In this essay, I’ll be answering the following question on how jealousy is presented in Shakespeare’s play Othello and Tim Blake nelson’s movie production called ‘o’. Also, how important the theme is and what techniques is used to portray it.
In Shakespeare's Othello, the theme of jealous is apparent throughout the play. Shakespeare uses techniques such as characterisation and imagery to illustrate this theme. By characterising his characters with jealousy, Shakespeare successfully emphasises the destructive power of jealousy, which corrupts the values of honour and trust.Shakespeare often refers to jealousy as a devouring emotion, "O eware, my lord of jealousy! It is the green eyed monster which doth mock, the meat it feeds on." Shakespeare uses this to give the emotion a sense of being devoured or devouring. This fits in extremely well with Iago when he describes Othello as being "eaten up with passion." Shakespeare's also uses alot of dramatic irony; Othello constantly refers to him as "honest Iago". However the audience is made away that he is indeed not honest at all, from such quotes such as "I am not what I am" and "In following him I follow but myself." In many scenes throughout the play, Iago is seen acting as Othello's most loyal friend, Iago helps him find "proof" of Desdemona being unfaithful to him, as he advises him to keep an eye on her. However these scenes are juxtaposed with short scenes in which Shakespeare uses soliloquies, in which Iago shares with the audience his real plans. These scenes very effectively convey the theme of illusion vs reality as Iago creates the "illusion" of being Othello's loyal and trustworthy friend.
This suggests exactly how strong Othello's jealousy really is, once Othello becomes convinced that his wife is unfaithful Iago continues to feed his jealousy which causes Othello to without a doubt behave like a monster when he hears something he doesn’t like. However, its dramatic irony that Iago says this to Othello. The audience knows that Iago is in fact the one that’s "eaten up," with jealousy and Othello is none the wiser to believe. However unlike Othello, Iago has a different forms of