Gretchenvalcarcel’s Weblog

When I began to read Othello, I thought that the most marvelous character was Othello himself. Everybody around him loves him, with reason, as he was a man that progress in his life, he was strong and sure of himself. Othello was an honorable man no matter were he was from or his race. In that first scene, it was amazing how he argued, defending himself in front of the father of the woman that he loved and had married moments ago. There was not another astonishing character like him, then the story began to take a twist. Iago a “friend” of him began to construct a plan to destroy him because Othello had overlooked him to be his lieutenant. It was here that his dependance on others started to portray him as weak, for the example the situation with Desdemona, were he believe in Iago and let him take charge of his decisions.

              In first place, Othello depends to much in Iago. He never searched for the truth by himself and when you have a serious situation like this one you have to go deep in it to know the truth. Othello needed to handle the fragile situation with more caution, as a wrong decision can bring an unwanted result. Then Othello made the fatal choice of leaning on Iago and believing in him. That was Iago’s key to use him, and Othello was not very bright in finding out what Iago was doing to his life.

            In second place Othello did not bear malice to anyone until Iago began to poison his mind. We see that when they win against the Turks, he was a secure man and all his trust belonged to Desdemona the women that he truthfully loved and the other part of his trust belonged to Cassio, his chosen lieutenant. After Iago’s plan began to develop, Othello changed the way he treated Desdemona and Iago, in both of the movie the character Cassio tried to talk to him and Othello just ignore it. On one occasion when Othello ask Desdemona where was the handkerchief he had given her and she said that she had seen it but she could not find it at that moment, he gets really angry instead of asking her what happened. Othello trusted Iago a lot, which is understandable because he was his friend, but Othello practically put Iago in charge of his life. The accusations that Iago was making against his wife were very strong and for those strong accusations he should also showed him strong proof. The handkerchief in Cassio’s hands could be a motive for him to investigate not to misjudge and make conclusions. A key to not believe in Iago, was when he told Othello that Desdemona was cheating on him with Cassio. Othello said that he was very jealous, he probably could have though that he was seeing something that was not there.

                 In third place, Othellos biggest weakness would be Desdemona. When he got married with her, he was alone in Venice he did not have a family, so she become everything to him. When you want to destroy someone you search for a persons weakness and attack it, so thats what Iago did. It is understandable why Othello collapsed after Iago told him that she was cheating on him with Cassio, because she was all that he had. The news from Iago made him weak because she was the most important thing for him and if you do not have something to fight for in life you find refuge in others and that was what he does. That was the moment that Othello became the puppet of Iago.

              Finally I think that Othello was a strong man but it is unfortunate and unbelievable that he let Iago poison his mind. In the other hand maybe it was understandable that he trusted in Iago because he had the skill to structure and develop a very complex plan. Maybe if Othello was more curious and keen to investigate by himself and not to let others solve his problems the story would be different. This will teach everyone that you cannot trust completely in anyone because we see some faces but we do not see the hearts and behind something or someone it can be amazing what you will find.