William Shakespeare s Othello - Appearance And Reality

Never looking beyond what eyes see, humans often trust those who may seem honest and trustworthy. In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, the theme of appearance and reality is central. The relationship between Othello, the protagonist, and Iago, the antagonist, is deceitful, malicious, and troublesome. Iago’s envy of others drives him to destroy the lives of multiple characters by pretending to be their ally. By trusting Iago, Othello s confidence is broken because he realizes he could no longer distinguish reality from lies. At the beginning of the play the protagonist, Othello, is introduce to the readers as a man who differ from other characters because his skin color and his origin. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a†¦show more content†¦Iago was able to use his intellectual and persuasive capacity to make people, such as Roderigo and Cassio, help in his plan of playing with Othello’s mind. Othello was introduced as being a good character but with a terrible tragic flaw; he was known for trusting too much. â€Å"The flaws in Othello’s character worsen his tendency of later on in the play believing what he hears over what he knows† (Mussari par. 2). He decides to trust Iago and believe that his wife, Desdemona, is being unfaithful over his actual knowledge about the event. Iago manipulates Othello by metaphorically poisoning his ear into believing that his wife is having an affair with Cassio. The poison, made of built events and lies, intoxicates Othello’s body and produces in him an effect that does not let him think rationally. One toxic lie that Iago tells Othello is that Cassio has confessed to sleeping with Desdemona, telling that Cassio was â€Å"with her, on her, what you will† (IV, i, 2451). The theme appearance versus reality is noticeable in this event because Othello is making conclusions by just listening to what Iago tells him. Othello relies on appearances producing in him the incapability of distinguish how things look on the surface as opposed to the truth of the matter (Tweg par. 2). An example of the theme of appearance versus reality is when Othello was told by Iago to hide and listen to a