Othello Essay Outline

Othello Essay Outline

Thesis: Desdemona and Iago display characteristics that completely contrasts the other’s, which serves to heighten the tragedy of Othello’s downfall. 

Desdemona is a character comprised of goodness, loyalty, and forgiveness, which emphasizes the corruption of Othello by Iago when Othello kills Desdemona. 

• She sees beyond Othello’s skin and treats him the same as if he was white.
• “Therefore be merry, Cassio,/ For thy solicitor shall rather die/ Than give thy cause away” (III. iii. 24-6). She is willing to help out a friend in need and will do whatever it takes to do so.
• “’Tis as i should entreat you wear your gloves,/ Or feed on nourishing dishes, or keep you warm,/ Or sue to you to do a peculiar profit/ To your own person” (III. iii. 76-9). she wants Othello to forgive Cassio because it is beneficial to Othello himself, and as a wife she feels that it is her duty to convince her husband to do things he may not want to do even though they are beneficial to him. 
• Othello hits her, but she “turns the other cheek”  instead of backlashing against him, which is the Christian thing to do.
• “Sing all a green willow must be my garland./ Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve” (IV. iii. 47-8). When Desdemona sings a song about the sorrows a false love, she misremembers a line and sings about forgiving her husband.
• “Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away/ Richer than all his tribe” (V. ii. 346-7). Othello killed Desdemona, not realizing she was virtuous, and compares this to Judas, the only Judean disciple, betraying Jesus, meaning Othello thinks of Desdemona as someone as wholesome as Jesus.

Iago is a character of evil, cruelty, and manipulation, which emphasizes the tragicness of the fate that befalls the virtuous characters.

• “I have ’t! It is engendered! Hell and night/ Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light” (I. iii. 395-6). Iago’s plan for everyone’s downfall will be brought forth through the symbolic union of Hell and night. 
• “Come, come; good wine is a good, familiar creature, if/ it be well used” II. iii. 293-4). After Cassio scorns alcohol because its effect on him led to his fall out with Othello, Iago, who urged Cassio to drink in the first place, calls wine a familiar. The context of the sentence implies that the wine is kindred and harmless, however a familiar can also mean a spirit or demon that serves a higher power. In this case, the wine, which is the familiar, has served Iago, the devil, because he used it to disgrace Cassio. 
• “How am I then the villain/ To counsel Cassio to this parallel course,/ Directly to his good? Divinity of Hell!” (II. iii. 330-3). Iago gives a speech asking how he is a villain when everything he plans is not exactly evil, just has evil intentions. He then declares that he is not merely a villain; he is the devil. At the same time, he explains how his target has expanded from merely Cassio to Othello and Desdemona as well. 
• “By Heaven, thous echo’s me/ As if there were some monster in thy thought/ Too hideous to be shown. Thou dost mean something” (III. iii. 109-11). Iago plants the thought of an affair between Cassio and Desdemona in Othello’s mind by making seemingly innocent comments and questions, which makes Othello more open to observing an affair. 
• “Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on?/ Behold her topped?” (III. iii. 399-400)
• “Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne/ To tyrannous hate!” (III. iii. 452-3). Iago has manipulated Othello to the point where he no longer loves Desdemona or Cassio and instead plans their deaths. 
• “O Spartan dog,/ More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea,/ Look on the tragic loading of this bed./ This is thy work” (V. ii. 360-3). Iago is responsible for all the deaths in the play, either because he killed them himself or he manipulated them, leading to their deaths.