Anastasia Beaudet

Estephani Monterrubio
Cameron Tenn
Jacob Waitkuweit
Mr. White
AP English 12
Period 2
1 December 2015
The Effects of Isolation
Othello is, in short, a play about Iagos revenge and manipulation of others through ploys
abusing the human psyche. His favorite strategy: separate the his victim from the rest. Iago does
this on numerous occasion succeeding every time. He knows that alone, people are weak, and in
the play each character is cut off somehow.
Our favorite character, the lover, the fighter, Roderigo, is truly isolated throughout the
entirety of the plot. Iago, through the whole play, is the only source to Roderigos bad
information. He even, following Iagos orders, bought a fake beard so that he could go into
hiding on Cyprus, cutting himself off from the other Venetians for the next four acts. Roderigo
spends major coinage on the basis of Iagos inside perspective, hoping for the love of
Desdemona (or to be loved at all, actually). In the end, Roderigo dies due to his lack of
understanding the whole situation and all the characters that play a part in the grand scheme of
things. His isolation and trusting Iago wholeheartedly were the keys to his downfall.
Although Othello isnt physically separated from the group, Iago still manages to isolate
him into his own insecurities. Being trapped with his personality, he becomes easily jealous and

very paranoid. He goes so far as to murder his wife in cold blood, because he thought that she
was being unfaithful. Desdemona was, even in her dying breath, faithful. He is very easily the
only person who is in this situation, with no one to be able to sympathise with him. In this case,
it was very important for Othello to talk to his wife about such insecurities. By only listening to
Iago, Othello sets himself up for a fall, one story is not whole, which is not enough to make
informed decisions on. One must always try to find out the whole truth, not just the story from
one side. Othello decides that the best course of action is to retreat into his own thoughts, with no
other input from anyone but Iago.
Not only are most of the characters isolated from each other but also have essentially no
contact with their home in Venice. It has been about two to three days and so much has
drastically changed. The war is won when they arrive and so there is not much needed to be done
resulting in a lot of down time. Not to mention this majority of the play takes place in Cyprus, a
large port island near Greece that is famous for its harlotry. All these factors add up in the minds
of Iagos victims making it much easier for them to believe his lies or follow his advice such as
Cassio who thinks he could get his job back because his offense isnt as serious as it would be
back in Venice.
Iago truly is a genius, everything about the setting of his manipulations along with his
ability to pull characters further away from each other make spinning his web of lies much
simpler. So long as no one knows the whole story, so long as each character is alone, he will
succeed. In the end he is only caught because of one unforeseen exchange of information. Had
Emilia not explained the entire story, Iagos tendency to lie, and her acquirement of the
handkerchief he would have gone free. So in the end everyone but Desdemona knew the whole
story, but it was far too late.