Trace the steps by which Iago rouses Othello to suspicion. Is there anything in Othello’s character or circumstances that renders him particularly susceptible to Iago’s wiles?
What will be an ideal response?
- In Act III, Scene iii, we see the real turning point of the play. Pretending to be unwilling to speak for fear of upsetting him, Iago cleverly manipulates Othello into pressuring him to reveal his “suspicions.” Iago plays on Othello’s status as an outsider to suggest that Venetian wives customarily take lovers behinds their husbands’ backs, and hints at Desdemona’s skill at deception by reminding him of how completely she hid her love for Othello from her father. Having thoroughly discomfited Othello, he then goes so far as to suggest that Desdemona’s love for him was sudden and against her nature, and therefore cannot last, which feeds on Othello’s insecurity about his lack of youth, looks, and other charms. After receiving Desdemona’s handkerchief from Emilia, Iago returns to Othello and, once again pretending to not want to upset him with his suspicions, proceeds to tell him the false story of Cassio’s drunken moaning over Desdemona, and then clinches the matter by telling him that Cassio has Desdemona’s handkerchief; here Iago very cunningly pretends not to know the significance of the handkerchief to Othello, thus persuading Othello that he would have no basis on which to make up such a story.
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