Sample Essays and Plans


Othello


upon him’. We are aware of Iago’s self-centred plan of vengeance, ‘I am not what I am’. He deceives everyone else. As a result, we are more informed about his hypocrisy and the tension is all the greater. We want to warn his victims.


3 Iago promises to use Desdemona’s decency to destroy his enemies and ‘make the net that shall enmesh them all’. But Desdemona has also practised deception. She hides her relationship with Othello from her father by eloping. Her intentions were probably good, she wished to spare her father anguish. But in doing so, she deceives herself. When Brabantio finds out, he warns the Moor, ‘She has deceived her father, and may thee’. Iago uses this later to discredit her with Othello and plant suspicion in his mind, ‘She did deceive her father, marrying you’. This creates unease in the audience. We wonder if Desdemona can be fully trusted. Later on, she lies to Othello when he asks for her handkerchief, telling him ‘I have it not about me’. She compounds the lie by declaring ‘It is not lost’ even though it is. Again, she is acting out of good intentions, wishing to spare her husband grief because he values the handkerchief so highly. Unlike the audience, she is not aware at this time of how


suspicious Othello has become or the full impact of her deceit.


4 This leads to the final dramatic scene where Desdemona tells another lie. Just before her unfortunate death. She seeks to pursue blame for her own murder. It was ‘Nobody; I myself’. This desperate effort to keep hurt from her guilty husband could result in sending her soul to ‘burning hell’. Desdemona practises deception. Both on others and self- deception in an effort to spare those she loves grief. The irony of this has a distressing effect and we sense the tension. Desdemona’s naivety prevents her from realising the terrible outcome. All will be revealed to rebound on her. No matter what she does to try to protect her husband. She will soon pay a terrible price.


5 It is only in the play’s last lines that the truth about ‘honest’ Iago is revealed by Emilia. She dramatically accuses her husband of a ‘wicked lie’ if he told Othello that Desdemona was ‘false’ with Cassio. But Iago excuses himself by saying that he just offered his opinion. If Othello chose to believe it, that was the Moor’s own fault. Othello acted out of his inherent insecurity, ‘what he found himself was apt and true’. From this point, however, Iago refuses to explain the true


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