American Literature

Throughout the course of the play Othello changes from a confident and wise man to a guilty and fallen man.  The transformation is founded in his love for Desdemona and the seed of jealousy that Iago plants in his heart.  The character portrayed to the audience in the beginning of the drama, is a far cry from the beaten and broken character that is found at the end of the drama.  The audience watching the changes and knowing that they are unfounded makes one pity Othello for his trust in those that are dishonest and only for his destruction.

At the very beginning, Othello is a proud and noble man.  He holds his own against Desdemonas father who accuses him of witchcraft.  The end of his response is that his only witchcraft was that she lovd me for the dangers I had passd, And I lovd her that she did pity them (1.3.167-168). This man is not one that would seem to be taken in by suspicions and rumors.  In fact, he seems a reasonable and logical man and very much in love with Desdemona.

However, the plot has already been planned, and the character of Iago begins to focus on the destruction of Othello through the jealousy of his wife with his best friend Cassio.  Even in the beginning when the idea is first put to Othello he did not all at once believe.  He stated to be once in doubt Is once to be resolved (3.3.179-180) meaning that he wanted proof of the incident or the feelings between Cassio and Desdemona before he would allow jealousy to take hold of him. 

Through the lies and deceptions of Iago, Othello falls into physical seizures and is eaten alive by the jealousy that grows in regards to Desdemona and Cassio (4.1.50).  After he kills Desdemona and the truth comes to light, it is only then that he realizes that he believed one man, over his best friend, and his wife.  That he was a fool.  It is in this knowledge that he asks those around him to remember him in better times in those times that he had given service to the state, and to forget the action of him in the last parts of his life. 

It is only at the end of the drama, and the end of his life that he repents and realizes that he is undone, and the proud, noble Othello is no more.  His downfall was due to a liar in the character of Iago and his misguided belief of the liar.  He blamed no one but himself and in the end took his own life for those that he took wrongly.