Othello Act 2 & 3 A Review - Essay Example

Othello – Act 2 & 3 – A Review Order ID: 844141 Othello is a black man of North African heritage who is the head of the army of Venice. He is loved by one all and is married to the beautiful Desdemona. The main character according to me though is the jealous Iago who is a Brutus to Othello and who is the reason for the gripping suspense in the story. In the Act I Scene I, we see the characters Montano and a few gentlemen talking of the ill fate of the Turkish army that may have all drowned in the ocean because of the terrible storm that could also be the cause of Othello’s ship not returning yet.

Although Montano speaks of the goodness of Othello, Iago starts to plot and plan Othello’s fall by causing confusion between Othello, his wife Desdemona, Cassio and Roderigo. Iago is so consumed with venom for Othello that he stops at nothing to take his revenge. In this scene, he plots in such a way to make Cassio and Roderigo get into a brawl. He fans Roderigo’s ego by saying that he had a great chance of getting the love of Desdemona by whom he is mighty smitten with. Iago also knows that Cassio is in love with Desdemona thereby assuring a catastrophic mix of emotions and high drama.

Iago is extremely crafty in not directly doing anything to expose his position but by being the puppeteer and toying with people’s emotions. For instance, he urges Roderigo to pursue his dream woman Desdemona, while also making him aware of Cassio’s love for her. He says that only Cassio was stopping him from receiving Desdemona’s love. He thus planned to have Roderigo fight and kill Cassio while telling Othello of Cassio’s love for Desdemona thereby making Othello trust him more while at the same time plant the seed of suspicion creating problems.

In the next scene we find the scandalous Iago creating a web of conflict between all the characters. He can certainly be considered a mastermind in planning out the course of events with perfection achieving every goal that he placed for himself. For instance he says ‘I’ll pour this… (Shakespeare,1622) giving the reader a view of what was to come. He starts out by getting Cassio drunk knowing well that he would create some problem once he is under the influence of alchohol. He also crumbles the good image that Montano has in his mind about Cassio by telling him about Cassio’s drinking problem.

Iago’s manipulative mind is seen when he urges Roderigo to go at that very instance and attack Cassio. Cassio as expected attacks and hurts Roderigo and Montano who tries to break up the fight. Othello awakened by the commotion, demotes Cassio from his position. Again Iago shows his cunning nature when he pushes Cassio to go and talk to Desdemona so that she can put in a good word to Othello; his masterplan being, that Othello sees Desdemona talking to Iago proving her unfaithfulness. Like pearls on a string of conceited emotions, he sews each persons emotion against the other until they are all clasped together in a cataclasmic situation where only Iago should win.

In the Act II Scene I, we find how Cassio tries to woo Othello’s trust back. This scene encompasses the deep regret Cassio has for his actions. We get to understand the heart and mind of Cassio and it makes us feel sorry for him. Iago tells him that he would send Desdemona to talk to him regards his demoted position and innocent Cassio says ‘ I never knew a Florentine… ‘(Shakespeare, 1622) Cassio is engulfed in a sea of misfortune without knowing it, when he succumbs to the conniving plan of Iago.

Iago sees fun in all of this and like a wizard creates spells of disaster for all who come in the way of his ultimate goal. Iago uses people and masterfully does away with them without them even knowing it. If Iago is compared to Brutus from the play Julius Shakespeare, then we will see that though they both decieve the ones who trust them, Brutus kills Caesar because he feared for Rome’s future whereas Iago only wants revenge that grew from jealousy. Cassio foils his own plans owing to his over-eager nature when he meets Emilia, Iago’s wife.

Emilia brings him the good news that Desdemona on learning that Cassio was demoted, has already spoken in high regrad of him to Othello and defended him. But the reason Othello is reluctant to repost him is because the whole of Cyprus knows what happened and it would not be politically correct for his reinstatement. Although, Othello was almost on his side, the folly and error of a desperate man is what is the outcome when he goes back down the path of Iago’s diabolic plan and asks for an audience with Desdemona.

All goes downhill for Cassio from here as this meeting would prove to be fatal to his life, thanks to the cruel Iago. These two acts are where the main plot of the play unfolds. All controversies and problems are introduced in these two acts which lays the foundation for the rest of the play. The master story teller Shakespeare interlaces a plot so thick that the reader remains engrossed and captivated until the last lines. Reference Othello by William Shakespeare, Web, May, 2013 http://www.william-shakespeare.

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