The Dangers of Jealousy

900 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: In the play Othello, different meanings of jealousy

Jealousy is a powerful emotion, one that can damage the mind and demolish relationships. As soon as the seed of jealousy is planted, it will lead to harmful consequences. Jealousy will turn into anger, making the victim fixated with the idea. Many works of literature use the theme of jealousy to warn individuals about the dangers involved with jealousy. This is evident in Shakespeare’s Othello and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. Othello and Amir are corrupted by jealousy, causing them to ruin the lives of the people they love.
Othello and Amir are corrupted by the powerful emotion of jealousy. Othello’s jealousy against Desdemona stems from the manipulation put forth by Iago. Iago decides to play on Othello’s jealous nature, and constantly tells him that Desdemona is being unfaithful with Cassio. Othello endlessly denies his jealousy, but it is evident he is losing his mind as he watches Desdemona and Cassio carefully. He speaks to Iago saying, “I’ll see before I doubt, when I doubt prove. And on the proof, there is no more but this, away at once with love or jealousy” (3.3.290-293). “Othello believes Desdemona is unfaithful with only the insinuations by Iago, this proves that Othello is prone to jealousy.” Once Iago plants Desdemona’s handkerchief in Cassio’s room, Othello is given the proof he needs to fully believe that Desdemona has made him a cuckold. “I tremble at it, nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction, it is not words that shakes me thus” (4.1.46-48). Othello experiences jealousy so strong, that he experiences a seizure. This seizure is proof Othello is now overwhelmed with jealousy and he no longer can be certain that Desdemona is innocent.
Othello is manipulated int...

... middle of paper ...

... situation. Amir allows himself to be abused by the neighbourhood bullies who raped Hassan. Amir finally feels healed, he feels as if he received the punishment he deserves by inflicting pain on himself, similarly to Othello. Both Othello and Amir commit horrible crimes out of jealousy, which they later feel guilty for.
In Shakespeare’s Othello and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Othello and Amir are overcome with the feeling of jealousy towards the people they love. This causes them to commit crimes against the ones they are jealous of. When jealousy corrupts the mind, it results in the individual loosing their true nature. It almost always leads the individual to hurt the ones that they love the most. Almost always jealousy turns into guilt, which explains why jealousy is a dangerous emotion; it consumes the mind and always leads to devastating consequences.

Show More
Related

  • Iago Manipulation In Othello

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    It causes people to do terrible things because once it is on a person’s conscience, it stays for quite some time. Because of these effects, jealousy can impact some of the strongest people, such as Othello. The love between Desdemona and Othello was portrayed so elevated and pure and was filled with religious words and phrases that just added to the strength and sanctity of their love. Othello has such a strong mind, but jealousy caused by the manipulation of Iago, negatively impacts him. Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona is cheating on him with his friend Cassio.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Jealousy And Manipulation In Othello

    1211 Words  | 3 Pages

    The play, Othello is one of the most famous tragedies composed by William Shakespeare during the Renaissance period. It powerfully portrays a world where the acts of evil ultimately vanquishes fidelity, nobility and integrity. The central themes jealousy and manipulation embodies the foretold tragedies and the downfall tragedies of the characters due to one’s insecurities. Through the use of literary techniques and figurative language, Shakespeare has effectively explored the themes of jealousy and manipulation.

    Read More

  • Desdemona's Betrayal In Othello

    952 Words  | 2 Pages

    The more Othello realizes how much would value his future with Desdemona, the more betrayed he feels. Othello begins to think that his entire investment in Desdemona is for naught, transforming Othello’s passion into spite. Iago exploits the underside of deep devotion - jealously. The emotions Othello feels - attachment, jealously, and hate - drives him mad, obscuring the logic of the situation - that Iago is only spreading fantasized rumors about Cassio and Desdemona. Instead of confronting Cassio, Othello accepts Desdemona’s treason as truth. Iago may have mastered Othello’s emotions, but Othello allows his emotions to consume him. People need to confront their feelings and not lose track of logic. Otherwise, even something as sincere as Othello’s fondness for Desdemona can turn one into a

    Read More

  • Othello

    645 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Othello”, by William Shakespeare, is a story of jealousy’s potential to manipulate thoughts and eventually lead to ultimate demise. The key to extremely detrimental jealousy lies within one’s ability to recognize it or deny it. It seems that the important theme of “Othello” is that if jealousy is not recognized and immediately dealt with, it receives a head start to commence the process of rotting away all normal human reason. Othello’s speech in Act III scene iii beginning with line 178 is the first and most important indicator of the trouble ominously looming on Othello’s horizon. His immediate response to Iago’s accusations is that of total denial. By depriving himself of that initial venting process, Othello gives his jealousy the perfect culture on which his jealousy can turn cancerous and grow out of control. Othello does not spit out the seed that Iago has planted within himself soon enough and thus lets Iago water it with smooth speech until its roots spread and cannot be uprooted. The only way to appropriately illustrate this point is through an in depth analysis of specific text from the play.

    Read More

  • Destructiveness of Jealousy Depicted in Lord of the Flies and Woman Warrior

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    Within playwright William Shakespeare’s fantastic work The Merchant of Venice, the character Iago cries out, “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green ey’d monster” (Enotes). Jealousy is justly called a beast, and it is a hideous creature that is illuminated in William Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies, and by Woman Warrior, the memoir of Maxine Hong Kingston. Through the use of the literary elements of plots, characters, symbols, and additional plots, both pieces illustrate how, by torturing people and driving them to rash decisions, jealousy is the most destructive emotion.

    Read More

  • Iago’s Jealousy

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, good is often confronted by evil, in which almost every case is in the form of jealousy. Iago, the plays antagonist, is a very manipulative villain. Iago uses his own agony and distress brought upon him by his envy of others, to provoke the same agony within the characters in the play. Jealousy’s ability are shown to influence people to new ends and make all humanistic judgment disappear leaving that man a monster torn apart by envy. Jealousy’s true destructive wrath and the pure evil it brings out in people can be revealed through Iago’s actions throughout the tragedy Othello.

    Read More

  • Cause And Effect Of Jealousy In Othello

    1512 Words  | 4 Pages

    Have you ever been jealous of someone due to some reason? One can understand how jealousy can affect him or her to do horrible things. Jealousy causes people to perform stupid actions that they would not have done if they were not jealous of something or someone. The protagonist and the antagonist are mostly driven by love and filled with the feeling of jealousy. Due to the feeling of jealousy felt by the antagonist, Iago about not getting the job he wanted, he makes a plan to somehow destroy Othello’s love for Desdemona. As the play progresses, the protagonist, Othello begins to appear more like Iago, as his jealousy destroys his wife and consumes his life. Therefore, jealousy is personified as a “green eyed monster” through the combination of Othello’s credulous nature and Iago’s malicious villainy. It is the reason for the change in Iago’s and Othello’s behavior, impacts the insecurity

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Othello And Rupert Brooke's Jealousy

    1831 Words  | 4 Pages

    Heartbreak— the foreboding word that many people fear. Whether it is a small whisper of disappointment or the more common, excruciating ordeal associated with a lost or ‘stolen’ love; like many situations, every individual has a different coping mechanism. Yes, the conventional indulging of twenty-something ice cream buckets does apply. However, in the midst or aftermath of a heartbreak, an individual’s pain and sorrow often manifest into a series of alternative emotions such as anger, but more specifically— jealousy. Likewise, in Rupert Brooke’s 'Jealousy' and the excerpt from William Shakespeare’s Othello (III.iii.255-275), both of the speakers’ expression of betrayal by their ex-lovers is built upon a foundation of jealousy. Brooke’s poem

    Read More

  • Iago's Jealousy Character Analysis

    487 Words  | 1 Pages

    In William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Othello, the power of jealousy rips relationships apart and destroys the peace amongst a once pleasant society. The principle character for the aggravation of the other characters is Iago. Iago is angry at Othello for not appointing him as his lieutenant and refuses to let it go. For selfish reasons, Iago plots an evil schemes of revenge towards Othello by making him, and everyone necessary to bring Othello down.

    Read More

  • Othello's Tragic Flaw

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    Of Shakespeare’s five greatest tragedies, Othello is by far the most passionate and gripping. It is a tale of love, deception, evil, honesty, and virtue. Othello himself is set apart from other Shakespearean tragic heroes by the absolute feeling of affection the audience feels for him even unto the very end of the play. Any discerning reader painfully recognizes the virtue and goodness of Othello throughout the entire play, in contrast to the general degeneration of character so typical of a tragic hero. It is this complete pity that makes the death of Othello so tragic as the audience lends their full hopeful support until the inevitable and unavoidable fall. The evil side of Othello’s tragic flaw came from without, in the form of Iago. The internal flaw exists only in his heartrendingly unshakable goodness and honor.

    Read More

  • How Does Jealousy Affect Relationships In Othello

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jealousy can sometimes be an inevitable feeling to have towards other people in relationships or even in friendships, and that feeling can negatively affect the bonds with these certain people. One of the main themes in Shakespeare’s Othello, was how friendships and marriages can be ruined all because of one person’s jealousy, which can ring true in real life.

    Read More

  • Humanity and Reason in Othello

    1784 Words  | 4 Pages

    In his sonnet, Shakespeare laments that even when we know that lust is dangerously irrational, most people cannot resist falling under its spell. Othello finds the same to be true about jealousy.... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

  • Gullible Fool

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jealousy is an omnipresent emotion. It can lead to people committing crazy acts. In Othello, the play by William Shakespeare, the protagonist ends up killing his wife because he suspects her of infidelity. While this is a heinous crime, Othello was simply a pawn in a larger plan. Therefore, he should be forgiven. Othello is a gullible fool.

    Read More

  • Jealousy, Love and Betrayal in Othello by William Shakespeare

    1748 Words  | 4 Pages

    The role of jealousy, love and betrayal play a major role in The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. The entire play is based on the human interactions of the characters as related to Othello and Desdemona. The characters’ personalities, their social status, and their relationships to each other control the story line and their fate in the play. Othello is portrayed early in the play as an outsider with animalistic characteristics by Iago and Roderigo because of jealousy. “Your heart is burst; and have lost half of your soul/Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/Is tupping your white ewe”.(531) Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, accuses Othello of using witch craft on his daughter. “If she in chains of magic were not bound/ Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy/ So opposite to marriage that she shunned…” (535) This point is important because Othello must defend himself not only to Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, but to the entire Venetian Senate. “And till she come, as truly as to heaven,/ I do confess the vices of my blood./ So justly to your grave ears I’ll present/ How I did thrive in this fair lady’s love, / And she in mine.” (539) Othello proves himself to be an intellectual hero early in the play. He has worked hard to gain respectability and power, but because he has a different background, is from another country, is dark-skinned and is older than Desdemona, he becomes jealous very quickly of Cassio. Cassio is from the same social class, is compatible with Desdemona and is a young handsome man. Iago has also convinced Cassio to seek favor with Desdemo...

    Read More

  • Jealousy In Othello Analysis

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jealousy, whatever it may be driven by, can produce many different actions in a person depending on their desires. Othello craftly examines a few examples of these with highly contrasting characters driven by vastly different things. The different manifestations of jealousy in said characters can be analysed through the characters of Roderigo, Othello, and Iago, while also proving how jealousy can sometimes be a front for more cynister feelings.

    Read More

More about The Dangers of Jealousy

Open Document