The Jealous and Selfish Characters of Shakespeare's Othello

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The Jealous and Selfish Characters of Othello

In the play Othello, there are many jealous and selfish characters. Each of the characters at one point or another let their jealousy take over. It seems like they all have these plots and plans on how to hurt another character in the play either physically or emotionally, as an act of selfishness, so that they can feel better about themselves. One main character who seems extremely jealous in this play is Iago. Infact, probably the most jealous. Many bad things happen because of Iago. The first bad thing that Iago did, was tell Barbantio (Desdamona's father) that Desdemona has married Othello, the Moore. Iago was mad at Othello, because Cassio had made Othello a higher position and not Iago. Iago thought that he was the one who qualified for the position as general, not Othello. Iago was jealous because of this, so he decided to tell Barbantio about Desdemona and Othello. This was bad, because Barbantio did not know yet, and something like that should have been said by his own daughter, not someone who was not part of the family. The way Iago went about telling him was also bad. He called to his house in the middle of the night. He yelled it to Barbantio from downstairs into his window in a rude manner. " quote from Othello here." He wanted Barbantio to be upset about what had happened, and most of all, he wanted Barbantio to be mad at Othello and do something bad to him. This was an act of selfishness on Iago's side. Iago's main reason for doing all this, was not to inform Barbantio, but to make everyone dislike Othello so that he could become general. Roderigo also helped out with telling Barbantio about Othello and Desdamona's eloping. The reason Roderigo did this, was not to let Barbantio know for his purposes, but merely for his own selfish reasons. Just as Iago did. Roderigo was in love with Desdemona and wanted to marry her. When he found out that Othello had already married her, he wanted to get rid of him so that he would still have a chance with her. I think that Roderigo may have known that he did not have a chance with Desdemona and that she really did love Othello, and that made him very jealous. He did not like Othello because of this, and that's why he wanted to destroy his reputation.

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