Is It Iago, Venetian Society, Or Himself That Is To Blame For Othello's Downfall?

Answer 1

It's clearly not Venetian society: despite Brabantio's accusations of witchcraft against Othello (for 'seducing' Desdemona) the Duke of Venice urges Brabantio to see Othello, because of his previous heroism, as a worthy son-in-law, calling him "more fair than black."

Iago is the source of Othello's problems in the play - raising doubts in Othello's mind through his conversations with Othello and by planting the handkerchief.

But it is Othello that is responsible for his own downfall. He has handled problems before - but these were mostly on the battlefield, where his status as a man of action served him and his masters well. But when his problems become internal - his own doubts - it's clear that he has very little practice in just sitting still and thinking, or in talking things out. His tragic flaw - that he acts without thinking things through - was his source of strength on the battlefield, but it is his undoing in society.

It's often said that Othello would have had no problem with Hamlet's troubles, and Hamlet would have had no problem with Othello's.

Answer 2

i imagine venetian society became inheritantly racist and made no pretense about the very undeniable truth that Othello and Desdemona could no longer be jointly. Iago then continued this by technique of creating Othello doubt that they could stay jointly. Othello began doubting himself, and bigger importantly he believed that Desdemona believed as society did that they were no longer particularly married. If Desdemona believed that they ought to no longer be jointly (and why does no longer she, she is venetian and everone thinks she's out of her ideas for marrying othello) then he had no longer believe. without it, what became the cost of the marriage? If he became more suitable in his convictions then he does no longer have believed what he did and he does no longer have killed his spouse. Thats the fast answer besides.

Answer 3

All three to some extent. The Venetian society has allowed Otherllo to progress because of his extreme competence and their extreme need, but elements of that society do not accept him as a genuine equal - this is what allows Iago to use racial epithets to stir up bad feeling, and create the underlying tension of outrage about the marriage of a wealthy white woman and a Moor. He uses the prejudices of the Venetian society to create two strands of this tension - the military tension that he professes to Roderigo, outlining the Moor's failure of judgement in choosing Casio over him for the lieutenant's position, and the social tension of the marriage, raising Desdemona's father and relatives to a rage, and Casio to drunken indiscretion.

Iago himself is of course the play's prime mover - his boiling jealousy sets events in motion, and keeps them rolling, he is the instigator of events, and he tells incredibly subtle lies to work on Othello's character and drive him to madness and murder.

But ultimately, Shakespeare's tragedies, like many others of the period, are the story of a central character whose life might have been a triumph but for one cetnral character flaw - that's almost the point of them. So Macbeth is the story of a good man undermined by ambition, Hamlet a good man undermined by indecision, and Othello the story of a good man undermined by jealousy. It is Othello's own nature that makes him so susceptible to Iago's plans (which he himself describes as "trifles light as air"), and his nature of extremes ("once proved, away at one with doubt or jealousy"), that leads him to appalling, self-destructive action in the killing of Desdemona.

It's interesting to contrast a tragedy like Othello with a comedy like Much Ado About Nothing. There, the evil machinations of Duke Edmond are played out against a background of characters with only "comedy" flaws - obstinacy and stubbornness - and they come to nothing, despite involving the potential for tragedy. In Othello, the same kind of plans succeed horribly because they are played out in the world of a character with a life-threatening flaw, and it's the lesson of the play not to give in to a flaw like that - to the ultimately destructive power of jealousy and suspicion.