Power in Othello and the Hunger Games

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How do your prescribed text and other related texts of your own choosing explore the drive for and process of power?

The drive for and process of power is a present theme in both Othello and the Hunger Games. It is explored through describing how the antagonists, Iago in Othello and the Capitol in The Hunger Games, go through the process of power, which is the gaining, maintaining and application of power. Power is the influencing of the behavior of others in accordance with their own intentions.

Iago and the Capitol gain their power in a similar way in the sense that they divide the people they are trying to control, making it easier for them to exploit the others. Although they also differ; the Capitol also uses brute strength and flaunts their power in front of their subjects, whereas Iago is more secretive about the power that he has.
Before any character begins to gain power, they must first have a reason for doing so, so that they can justify to themselves why they are doing what they are doing. Iago is the puppet master of all the events that take place in Othello; he manipulates Othello into thinking that his wife Desdemona is cheating on him with Othello’s friend Michael Cassio and leads Roderigo to believe that he is assisting him in his attempt at winning Desdemona back from Othello. He wants to destroy Othello for many reasons; envy and revenge are some of the more prominent ones, but the most obvious one is his want for status and the satisfaction of his ego after Othello promoted Cassio instead of him. It can also be said that Iago’s want for power stems from his character which is inherently evil because although he would get some personal gain, he talks about hurting Othello just for fun,“Let us be conjunctive against him. If thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, me a sport.”(Act 1, Scene 3). Iago gains his influence

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