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  • Essay / Portrayal of the Theme of Jealousy in Othello by William Shakespeare

    Othello, a play created in 1604, was written by William Shakespeare. It is a tragedy in which jealousy is the major theme throughout all the acts. Shakespeare represents Othello's social group of married women as inherently promiscuous and unfaithful. The author achieves this representation by creating a play in which Venetian men act out their distrust of married women, in which married women are assumed to be the ones responsible for all the misery, and in which married women begin to question their own behavior. The reason why Shakespeare depicts married women in this way is to create a way for Othello to become jealous. The author thus achieves his objective of addressing the theme of jealousy and the destructive powers that it entails and which constitute a danger for the institution of marriage. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Shakespeare's first way of representing married women as inherently promiscuous and unfaithful is to present Othello's Venetian men who act out of their distrust of married women. Halfway through Othello, Iago remarks the following: “Trifles as light as air, are to the jealous strong confirmations, like proofs of holy writ. It might do something. Iago then realizes that Othello only needs a simple suspicion to fuel his jealousy. The metaphor “Trifles as light as air” is used to refer to the handkerchief. Even if it is only “light as air”, it will have significant consequences. This will act "as proof of holy writ" because it will be taken as strong proof to Othello that Desdemona is cheating. In Shakespeare's Othello, the concept of women being property is also used to show that men act based on their distrust. Shakespeare's comedy The Merchant of Venice shows a similar view that women are someone's property; “This house, these servants and myself. Are yours, my lord. I give them with this ring.” In this play, a woman named Portia tells her future husband that she, as property, will be transferred from her father to her husband. Both Othello and The Merchant of Venice demonstrate that men want women to be their property and keep them because they distrust their wives. Othello's conclusions about the handkerchief and the woman as property are examples of Venetian men acting on their distrust of married women and contributing to the portrayal of women as inherently promiscuous and unfaithful. presented as inherently promiscuous and unfaithful is to use the assumption that married women are supposedly the ones responsible for all the misery. In the third act, Emilia reflects on the theft of the handkerchief and says: “I'm glad I found this napkin. It was his first memory of the Moor. My capricious husband has wooed me a hundred times to steal from him. This stream of consciousness gives the reader insight into how Iago used Emilia's desire to steal the handkerchief to please her husband: "I only please his fantasy." » Iago and Othello are the true source of all the miseries fueled by their jealousy. However, both men blame women for the problems when they cannot be held responsible. In the final scene, Emilia says that husbands are usually responsible when their wives cheat on them: “The evils we do, their evils teach us. " Both.