Othello Essay - NOT The Final For Serious Draft

One of the most common elements of all the works is the lack of control the characters have over what happens to them, and how they deal with this lack of control. In A Prayer for Owen Meany and Oedipus Rex, the characters are controlled by their fate, and a higher power. In Othello, on the other hand, everything that happens to the titular character is caused by a mortal, Iago; while Iago is made more evil because of his refusal to accept things as they are, Othello reveals his nobility through his acceptance of the consequences at the end.

From the moment Iago convinces Cassio to drink at the party to when Iago confesses to all that he has done, Othello does not have control over his what he does and what happens to him. He is bound by his sense of honor and his inherent insecurities to trust Iago and lose his faith in Desdemona. In this lies Iago's genius. Like Oedipus had no choice in killing his father and marrying his mother, and how Owen had no choice in sacrificing himself for the Vietnamese kids, Othello has no choice in destroying his life. He is “as tenderly… led by the nose as asses are” (Act I, Scene III) by Iago. Shakespeare is playing with one of our greatest fears in Othello - that we have little or no control over what happens to us. The scariest part of Othello is that, unlike Owen Meany and Oedipus, Othello's fate is not controlled by a higher power, which probably has good intentions. Instead, the fate of Othello is controlled by a man, one who most definitely has very bad intentions.

Although Iago's motives are never fully revealed or explained, what he is doing is pretty straightforward: he is playing god. He is basically playing the part of the Greek gods in Oedipus and the Christian god in Owen Meany. Iago refuses to accept that Othello could choose “a great arithmetician” (Act I, Scene I) as his lieutenant instead of him, and attempts to change this fact by acting as a god. However, by acting as a god, Iago loses his humanity, and thus becomes more evil. In Oedipus and Owen Meany the higher powers are regarded as unfeeling, unknowable forces that lack human compassion but have an unquestionable sense of right and wrong. In both works, the characters have no choice in following the will of the gods, but they assume that the gods know what they are doing, and they accept it. Iago, however, is only human, but by attempting to elevate himself to the status of a god he loses his compassion but does not gain a sense of right and wrong. All he is left with is great power and great anger, and that can only mean doom for all those around him.

Because Othello is Iago's counterpart, instead of controlling others he is the one being controlled. Also unlike Iago, he is honorable and compassionate, and, when he realizes the truth about what has happened, he accepts it. He admits that he was “one who loved not wisely but too well” (Act V, Scene II). Like Oedipus at the end of his play and Owen throughout his book, accepting that he has no control over what happens to him is what makes Othello noble. Rodrigo, in sharp contrast to Othello as Iago's right-hand man, does just the opposite. Instead of accepting that he can never have Desdemona, he asks Iago, the controlling force in the play, to change his fate, which, of course, doesn’t happen. Thus Rodrigo, unlike Othello, is generally regarded as weak, dishonorable, and “a fool” (Act I, Scene III). All three works show their characters' essential nobility through whether or not they accept and take responsibility for what they do, despite the fact that they are not in control over what happens to them.

Othello, like Oedipus and Owen Meany, is noble because he has no control over his destiny and he accepts that; Iago is evil because he does not accept what happens to him and tries to play the respective parts of the Greek gods in Oedipus and the Christian god in Owen Meany. What we do when we can't control what happens to us and how we try to control what happens to others are essential parts of human nature and thus important parts of Othello, as well as Oedipus Rex and A Prayer for Owen Meany.