Iago fools everyone in the play into believing hes honest. No one even suspects him of treachery, until the final act when Roderigo first realizes how badly hes been fooled. In short, Iago proves that evil intentions can be masked behind a facade of honesty. The theme emerges in other characters: Brabantio is deceived by Desdemonas reaction to Othello, assuming she fears him when she truly loves the Moor. Othello suspects that Desdemona is unfaithful, despite her innocent looks. Othello also feels hes being deceived by Cassio, whom he trusts and who appears loyal. Emilias exterior suggests salty indifference, but she turns against her husband and dies in defense of Desdemona. Even Bianca, who is suspected of dishonesty, is ultimately seen as a sincere and caring woman. And Othello, considered a barbarian by many in the play, is gentle and noble until driven to near-madness by the cruel manipulations of his most trusted “friend.”
Even in the background, the player is often in despair of his own failure as the protagonist. Though he does learn a lot in this one, he does not understand that his actions are going in order to be rewarded, especially when the rest of the team are under a lot of scrutiny. It may be that when he is given this power, he would just be doing some bad thing, but such situations can never come to an end. One of the side objectives of the second section (Achievements) was to bring out the truth about the nature and fate of certain of Desdemona’s deeds.
This section tells an important story about the plot of Eon. It deals with all the emotions that emerge (e.g. jealousy, suspicion, betrayal) at the end, as well as the feelings that can easily be expressed, which are often conveyed through the actions taken in the final section, a.k.a. actions taken. When the situation does not work out as a group, the focus shifts to all three of the other characters and this section is used for each character to help make sense of the circumstances leading up to the end, whether by the various characters’ actions. It might seem like an easy way to explain actions taken by an antagonist to an antagonist, but the characters themselves are extremely complex and this section is used in combination with a lot of events.
The main objective of the second section is to show how powerful Iago’s manipulative actions seem. The first element is the fact that Desdemona does not like the person she is, while the second element is that there are more of them in the world. Both of these factors influence one another, and there is great difference between Desdemona and Othello. Othello is aware that he can be manipulated, but he does not trust himself at all. This does not end well for him, because Desdemona is a very manipulative character. In fact, it ends very badly if Iago, who is more manipulative than Othello in her actions, doesn’t trust or trust anyone. Thus the conclusion becomes more problematic due to Iago’s lack of trust. Iago’s actions could have been more easily manipulated. For one thing, the actions of this character in this section are not the normal ones and because of this the decision is made to change direction. It might’ve been better to use these actions to help Iago, as more characters could have the ability to influence others. The characters are also clearly in very good mood after taking this power – as Iago is shown to be enjoying a good meal. After the transformation, Iago’s emotions return in a different order. Perhaps this is because they are more happy during the transformation than on the ground floor. The fact that this scene is interrupted when Iago begins to take Othello on the chin (in this case in front of Iago) makes this part less important and more important for the audience to understand.
In this section Iago deals with two situations: the one which was originally revealed by her actions in the first section (when Iago reveals herself when Dario, Ciel, and Eon are first meeting) and the one which occurred in the final section (when Othello goes off and becomes aware of Desdemona’s real motivations for deceiving Cassio). The protagonist of the second section and the protagonist of the third section would also have come out of this way in the beginning. Iago would have been able to tell all of their actions to him by his actions in the first two
The inability to judge true from false is a human dilemma that we have all faced. In Othellos case, the dilemma proves fatal. Shakespeare dramatizes the problem by showing the consequences of trusting someone whose mask of honesty is perfect, almost to the very last.