Themes of Jealousy in Othello

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How does Shakespeare present the theme of jealousy in Othello? Firstly, jealousy is the main theme in the play. It basically takes over the character's lives causing them to do stupid things. For example, at the beginning of the play, Roderigo is already jealous of Othello as Othello has Desdemona and he does not. Another example of jealousy is at the end of the play where Othello thinks that Desdemona has been unfaithful towards him with Casio. The character Iago is mischievous and evil as he causes jealousy between many of the characters such as Othello and Desdemona. Iago is also jealous. He is jealous of Othello because Othello has a higher status than him, As it was a time where Racism was quite big, Iago could feel that Othello does not feel Othello deserves his status. The racism is shown a lot in the play when Iago refers to Othello as 'the moor' an example of this is in act one scene one line 40. This shows how he doesn’t like him because of his ethnicity and is jealous that someone like Othello has a higher status than himself. Another sign of Iago's jealousy is shown when he is talking about how he doesn’t want to work for Othello, Act one scene one line 35, 'Tis the curse of service…' this shows how he does not want to work for Othello and dislikes it. He could be jealous here as he may want to be in Othello's position and believes that someone like himself shouldn’t be working for Othello. In the same paragraph he is saying how he is being forced/ transformed to love Othello, 'I in any just term am affined to love the Moor.' Iago attempts to make Brabantio jealous of Othello aswell, this is shown in act one scene one line 12. It is shown when Iago is telling Brabantio of Othello's secret marriage to Desdemona, '…you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse.' This shows that Iago does not like Othello as he is calling him a 'Barbary
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