Othello by William Shakespeare takes place in Venice during the invasion of the island of Cyprus by the Turks. The protagonist of the story, Othello, is a newlywed, Moorish general with a very gullible nature. The antagonist of the story is Iago, an officer under Othello who wishes to be promoted to lieutenant, but the position was given to the young and attractive Cassio. Other major characters in the play are Desdemona, Othello’s wife who is accused of having an affair with Cassio.

In addition, there are Roderigo, Venetian who is deeply in love with Desdemona; and Emilia (Iago’s wife) who could have prevented the death of Desdemona. The tone of the story is tragic and serious. Meanwhile, there isn’t any point of view because this is a play and a play doesn’t normally have a narrator. Shakespeare lets the reader make up his/her own imagination with the characters’ words and behavior. Since Othello is the protagonist, he is explained in more detail.

Although Othello is a brave warrior, he is a jealous person; his jealousy also prevails over his good sense. The whole play depicts the fact that jealousy causes corruption. There are many conflicts found in Othello, and person vs. person is one of them. An example is when Iago seeks revenge against Othello and Cassio because of his anger and jealousy. Person vs. society appears when Desdemona’s father Brabantio, disapproves her marriage to Othello because he is several years older than Desdemona, from a different class, and a different race.

An internal conflict of person vs. imself is found when Othello is in a dilemma bout whether or not should he believe that Desdemona is being unfaithful to him. Othello loves and trusts Desdemona until his jealousy is aroused by the cruel manipulations of Iago. Iago’s intention was to persuade Othello to believe that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. As Iago succeeds in convincing Othello that Desdemona is guilty of adultery, it leads to the climax of the play. And so Othello must face emotions he can’t deal with. His jealousy drives him insane, and his judgment is replaced with anger and hate.

At this time, the eader notices that the death of Desdemona is inevitable. Othello smothers her, and he eventually kills himself when he knows that Iago falsely accused Desdemona. This also represents the tragedy of the play. A lesson that readers learn from the play is that jealousy causes corruption in many ways such as dishonesty which was portrayed by Iago. As for Othello, the tragedy would not have happened if it wasn’t for Iago who was jealous of Cassio for having the lieutenant’s job and of Othello for being a successful soldier.

Iago’s scheme caused many eaths. Iago is amoral. For example, even when the innocent Desdemona dies, he doesn’t have a sense of guilt; and even when he is about to die, he does not have thoughts of remorse. In addition, Othello also caused Desdemona’s death due to his jealousy and his impulsiveness. As Othello says, “I’ll see before I’ll doubt; when I doubt, prove; / And on the proof, there is no more but this, / Away at once with love or jealousy! ” Even in the end, Othello doesn’t know what was his actual motivation for killing the woman he loves.

The tragedy Othello written by William Shakespeare shows several types of Contrast. In this tragedy, each main character is contrasted with another character who is the complete opposite of them. Three specific contrasts shown in Othello are Iago and Cassio, Iago and Desdemona, and Iagos internal and external appearances. All three of these contrasts are perfectly derived to be complete The first contrast is Iago and Cassio. Iago, since the beginning of the play, was very angry at Othello for appointing A great arithmetician, one Michael

Cassio, a Florentine as his second in command instead of Iago himself (I. I. 20-21). Iago was obviously a selfish person because he only cared about himself and did not bother to realize why Cassio had been given a higher rank. Cassio on the other hand, was always there to help and serve Othello in any way. He was a generous person. For example, when Desdemona was supposed to sail to Cyprus to meet Othello, Cassio stayed behind with Desdemona and accompanied her to Cyprus to ake sure she got there safely.

Cassio did what any gentleman would have done. He was a loyal soldier and would have done anything for Othello. But Iago was an evil person with no remorse whatsoever for all of the conniving, devious acts he was to commit later on in the play. He was a deceitful person who was going to betray Othello, a person who relied greatly on him. But not only that, Iago was also going to destroy the lives of other innocent people. Iago was as cynical as the evil and should not have been trusted.

He used Others to further his own darkness and satisfy his thirst for evil (Kernan 84). Iago himself admitted to being a liar. In the beginning of the play, Iago stated I am not what I am (I. I. 71). By saying this, Iago was confessing that he was a liar and that he was conscious of everything he was doing and was about to do. The second contrast is Iago and Desdemona, and obviously, Iago already proved himself to be a dishonest person. So it is only logical that Iagos opposite in the play would be an honest person, which is Desdemona.

Desdemona was a person who was truthful, innocent, pure, and always Sought to serve and love others (Kernan 84). Throughout the play, Desdemona proclaimed the truth to Othello that she had not cheated on him. Even though Othello killed Desdemona, she was a person who always spoke the truth and died saying the truth. Iago however, was the exact opposite of Desdemona. He was an evil, malicious, unremorseful, lying, nd conniving man. He stood for all of the bad things, while Desdemona stood for all of the things that were good.

While Desdemona always thought of The best of everyone, Iago thought the worst in everyone and often used Imagery of animals and physical functions to express his opinion of mankind (Kernan 84). When Desdemona showed emotions and was idealistic about things, Iago was just plain cynical (Kernan 84). Desdemona was like a life force that thrived for order, growth, nd light in her community while Iago was the anti-life force that sought death and destruction for the world (Kernan 84).

Iago, the person who caused all of the chaos and misfortune in the tragedy, Othello, obviously had two sides to himself. As the next contrast will explain, Iagos internal and external appearances were both very deceiving. Iagos external appearance seemed to be just as honest as The true and loyal soldier Cassio (Kernan 82). But Iago managed to really fool everyone. No one suspected that Iago was going to double-cross any of them, but then again, why should they have suspected.

Iago seemed just as honest and loyal as Cassio, so really, there was no suspecting. The only person that might have had a hint would have been Othello. Since Othello had not given Iago the rank that he wanted, Othello should have suspected a little jealousy or anger. But since Othello was so gullible, he bought right into Iagos act. Beneath Iagos Exterior of the plain soldier, there was a orld of diabolism so intense that it defied rational explanation (Kernan 79).

Iagos internal side was as deceitful as the devil. He managed to fool everyone into thinking that he was an honest person and did not care if he ruined their lives as long as he got what he wanted. But his efforts proved to be worthless because in the end, Iago did not receive what he had sought out for throughout the entire In conclusion, the tragedy Othello is a play that was well written that shows how contrast should really be perceived.