There is no doubt that Othello is a tragedy. With several deaths, an undeniably evil villain, and clashing characters it certainly fulfills the genre’s requirements. Othello is about dishonesty. Iago, the ultimate villain, is a liar. However, Othello is also about honesty. Desdemona is honest, but Othello believes that she is not. Iago is not honest, but Othello believes that he is. Amidst the confusion, Shakespeare delivers a powerful message. In Othello, William Shakespeare demonstrates the theme of misplaced trust and all of the consequences associated with it.
In the introduction of this theme, Shakespeare shows the audience the play’s two villains. Though it clear who the more intelligent and the more conniving of the two is, they are still equal partners in some respects. When we meet, Roderigo and Iago, we see a display of misplaced trust. Iago reveals his first plot in telling Roderigo why he pretends to be loyal to “the Moor”. “In following him I follow but myself. Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty. But seeming so for my own peculiar end” (Act I Scene I Line 58-60). Therefore, before the audience meets Othello or they even have a name for him, we already know he has misplaced his trust in Iago. We do not yet know whether we should have sympathy for Othello’s misplaced trust because we have not been introduced to him. We do know, however, that Iago, from his very own words, is not trustworthy. “I am not what I am” (Act 1 Scene 1 Line 65) opens up the entire play’s focus on deception and therefore misplaced trust. Shakespeare defines misplaced trust in a spiritual manner. Iago is Shakespeare’s depiction of the ultimate evil. He truly takes on Satan’s name of “master of lies.” However, Iago’s plots would not have taken their inevitable turns had it not been for the misplaced trust of the other characters. As the audience, we have no reason to believe Iago has ever shown true disloyalty he has towards Othello or any of the other characters. This is shown in the constant use of “Honest Iago” in describing him. Othello, more than any other character, remarks on Iago as “a man of honesty and trust” (Act 1 Scene 3 Line 283). The result of the characters’ blind trust in Iago is their own demise.
Iago appears to be loyal and trustworthy, but is, in fact, completely false. The Elizabethans would have perhaps gathered from this the Biblical message of the Devil’s ability “to take a pleasing shape”. This point along with the display of the “angelic” Desdemona acting as a marital martyr would not be lost on Shakespeare’s original audiences. Shakespeare’s messages of trust vs. mistrust and honesty vs. falseness would clearly leave their mark in the audiences’ minds in the final scenes of Othello.
The theme of misplaces trust is shown in each of the main characters. Brabanzio, Desdemona’s father, shows a different type of misplaced trust than the other characters. He has misplaced his trust in the stereotypes about Othello’s people. These stereotypes are no doubt shared by Brabanzio’s fellow Venetians. When Roderigo and Iago “warn” him of the marriage of Othello and Desdemona he says “this accident is not unlike my dream” (Act 1 Scene 1 Line 142). Later, he confesses his racial beliefs in accusations of how Othello must have one Desdemona; “For I’ll refer me to all things of sense, if she in chains of magic were not bound” (Act 1 Scene 2 Line 65-66). He cannot believe there is any other way possible for his daughter to have fallen in love with Othello, other than with the use of trickery through magic.
In his own mind at least, Brabanzio believes he has misplaced his trust in Desdemona. As the audience, we do not know if what her father says of her feelings of marriage are true feelings or his mistaken perceptions. Brabanzio says Desdemona was “. . .so opposite to marriage that she shunned the wealthy curled darlings of our nation” (Act 1 Scene 2 Line 68-69). This could have been Brabanzio’s belief of his daughter’s feelings or it could have been her feelings prior to falling in love with Othello. Perhaps Shakespeare brought this secondary display of the theme to contrast the more devastating results of misplaced trust in people that we see later.
One could argue that if Iago is the epitome of evil and Desdemona is the epitome of good, Roderigo is surely the epitome of naivete. Shakespeare shows the most basic level of misplaced trust in the character of Roderigo. Roderigo’s first words are that Iago “. . .hast had my purse as if the strings were [Iago’s]. . .” (Act 1 Scene 1 Line 2-3). Roderigo is paying Iago for a reason of which we do not yet know. Iago tells him “go make money” (Act 1 Scene 3 Line 334) to which Roderigo’s reply is “I’ll sell all my land.” (Act 1 Scene 3 Line 364). Later, when we know the type of person Iago is, we realize just how foolish Roderigo has been. Roderigo is in love with Desdemona, at least he thinks he is, and Iago has promised to literally “deliver her upon payment.” He tells Roderigo in an almost subliminal way, repeatedly, to “put money in thy purse” and to “fill they purse with money” (Act 1 Scene 3 Line 335-340). While he says this, he also speaks of Desdemona and how “she must change for youth” (Act 1 Scene 3 Line 341). Iago tries to convince the foolish Roderigo that Desdemona will eventually become Roderigo’s wife, when she realizes the error in choosing the older Othello.
Although he is foolish, Roderigo is not completely without backbone. Roderigo does confront Iago; “Every day thou daff’st me with some device, Iago, and rather, as it seems to me now, keep’st from me all conveniency than suppliest me with the least advantage of hope. I will no longer endure it. . .” (Act 4 Scene 2 Line 180-183). However, when Iago tells him how to deal with Cassio, by “knocking out his brains” (Act 4 Scene 2 Line 230), Rodergio once again acquiesces. Roderigo does not know who Iago truly is until he is dying at the very hands of Iago, “O damned Iago! O inhuman dog!” (Act 5 Scene 1 Line 64). In letters found and in his last words off stage to Cassio, Roderigo tells the truth that “Iago hurt him, Iago set him on” (Act 5 Scene 2 Line 337-338) but it is, of course, too late.
Shakespeare gives us a small tragedy of Roderigo, within the tragedy of Othello. It is small because unlike Othello, Roderigo’s misplaced trust lay more at fault with Roderigo himself. Othello is experienced in the life of a military leader and of a government loyal, but love and friendship are seemingly distant concepts to him. When Brabanzio challenges Othello’s trust in Desdemona, Othello says “my life upon her faith” (Act 1 Scene 3 Line 294). This statement becomes both the ammunition Iago needs and the foreshadowing of what Shakespeare focuses on. He trust Iago, who has never given Othello reason not to trust him, and calls him in many different ways “A man [who] is of honesty and trust” (Act 1 Scene 3 Line 283). Othello believes a military officer over his own wife. He is inexperienced in love and family loyalty, and this inexperience becomes both his and Desdemona’s downfall.
Amidst the huge contrasts of the simple, naïve Roderigo and the complex, inexperienced Othello, we have the other victims of misplaced trust; Emilia, Desdemona, and Cassio. They all misplace their trust in Iago, of course, but in several different ways. Emilia is Iago’s unhappy wife. When Desdemona questions her of adulterous women who “do abuse their husbands in such gross kind” (Act 4 Scene 3 Line 60-61), Emilia seems to refer to herself in her reply. She says “then let them use us as well, else let hem know the ills we do, their ills instruct us so” (Act 4 Scene 3 Line 100-101). Although we do not know for a fact that Emilia was unfaithful to Iago, she clearly excuses the infidelity of other women.
Emilia is the finder of the handkerchief that Desdemona innocently drops. Emilia gives the handkerchief, which is the token of purity and therefore honesty, to Iago. It is the first gift Othello ever gave Desdemona. The strawberries on the white cloth were said to have represented her chastity before marriage. Therefore it represented her fidelity and in Othello’s mind, her infidelity.
Upon finding the handkerchief, Emilia says “What he will do with it, Heaven knows, not I. I nothing, but to please his fantasy” (Act 3 Scene 3 Line 301-303). Emilia is telling the truth; she has no evil intention in giving the handkerchief to Iago. She wants to please her husband, the man she trusts. When in the final scenes, Emilia learns what Iago has done with the handkerchief, she tells what she has done. It costs Emilia her life, but she has done her job of confessing her truth; “So come my soul to bliss as I speak true. So, speaking as I think, alas, I die” (Act 5 Scene 2 Line 257-258). Emilia has misplaced her trust in her husband, whom she had wanted to please, but by confessing before her death, she has repented for taking the handkerchief.
“. . .Thou hast killed the sweetest innocent that e’er did lift up eye” (Act 5 Scene 2 Line 206-207). These are Emilia’s words after the murder of Desdemona. Desdemona is the truth and purity amongst all of the dishonesty. Desdemona’s purity prevents her from even telling Iago that Othello has called her a whore. She must explain it by saying “such as she said my lord did say I was” (Act 4 Scene 2 Line 123). She, like the others, believes Iago’s lies. “Honest Iago” is her friend and when Othello acts strangely she naturally goes to Iago for assistance. “What shall I do to win my lord again? Good friend, go to him, for by this light of heaven, I know not how I lost him (Act 4 Scene 2 Line 152-154).
Desdemona never gives Othello cause to believe her disloyalty. Othello simply uses the cause he thinks he sees, due to Iago’s influence, to condemn her. Even as she lies dying, she cannot speak ill of her husband. When Emilia asks who has killed her, her reply is “Nobody, I myself. Farewell. Commend me to my good lord.” (Act 5 Scene 2 Line 133). She asks Emilia to “fix things” with Othello and Emilia does just that with her confession. Desdemona perhaps misplaces her trust in Othello, as well. She believes his love is strong and expects him to confide in her by asking, “Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?” (Act 4 Scene 2 Line 72) He does not go to her about the alleged adultery, merely with accusations. He does not have the faith in her that he should have. This is again due to his inexperience with things outside of military and government, especially love. She dies a “guiltless death” (Act 5 Scene 2 Line 131) just as she claims she does.
Cassio, as the Lord Governor, must deliver Iago’s punishment, “the time, the place, the torture” (Act 5 Scene 2 Line 379). This is fitting because Cassio is the only surviving victim of Iago’s lies. He was a true friend to Othello, but Iago portrayed him as the betrayer of Othello’s friendship – the man with whom Desdemona was believed to be unfaithful. There are two major consequences of misplaced trust in Othello. One of these consequences is influence. Cassio, who knows he has “very poor and unhappy brains for drinking” (Act 2 Scene 3 Line 29-30) drinks because Iago is his friend and he trusts that Iago will not let him drink too much. Othello is influenced in both his language and his attitude. He becomes angry easily when Iago begins to tell him of Desdemona’s infidelity. He strikes her in public in the first scene of Act 4. These are not the actions of the poetically calm Othello who says “Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them” (Act 1 Scene 2 Line 60) when he is physically threatened. Othello forsakes love by saying “all my fond love thus do I blow to heaven – ’tis gone” (Act 3 Scene 3 Line 450). However, before Iago’s accusations, Othello is willing to risk the consequences of his love for Desdemona; “perdition catch my soul but I do love thee” (Act 3 Scene 3 Line 91-92). All of these changes in Cassio and Othello are caused by their misplaced trust and the influences it causes. Another result of misplaced trust is mistaken identity. Desdemona’s and Iago’s true natures are reversed in Othello’s mind. What he calls Desdemona, “Devil!” (Act 4 Scene 1 Line 235), actually describes Iago.
It is a human flaw to trust the wrong person. Whether you argue we are innately good or evil, there must be an agreement that we are to give the other person our trust until we have reason to doubt them. Othello’s flaw in this human aspect of the heart is that he trusts Iago’s use of false “reasons” to doubt Desdemona. Iago gives him no obvious reason to doubt his own words but Desdemona gives him no true reason to doubt hers as well. Othello only thinks she is giving him reason to doubt her. Because Iago is so wicked, he uses the innocent actions of Desdemona, her desire for Cassio’s position to be reinstated and her misplacing of the handkerchief, to “prove” his accusations.
One could sit back while watching Othello and become so frustrated with him. We could pass judgment and say, “How can he believe Iago?” The truth is, we’ve all been victims of misplaced trust. Shakespeare knew that and he knew it would be a point of relation for his audiences. It is the “snowballing” of the consequences in this misplaced trust that is so tragic in Othello. Evil wins over good because evil appears to be good. Shakespeare is not ambiguous in his message. He clearly demonstrates the consequences of misplaced trust. The ambiguity of the issues lies in the human need to know how to trust both completely and correctly. This is a question Shakespeare’s own flaw prevented him from addressing – his own humanity.
Source:
Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice.” The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Edition. Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, and Katherine Eisaman Maus, eds. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997 (2091-2174).
