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Remember, it is OK to disagree with one another, but we must always be RESPECTFUL of one another.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Specific Themes
What is a specific theme you find in the play? (Remember, a specific theme is a comment about a general theme, i.e. general theme = money; specific themes = money changes the dynamics in family relationships.)
A theme I found in the play was to trust can really change your life. Othello made the mistake of trusting a friend instead of the one he truly loved. Othello also did not give Desdemona a chance to explain herself. He assumed she was cheating, instead of asking his trustworthy and honest wife. That part of the play showed you should really trust the ones in your life that will always tell the truth, even when the truth is not what you want to hear. Trust changed the whole play. If Othello had trusted Desdemona, than the play would have been a lot less interesting, but it would have been morally right. If Othello trusted Desdemona, the outcome would have been different, and the only person that would be suffering would be Iago. Everyone else, including Desdemona and Othello, would have been alive. Desdemona is the trustworthy and truthful person throughout the play. Even if she did have an affair with Cassio, which she did not, she would have been honest to Othello and told him she did. But overall, trust changed the whole dynamics of the play, and most importantly the outcome.
A specific theme i found throughout the play is how jealousy can change the way you see certain people around you. When Othello was told by Iago that Desdemona was cheating on him with Cassio he automatically thought differently of Cassio. He didn't think of him in a respectable way anymore and got jealous of how he thought Desdemona was choosing Cassio over himself. If Othello knew the truth and didn't listen to Iago, he wouldn't have had to build up all that anger for Cassio. This leads into what Emily said about trust.
Another specific theme in Othello is love and how even if it causes you the most pain, the feeling never goes away. Love is shown in Othello when Desdemona still has strong feelings for Othello after he accuses her of cheating on him, calls her a whore, and slaps her in public. Without the love in this story, both Othello and Desdemona would have just moved on and not fought for each other.
One more specific theme in Othello is honesty and how who you trust can change your whole life. Most people in this play choose to trust Iago and think he is always telling the truth. This whole play is about learning who to trust and who not to trust. If everyone knew not to trust Iago, none of these problems would have even started. This play was full of irony in how everyone thought that Iago was the good one when really he was the worst. He didn't follow simple morals and always got other people into trouble. These specific themes changed the whole play. If these themes were seen in a different way, the whole play would be completely different.
The theme that I thought was the biggest was that too much power destroyes people. In Othello, the position of general has a lot of power; they lead an army and is well respected in society. Othello has this position, and he has all this power, which he actually manages well. However, Iago has a deep passion for power, and will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants. Powerful people never hold that position for long. There is usually a downfall of that person, or they are killed.
Iago wants this position a lot. He craves for the power and the nobility that comes with the job. He wants to influence people instead of people influencing him. He doesn't care what he does or who he has to hurt, he just wants that position. Power can also take the sensibility out of people. They only see the power and praise, and lose sight of everything else. They may do something harmful like hurt a person. Iago does this, and eventually he kills his own wife in desperation to try and be the general.
So Othello, Desdemona, Emilia, and Rodrigo die because power takes the best out of people and replaces it eith a raving animal that only has one focus. Power not only hurts the person with it, but the people around them that are innocent and nice.
A specific theme in the play would be trusting the wrong person can change your outlook on things. Othello chose that trusting Iago over his wife Desdemona was the worst decision he could have made. By trusting Iago, he first got the ideas that Desdemona was unfaithful, and Iago also suggested that she should be killed as punishment. Most importantly, he trusted wrongly that Iago was on his side when really he was working against him the whole time. He didnt trust Desdemona even when she was telling the truth, nor anyone else, because he was so caught up in Iago's lies. He thought that Iago was an honest man, since he had obviously been with Othello and his group for a long time. Iago must have been planning this for a very long time for him to have worked out all the kinks and to have made it work out so smoothly. He also must have known all the people involved very well for him to have known exactly how they would react and respond to the twists and turns. Its interesting to see that every single person involved were so naive and unquestioning of Iago and his advice, and how he would tell them to go ahead and do something, but they never thought about it, or the consequences of it. They never thought that this might do much more harm than help, but just went ahead and did it without thinking. This allows them to be manipulated very easily, thus why Iagos plan went without a hitch, except when Roderigo decided to write everything down in the end and unknowingly implicated Iago.
A theme that I continue to say over and over again is that looks may be deceiving. The reason for this is that Iago continues to portray himself as this honest man, who never does anything wrong. However,in the beginning, he gives away his true feelings and tells the audience that he hates the Moor because he made Cassio his lieutenant instead of him, and Iago takes this very offensively.
From then on, he continues to fake his love for Othello. Then once he suspects Othello of having an affair with his wife, he lashes out and starts planning out how to ruin his relationship with Desdemona and Cassio. Othello yet has no idea he is being tricked until the end.
Iago has every character's trust, but he takes advantage of it, just to lead to the deaths of the three people people he originally did care about. If no one listened to Iago, then they whole play would be twisted in the other direction and Iago may have been the one to die because Othello would realize he is lying and punish him in some form.
However, the fact that Othello trusted Iago, over the one he married, confuses me because, Desdemona is so sweet and caring, and she cares deeply for Othello. So why would Othello not trust her?
The theme trust was already used by Emily, so i will talk a bout a different form of trust.
There is a big difference in choosing who you trust, and trusting the person you choose. For example, if you choose a friend to trust your secrets with them all the time (Iago), then you should have nothing to worry about. But if you don't choose that person you trust, then why choose them at all?
In Othello, this was a huge problem. Othello chose to trust Iago, because "honest" Iago was supposedly a great guy to trust. that way Othello could be easily manipulitated. and because of Othello's trust in Iago, that led to his downfall.
I think the theme of the play is that communications is very important. All of Iago's plans worked out great because of the lack of communication, but they also started because lack of communication. Iago thought that Othello had an affair with Emilia, but he didn't. Since Iago believed that, he wanted to get back at Othello, one wife for another. This is the reason why Iago says he is ruining Othello's life. Not only was the communication bad between the two friends but also between Othello and his wife. A marriage should have very strong communication and this play shows that if there is not a good communication between two people there can be a lot of misunderstandings. If Othello had just asked Desdemona and Cassio what was going on between them the whole situation would have been solved.
Izzy has also already used communication as her theme, but I would like to expand upon it.
Communication needed to be a key part in the play, however it was not there. if there had been communication, there would have been little to no deaths in the end of the play. All of the characters had lack of communication. A big one was Desdemona and Othello though. As in any relationship with two people, it is critical to have communication. If you do not know what one person is thinking or what the other person has to say about it, there is bound to be a huge argument all tracing back to the key point, or theme, lack of communication. If Othello and Desdemona had talked or Othello listened to Desdemona, they would have been happier and maybe even have been able to overthrow Iago.
I realize most comments have comments on this theme, but I find loyalty to be a major theme. Specifically, "loyalty is a power to be wary of". It sounds a bit like a moral lesson, but that is what I feel the play to be. With the loyalty placed on Iago by all, he has the advantage, power, and opportunity to manipulate them all. It was brief, but Othello did doubt Iago a little bit as he shared his opinions on Desdemona's affections wavering. Othello, however, never thinks to begin questioning that if Iago is so honest and straight-forward, why would he want anyone dead and why would he lie to them to find truth? For someone so trustworthy and "good" in Othello's loyal eyes, it was his own fault for being so quick to judge his wife and Cassio and so slow in thinking of Iago's true reasoning.
Throughout Othello, the theme of heaven versus hell, and more generally good versus evil constantly arises. On the theme of heaven vs hell, it is obvious enough that Iago represents some form of devil. At one point Iago compares what he is doing directly to what the devil does. Also at the end when Othello stabs Iago, he acknowledges that he will only make Iago feel pain, since you can not kill a devil.
Cassio, the representative of heaven is less obvious. He only wants to do the right thing. He tries to do what hes told and stay out of trouble. He doesn't even drink. However the only time he is corrupted is by Iago, the "devil". The final, and very interesting clue that solidifies each persons role, is that at the end, Cassio and Iago are the only main characters left alive. They both received wounds, and both of them were supposed to die, but the fact that they eluded death proves that Shakespeare created them to represent Heaven and hell.
A more general theme of good vs evil can be seen with Desdemona and Othello. Desdemona, who spent a lot of time with Cassio and was heavily influenced by him, represents good. On the other hand, Othello, who spent most of his time with Iago, represented evil. Since they were lesser representations of Iago and Cassio, Othello and Desdemona both lost their lives in their clash.
A theme that was important in the play was how jealousy effects actions. I found it absolutely stupid of Othello to blindly believe Iago, instead of trusting his wife and going right to her when the problem came out. His actions eventually ended up killing his innocent wife, which absolutely could have been stopped. I actually thought the entire plan of Iago was extremely smart, even though I of course do not believe it was a good thing to do, it was well planned. He knew that Othello would blindly believe him, letting him completely control his actions. He also knew how he would react to this extreme jealousy he felt, which was very smart of Iago. Jealousy wound up doing major things in the play. It made Othello slap his wife, and eventually kill her. There were many ways, as easy as talking to her, to have stopped this. He also could have talked to Cassio, but Iago knew Othello would not do this. Othello's actions of a well behaved man were completely turned around by jealousy.
A theme that I found in the play was that jealousy can destroy a relationship. The obvious relationship it destroyed in the play was Othello and Desdemona's. All Iago had to do to ruin their relationship was put a little idea in Othello's head, and once he left Othello to think about it, it slowly tore him apart without him even thinking that it could possibly be untrue. It was thinking about how Desdemona could be with Cassio that made him continue to get more and more angry and eventually resulted with him murdering his own wife without ever even catching her himself cheating on him. Another reason that it's a theme in the play is because of Emilia and Iago. In the beginning of the story we learned that Iago had suspected Emilia of cheating on him with Othello, and as the play went on you could see more and more of how awful Emilia and Iago were in their relationship. It was proven in the end when Emilia valued her relationship with Desdemona more than hers with her husband and let everyone know it was him who came up with the false accusations of Desdemona being unfaithful. Soon after that Iago murdered her. Two of the main relationships that we're showed in Othello we're destroyed by jelousy.
A specific theme I found in the play was that trust can either help a person, or destroy a person, which i'll explain. Obviously, trust is very important in a relationship. It is Othello's lack of trust in Desdemona that causes him to kill her out of jealousy. He doesn't believe her when she denies having relations with Cassio. If you are married, shouldn't there be a good amount of trust between you? Othello is an example of what can happen if there isn't enough trust between two spouses. Of course, it's a very extreme example. Othello believes in Iago more then he believes in his own wife. That brings me to my second point. Othello's undeniable trust in Iago is one of the things that helps to cause his downfall. He should really be more careful in who he trusts. Another person who was mistaken in trusting Iago is Roderigo. He did everything Iago told him to because Iago made him believe he would get Desdemona by doing so. Both he and Othello wound up dead because they put too much trust in Iago.
A specific theme I found in the play is to think with your head, not your heart. Othello loved Desdemona so deeply that when he thought she might be cheating on him, he immediately became jealous and went into a rage. He did this because he was so blinded by his love for her that he didn't even consider that maybe Iago was wrong and she was really loyal. If Othello had thought about it for a while, and talked to Desdemona to ask her if she was loyal, the play wouldn't have ended so tragically; Othello wouldn't have killed Desdemona, nor would he have killed himself.
A specific theme in Othello is betrayal. Iago and Othello were close friends that trusted each other. Othello believed the trust continued. But really, Iago was plotting against him the entire time because he thought that his wife and Othello had an affair. He believed that Emilia and Othello betrayed him. In turn, he betrayed Othello. In the end, Emilia betrayed Iago by telling everyone what her husband had done. Without betrayal in this play, everyone's evil plans would be out in the open and avoidable. The point of betrayal is to play both sides. This is something that Iago is very skilled at. If everyone knew what he was up to, he would fail.
One specific theme that I have found to hold significant importance is Othello's trust and distrust among Iago, Desdemona, and others. All the characters, especially Othello find "honest" Iago to be without any wrongdoing down to the tendrils of his warm and open heart. They have their full trust in him (as he may deserve), yet Othello has not but one notion of what he is planning behind his back. When one looks back as to why Iago is doing all of this, it is because of his lack of confidence towards his wife and Othello, whom he believes were having an affair with each other. This is where trust and distrust collide. However, is this true? Could it be that Iago himself is lying to the audience, and the idea of an affair suits the requirements of the justification of ruining Othello's marriage? The trust-mistrust scenario between Iago and Othello, along with whether or not the audience is being gulled, is a specific theme that occurs ubiquitously through the play.
One less noticable theme I found was the constant struggle between conservative conformists and free-spirited liberals. The steriotype of the time was that moors were lower than whites. When Desdemona goes against the social norm. by marrying a moor, her conservative father is outraged. Later in the book, there is the conversation between Desdemona and Emilia on the subject of husbands and being loyal to them. Emilia takes the liberal side that you don't have to be loyal to your husband, while Desdemona takes the conservative side that you must be 100% loyal to your husband. This theme occurs in one way or another in most stories.
A specific theme in the play is that you should think before you act. Before Othello killed Desdemona, the only person who confirmed Desdemona's unloyalty was Iago. Shakespeare is trying to tell us that we should make always make sure of a matter before we act on it. If Othello asked any one else if Desdemona was loyal or not, everyone would earily say she was faithful. Shakespeare uses Othello as an example of someone to embarrased to check on his news. Shakespeare is also saying that we should have more then one person we get our information from incase one of our friends turn out as an "Iago".
19 comments:
A theme I found in the play was to trust can really change your life. Othello made the mistake of trusting a friend instead of the one he truly loved. Othello also did not give Desdemona a chance to explain herself. He assumed she was cheating, instead of asking his trustworthy and honest wife. That part of the play showed you should really trust the ones in your life that will always tell the truth, even when the truth is not what you want to hear.
Trust changed the whole play. If Othello had trusted Desdemona, than the play would have been a lot less interesting, but it would have been morally right. If Othello trusted Desdemona, the outcome would have been different, and the only person that would be suffering would be Iago. Everyone else, including Desdemona and Othello, would have been alive.
Desdemona is the trustworthy and truthful person throughout the play. Even if she did have an affair with Cassio, which she did not, she would have been honest to Othello and told him she did. But overall, trust changed the whole dynamics of the play, and most importantly the outcome.
A specific theme i found throughout the play is how jealousy can change the way you see certain people around you. When Othello was told by Iago that Desdemona was cheating on him with Cassio he automatically thought differently of Cassio. He didn't think of him in a respectable way anymore and got jealous of how he thought Desdemona was choosing Cassio over himself. If Othello knew the truth and didn't listen to Iago, he wouldn't have had to build up all that anger for Cassio. This leads into what Emily said about trust.
Another specific theme in Othello is love and how even if it causes you the most pain, the feeling never goes away. Love is shown in Othello when Desdemona still has strong feelings for Othello after he accuses her of cheating on him, calls her a whore, and slaps her in public. Without the love in this story, both Othello and Desdemona would have just moved on and not fought for each other.
One more specific theme in Othello is honesty and how who you trust can change your whole life. Most people in this play choose to trust Iago and think he is always telling the truth. This whole play is about learning who to trust and who not to trust. If everyone knew not to trust Iago, none of these problems would have even started. This play was full of irony in how everyone thought that Iago was the good one when really he was the worst. He didn't follow simple morals and always got other people into trouble. These specific themes changed the whole play. If these themes were seen in a different way, the whole play would be completely different.
The theme that I thought was the biggest was that too much power destroyes people. In Othello, the position of general has a lot of power; they lead an army and is well respected in society. Othello has this position, and he has all this power, which he actually manages well. However, Iago has a deep passion for power, and will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants. Powerful people never hold that position for long. There is usually a downfall of that person, or they are killed.
Iago wants this position a lot. He craves for the power and the nobility that comes with the job. He wants to influence people instead of people influencing him. He doesn't care what he does or who he has to hurt, he just wants that position. Power can also take the sensibility out of people. They only see the power and praise, and lose sight of everything else. They may do something harmful like hurt a person. Iago does this, and eventually he kills his own wife in desperation to try and be the general.
So Othello, Desdemona, Emilia, and Rodrigo die because power takes the best out of people and replaces it eith a raving animal that only has one focus. Power not only hurts the person with it, but the people around them that are innocent and nice.
A specific theme in the play would be trusting the wrong person can change your outlook on things. Othello chose that trusting Iago over his wife Desdemona was the worst decision he could have made. By trusting Iago, he first got the ideas that Desdemona was unfaithful, and Iago also suggested that she should be killed as punishment. Most importantly, he trusted wrongly that Iago was on his side when really he was working against him the whole time. He didnt trust Desdemona even when she was telling the truth, nor anyone else, because he was so caught up in Iago's lies. He thought that Iago was an honest man, since he had obviously been with Othello and his group for a long time. Iago must have been planning this for a very long time for him to have worked out all the kinks and to have made it work out so smoothly. He also must have known all the people involved very well for him to have known exactly how they would react and respond to the twists and turns. Its interesting to see that every single person involved were so naive and unquestioning of Iago and his advice, and how he would tell them to go ahead and do something, but they never thought about it, or the consequences of it. They never thought that this might do much more harm than help, but just went ahead and did it without thinking. This allows them to be manipulated very easily, thus why Iagos plan went without a hitch, except when Roderigo decided to write everything down in the end and unknowingly implicated Iago.
A theme that I continue to say over and over again is that looks may be deceiving. The reason for this is that Iago continues to portray himself as this honest man, who never does anything wrong. However,in the beginning, he gives away his true feelings and tells the audience that he hates the Moor because he made Cassio his lieutenant instead of him, and Iago takes this very offensively.
From then on, he continues to fake his love for Othello. Then once he suspects Othello of having an affair with his wife, he lashes out and starts planning out how to ruin his relationship with Desdemona and Cassio. Othello yet has no idea he is being tricked until the end.
Iago has every character's trust, but he takes advantage of it, just to lead to the deaths of the three people people he originally did care about. If no one listened to Iago, then they whole play would be twisted in the other direction and Iago may have been the one to die because Othello would realize he is lying and punish him in some form.
However, the fact that Othello trusted Iago, over the one he married, confuses me because,
Desdemona is so sweet and caring, and she cares deeply for Othello. So why would Othello not trust her?
The theme trust was already used by Emily, so i will talk a bout a different form of trust.
There is a big difference in choosing who you trust, and trusting the person you choose. For example, if you choose a friend to trust your secrets with them all the time (Iago), then you should have nothing to worry about. But if you don't choose that person you trust, then why choose them at all?
In Othello, this was a huge problem. Othello chose to trust Iago, because "honest" Iago was supposedly a great guy to trust. that way Othello could be easily manipulitated. and because of Othello's trust in Iago, that led to his downfall.
I think the theme of the play is that communications is very important. All of Iago's plans worked out great because of the lack of communication, but they also started because lack of communication. Iago thought that Othello had an affair with Emilia, but he didn't. Since Iago believed that, he wanted to get back at Othello, one wife for another. This is the reason why Iago says he is ruining Othello's life. Not only was the communication bad between the two friends but also between Othello and his wife. A marriage should have very strong communication and this play shows that if there is not a good communication between two people there can be a lot of misunderstandings. If Othello had just asked Desdemona and Cassio what was going on between them the whole situation would have been solved.
Izzy has also already used communication as her theme, but I would like to expand upon it.
Communication needed to be a key part in the play, however it was not there. if there had been communication, there would have been little to no deaths in the end of the play. All of the characters had lack of communication. A big one was Desdemona and Othello though. As in any relationship with two people, it is critical to have communication. If you do not know what one person is thinking or what the other person has to say about it, there is bound to be a huge argument all tracing back to the key point, or theme, lack of communication. If Othello and Desdemona had talked or Othello listened to Desdemona, they would have been happier and maybe even have been able to overthrow Iago.
I realize most comments have comments on this theme, but I find loyalty to be a major theme. Specifically, "loyalty is a power to be wary of". It sounds a bit like a moral lesson, but that is what I feel the play to be. With the loyalty placed on Iago by all, he has the advantage, power, and opportunity to manipulate them all. It was brief, but Othello did doubt Iago a little bit as he shared his opinions on Desdemona's affections wavering. Othello, however, never thinks to begin questioning that if Iago is so honest and straight-forward, why would he want anyone dead and why would he lie to them to find truth? For someone so trustworthy and "good" in Othello's loyal eyes, it was his own fault for being so quick to judge his wife and Cassio and so slow in thinking of Iago's true reasoning.
Throughout Othello, the theme of heaven versus hell, and more generally good versus evil constantly arises. On the theme of heaven vs hell, it is obvious enough that Iago represents some form of devil. At one point Iago compares what he is doing directly to what the devil does. Also at the end when Othello stabs Iago, he acknowledges that he will only make Iago feel pain, since you can not kill a devil.
Cassio, the representative of heaven is less obvious. He only wants to do the right thing. He tries to do what hes told and stay out of trouble. He doesn't even drink. However the only time he is corrupted is by Iago, the "devil". The final, and very interesting clue that solidifies each persons role, is that at the end, Cassio and Iago are the only main characters left alive. They both received wounds, and both of them were supposed to die, but the fact that they eluded death proves that Shakespeare created them to represent Heaven and hell.
A more general theme of good vs evil can be seen with Desdemona and Othello. Desdemona, who spent a lot of time with Cassio and was heavily influenced by him, represents good. On the other hand, Othello, who spent most of his time with Iago, represented evil. Since they were lesser representations of Iago and Cassio, Othello and Desdemona both lost their lives in their clash.
A theme that was important in the play was how jealousy effects actions. I found it absolutely stupid of Othello to blindly believe Iago, instead of trusting his wife and going right to her when the problem came out. His actions eventually ended up killing his innocent wife, which absolutely could have been stopped. I actually thought the entire plan of Iago was extremely smart, even though I of course do not believe it was a good thing to do, it was well planned. He knew that Othello would blindly believe him, letting him completely control his actions. He also knew how he would react to this extreme jealousy he felt, which was very smart of Iago.
Jealousy wound up doing major things in the play. It made Othello slap his wife, and eventually kill her. There were many ways, as easy as talking to her, to have stopped this. He also could have talked to Cassio, but Iago knew Othello would not do this. Othello's actions of a well behaved man were completely turned around by jealousy.
A theme that I found in the play was that jealousy can destroy a relationship. The obvious relationship it destroyed in the play was Othello and Desdemona's. All Iago had to do to ruin their relationship was put a little idea in Othello's head, and once he left Othello to think about it, it slowly tore him apart without him even thinking that it could possibly be untrue. It was thinking about how Desdemona could be with Cassio that made him continue to get more and more angry and eventually resulted with him murdering his own wife without ever even catching her himself cheating on him. Another reason that it's a theme in the play is because of Emilia and Iago. In the beginning of the story we learned that Iago had suspected Emilia of cheating on him with Othello, and as the play went on you could see more and more of how awful Emilia and Iago were in their relationship. It was proven in the end when Emilia valued her relationship with Desdemona more than hers with her husband and let everyone know it was him who came up with the false accusations of Desdemona being unfaithful. Soon after that Iago murdered her. Two of the main relationships that we're showed in Othello we're destroyed by jelousy.
A specific theme I found in the play was that trust can either help a person, or destroy a person, which i'll explain. Obviously, trust is very important in a relationship. It is Othello's lack of trust in Desdemona that causes him to kill her out of jealousy. He doesn't believe her when she denies having relations with Cassio. If you are married, shouldn't there be a good amount of trust between you? Othello is an example of what can happen if there isn't enough trust between two spouses. Of course, it's a very extreme example. Othello believes in Iago more then he believes in his own wife. That brings me to my second point. Othello's undeniable trust in Iago is one of the things that helps to cause his downfall. He should really be more careful in who he trusts. Another person who was mistaken in trusting Iago is Roderigo. He did everything Iago told him to because Iago made him believe he would get Desdemona by doing so. Both he and Othello wound up dead because they put too much trust in Iago.
A specific theme I found in the play is to think with your head, not your heart. Othello loved Desdemona so deeply that when he thought she might be cheating on him, he immediately became jealous and went into a rage. He did this because he was so blinded by his love for her that he didn't even consider that maybe Iago was wrong and she was really loyal. If Othello had thought about it for a while, and talked to Desdemona to ask her if she was loyal, the play wouldn't have ended so tragically; Othello wouldn't have killed Desdemona, nor would he have killed himself.
A specific theme in Othello is betrayal. Iago and Othello were close friends that trusted each other. Othello believed the trust continued. But really, Iago was plotting against him the entire time because he thought that his wife and Othello had an affair. He believed that Emilia and Othello betrayed him. In turn, he betrayed Othello. In the end, Emilia betrayed Iago by telling everyone what her husband had done. Without betrayal in this play, everyone's evil plans would be out in the open and avoidable. The point of betrayal is to play both sides. This is something that Iago is very skilled at. If everyone knew what he was up to, he would fail.
One specific theme that I have found to hold significant importance is Othello's trust and distrust among Iago, Desdemona, and others. All the characters, especially Othello find "honest" Iago to be without any wrongdoing down to the tendrils of his warm and open heart. They have their full trust in him (as he may deserve), yet Othello has not but one notion of what he is planning behind his back. When one looks back as to why Iago is doing all of this, it is because of his lack of confidence towards his wife and Othello, whom he believes were having an affair with each other. This is where trust and distrust collide. However, is this true? Could it be that Iago himself is lying to the audience, and the idea of an affair suits the requirements of the justification of ruining Othello's marriage? The trust-mistrust scenario between Iago and Othello, along with whether or not the audience is being gulled, is a specific theme that occurs ubiquitously through the play.
One less noticable theme I found was the constant struggle between conservative conformists and free-spirited liberals. The steriotype of the time was that moors were lower than whites. When Desdemona goes against the social norm. by marrying a moor, her conservative father is outraged. Later in the book, there is the conversation between Desdemona and Emilia on the subject of husbands and being loyal to them. Emilia takes the liberal side that you don't have to be loyal to your husband, while Desdemona takes the conservative side that you must be 100% loyal to your husband. This theme occurs in one way or another in most stories.
A specific theme in the play is that you should think before you act. Before Othello killed Desdemona, the only person who confirmed Desdemona's unloyalty was Iago. Shakespeare is trying to tell us that we should make always make sure of a matter before we act on it. If Othello asked any one else if Desdemona was loyal or not, everyone would earily say she was faithful. Shakespeare uses Othello as an example of someone to embarrased to check on his news. Shakespeare is also saying that we should have more then one person we get our information from incase one of our friends turn out as an "Iago".
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