5 Page Othello Research Paper

“now you see it…now you don’t” A couple of months ago my parents hired a magician for my little brother’s birthday party. Ivan the Incredible specialized in optical illusions with cards and coin tricks, which was a little hard for the group of eight year olds to grasp but most entertaining for myself and several adults. When I began reading Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago’s antics reminded me of Ivan the Incredible and how someone can trick you to believe something is true when it really isn’t. Appearance versus reality plays a huge role in Othello, and constantly surfaces as a main theme in Iago’s magnificent ability and experience in deceiving fellow characters causing an extra twist to the plot. Iago is the main manipulator of reality to change the appearance of a situation into something that benefits him. This is seen when Iago tricks Othello into believing Cassio and Othello’s wife, Desdemona are having an affair. Iago tricks Roderigo into killing Casio through his manipulation of reality. Also, Iago thickens the lie by planting a gift from Othello to Desdemona in Cassio’s house and also pretends to have a conversation about Desdemona with Cassio while Othello look on but cannot hear. Which of course, are all actions needed to be taken for his master plan to work out correctly. Shakespeare’s play, Othello tells the audience the story of a very successful General of Venice, Othello and how has was deceived by someone he believe to be an honest man, Iago, his ensign. The plot speeds up quickly Othello promotes Cassio instead of Iago. Iago vows revenge and slowly convinces Othello of Desdemona’s infidelity with Cassio, the lieutenant to whom Othello had given the position Iago had sought. Iago also gets Roderigo to help him in his evil plan by telling him that he can have Desdemona if he helps get rid of Cassio. Oblivious to Iago’s master plan Othello is ultimately a victim of his own naïveté. It all starts when Iago plants a little seed of suspicion into