OTHELLO

In Shakespeare’s play Othello, Othello was known as a strong black man who led Venice to many war victories. His trusting nature, his identity and his insecurity about marriage are some of the flaws that Othello possessed. And this contributed to his downfall.

Othello had a very trusting nature and Iago knew this about Othello so he used it to his advantage. When Othello first heard about Desdemona cheating on him with Cassio, he trusted Iago enough to find evidence and prove to him that this was so. Iago did indeed prove this to him and he believed it despite Emilia’s efforts to make him try and realize that Desdemona was innocent. Othello kept on believing and listening to all the garbage that Iago was feeding to his head that he finally decided to kill Desdemona all because he trusted Iago. Blinded by his trust for Iago, he could not for one second think that maybe he was lying. He thought Iago an honest man so he appointed him second in command to him not knowing that he was digging his own grave by putting his trust in him and also leading to his own downfall. His trusting nature was not the only thing that led to Othello’s downfall, so did his insecurities about marriage.

Othello was generally a war god and he was good at war, but hen the war ended he had nothing to do so he got married. At the beginning of the play Othello mentions that, had Desdemona not swept him off his feet he would have never gotten married. He married Desdemona because he had a lot of stories to tell and she listened to them. That shows that their marriage was not built on a strong foundation. To make matters worse they were of a different race. Because of their shaky foundation in marriage, it was easy for Iago to come in and destroy his marriage. That is why when Iago came to tell Othello about Desdemona’s affair he said, “And yet true nature heirs itself.” It made it much easier for Iago to feed false information into Othello’s head and he would believe it .Ofcoure when a castle is built on sand it will not stand a storm and that was Othello’s case. He was also always worried about how people would perceive of him since he got married. That is why he overreacted when Cassio got drunk and fired him. He wanted people to know that marriage had not changed him and that he still was the warrior, not Othello the husband. Another fatal flaw that led to Othello’s downfall was his identity.

            Identity meant everything to Othello. It was who he was .Othello’s identity was his job. That is why when there was no war Othello was not known. When Othello got married to Desdemona he had to fight to prove that he was not Othello the husband but Othello the warrior. But when he thought Desdemona was cheating on him he said, “Othello’s occupation gone.” Because at that time marriage was all he had, there was no more war. Othello  had nothing else to base his identity on but his job, and that was a mistake of his because if he had no job( warrior) that meant that he was completely nothing  and Iago worked his way around this and took away  h9is occupation. Another step that led to Othello’s downfall.

         Having one tragic flaw is bad enough, but being cursed with many , is worse. It is evident that Othello did not possess one but several flaws that led to his complete and totall downfall.