English

A comparative exploration of the ways Shakespeare, Ian McEwan and F. Scott Fitzgerald present the destructive nature of jealousy in men throughout ‘Othello’, ‘Enduring Love’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’.

Literature through the ages has presented love in many different forms; love can be seen as a source for a multitude of emotions and motivations. It is not uncommon in literature to show how jealousy can ultimately be destructive, throughout ‘Othello’, ‘Enduring Love’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ the destructive nature of love in men is evident. Jealousy is portrayed as a motivation for the extreme emotions of characters and destructive nature within relationships.

Throughout Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, jealousy is apparent; it is mainly portrayed through the two main characters; Iago and Othello. It utterly corrupts their lives because it causes Iago to show his true self, which in turn triggers Othello to undergo an absolute conversion that destroys the lives of their friends. In the Elizabethan era most daughters were expected to be subordinate gentle and obedient towards their parents, their father in particular as he was the head of the household. Society was patriarchal; women were regarded as the ‘weaker sex’, both physically and mentally. The consequences of not committing to daughterly duties were serious, involving being disowned and deprived of a home. We can see evidence of this in ‘Othello’, where Desdemona goes against her father and marries a Moor. For a woman of her time, this was a very bold move as this was not socially acceptable or expected of a woman of her social class. Daughters were financially dependent on their fathers until passed over to their husbands, so when Desdemona married Othello, she was to fulfill h...

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...s that money isn’t enough to cross the social divide between himself and Daisy. Similarly Shakespeare’s Othello illustrates how jealousy can affect the way certain characters can react to situations throughout the play. When Desdemona goes against her father to marry a ‘moor’ she becomes Othellos possession, so when he believes Cassio has ‘Lie with her? Lie on her?’ He becomes very jealous and obsessed with the supposed ‘fulsome’ affair that he believes he must ‘let her rot and perish, and be damned tonight’. Contrastingly, McEwan’s Enduring Love illustrates how Jed is so desperate to be the subject of Joes love and affection that he becomes excessively jealous of the love he has for Clarissa, Jed confessed how, ‘I planned it, I paid for it. If you wouldn’t return my love, I thought id rather have you dead. It was insanity, Joe. I want you to forgive me.’