Judes Charles

Final essay English

12-17-20

Manipulation is is defined as the “aim to change the behavior or perception of others through indirect deceptive or underhand tactics” Othello by William Shakespeare 1604 is a play about a man named Othello and I will use (Othello)1995 a more modern version that was made into a movie.

Othello the original play by Shakespeare is a well-structured play about a moor in the city of Venice in 1604 named Othello, he was different compared to the other people in the story he was he was a warrior a leader, and a strong leader. His strength and intelligence could not protect him from the manipulative games of Iago who was Othello the antagonist in this play because Iago managed to manipulate everyone leading to the death of many of them while he survives which I would say he didn’t deserve but this is from my point of view because some people might think that him living in prison with all those death he caused would be a better punishment for his actions.

In the original Othello 1604 virtue is one of the common ethics, in the Iago he was true to his virtue ethics until the end, throughout the story he was manipulating everyone sometimes for money and sometimes we wouldn’t know why and one thing about him is that he would always get the last words he would always win because he sets up everything to end up on his favor, he would even kill people in order to keep his plans going that something you have your pride into in order to not care about the well-being of other peoples but that was him though.

In the story Othello had a lot of women and they played different roles and they were as important as the men in the story but I feel like the women’s could’ve been treated better especially Othello wife Desdemona because even when she tried to apologize for something she didn’t do Othello did not believe her, she loved Othello even though all that he was telling her which made her feel bad. It also showed that how much impact love can have on someone because Othello loved Desdemona and he loved her some much that he was blind to the manipulation of someone who wanted to destroy his love life  “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, And I loved her that she did pity them” based on this you can tell that she appreciated Othello very much and she wouldn’t try to hurt him in any way. even though Roderigo was paying Iago at the moment you could tell that he wasn’t working for Roderigo he was working to accomplish his goal which was unknown. And this is where the virtue ethics came in Iago surely did have his motives but it was unknown he was true to it until the very end. “No, Iago, I’ll see before I doubt” Othello did not want to believe what he heard but he wanted to see before he make a decision but someone like Iago has tactics that made him who he is.

Utilitarianism is an ethic found in this story, the feeling of being responsible for the things that happened and Iago didn’t give the slightest idea that he was doing something wrong he didn’t faze of what he was doing as if he was doing something right, to me what he did what he was doing was wrong but if he doesn’t know any better you can’t really hold him accountable because he thought he was doing something that was right. “Strangle her in bed, even the bed she hath contaminated,” says Iago made me question how much he was already in control of the situation he was in because Othello killed Desdemona her this way it made me think that he had some kind of power over people because he manage to deceive Othello and ended up speaking her death into existence.

This play is similar to Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet because of the confusing and tragic ending that happened the death that those characters suffer most of them did not deserve it especially Desdemona because was innocent and the guilt of Othello for killing her made him kill himself because he loved her that much similar to Romeo and Juliet.

Roderigo trying to get with Desdemona by depending on another person is something that was an important part of the play he had money paying Iago a lot of money for something he wanted when she is clearly married to another person. It might be something that determines his virtue ethics because he would do anything to make them break up so he can be with her therefore he was living within his ethics that what he knew and he was doing it because he thought he was doing right.

Overall the play Othello and the movie 1995 display a lot of similarities because the translation tried to picture the play as close as possible and it’s a story of trust and love and manipulation where a lot of important character die due to manipulation by a man maned Iago it’s something that was tragic because most of them did not deserve the death that they suffer.