Name: Bryan Alanis Date: June 11,2019 

Period: 8th Period Class: English II 

Teachers: Mr.Massie & Kelly  
 

Ted Talk About Othello And 

Relevances To Our Day And Age 
The book by the name “Othello” was created by the famous writer Shakespeare. 
In this book it talks about this General by the name of Othello. He has a best friend, 
named Iago, who fought almost all the battles as Othello did. As soon as Othello gets 
the job as General he gave a guy, by the name of Cassio, the role as lieutenant. Iago 
saw this as a betray and wanted to get back at Othello in the harshest way possible. 
The book brings about many key ideas, such as ​friendships, reputation, gossips, 
trusts, jealousy,​ and ​lack of understanding​. As Well as others, but I will focus on 
some of them here in this reading. These key ideas were created by Shakespeare to 
show that you can’t always trust your gut or any one in that matter. He tests all your 
belief towards others and yourself. Now the question that some students bring about 
and sometimes adults who hear/read Shakespeare is that, “Is Shakespeare still 
relevant and should it be taught in schools today?” Now don’t get me wrong, this book 
was created way in the past. But where I stand and look around, I do believe that 
Shakespeare should be taught in schools. I am going to use the book Othello to show 
you what I mean and try to convince you on why it’s relevant to today's modern day 
and age, as well as why each key concept is still relevant to us. 
The first thing I wanted to bring out from the key concepts was of course 
“​Friendships​.” Now we all have friendships in one way or another. We were all once a 
kid who had friends. Heck, even some of us have friends because of sports that we 
used to play or still play to this day. And for some it might have been like a block thing 
with neighbors. Now the key concept that Shakespeare brings out in friendship is that, 
“How far would you go to believe everything your friend says?” As a teenager in my 
age, my friends do tell me a ton of information that is going around the school or 
information about someone or something of another. Now would I believe in what they 
say? It all depends if it is reasonable. Riiiight!? In the book Othello there is a part where 
this character Cassio (The guy who got the job as Lieutenant) was with Othello’s wife 
and Othello is kind of getting suspicious of him and his wife. As the quote shows “And 
didst contract and purse thy brow together As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain 
Some horrible conceit.” So what this quote is saying is that Othello is questioning Iago, 
on what he thinks why Cassio was with his wife and left when they started approaching 
them. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Then later on the conversation Iago talks to 
Othello saying“​Iago: ​I speak not yet of proof. Look to your wife; observe her well with 
Cassio… ​Othello:​ Dost thou say so? ​Iago:​ She did deceive her father, marrying you, 
And when she seemed to shake and fear your looks, She loved them 
most.”(3.3.228-240) In this part of the quote Iago is slowly trying to tell Othello some 
lies saying to watch his wife carefully, saying that she disobeyed her father to marry 
you, she can easily betray you for another man. Now this is where the key concept kind 
of shows itself. There are more examples in the story, but this one is earlier on and is a 
little easy to spot. So, would you trust your best friend who was with you for years and 
years, or would you trust your gut and think that this guy that you gave a promotion 
with your girlfriend/wife is nothing odd at all? Most of us would trust our friends or 
maybe people picked to trust your girlfriend since love never betrays. This concept is 
still relevant to this day and age. People would trust friends over their love ones or the 
other way around. This concept is a great idea of beliefs that was created by 
Shakespeare in this book Othello. Since the choice is really important and could have 
consequences on what you pick. Friends could be telling the truth or could be lying to 
get you all mad and dump the love one. But then again, your love one wouldn't lie to 
you and say that they love you and only you. Unless there was something actually 
going on and they are using you. Shakespeare to me is still relevant using this key 
concept of ​friendship​, since now friendship is being tested. 
The second key concept to be brought about was “​Jealousy.​” Jealousy is the main 
focus of the book. Since Iago wants to get back at Othello, the best way to do that is 
through jealousy that Othello is building up because of how he thinks of Cassio and 
Desdemona are doing. In this website,Zoe Mik, created a Prezi presentation and shows 
off some of the key concepts that they have found while reading Othello. In his 
presentation he shows the Jealousy in a quote used in the book. “O beware my lord of 
jealousy. It is the green-Eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on” 
(3.3.195-197) This line was when Iago told Othello to be careful to not get jealous of 
Cassio and Desdemona, since that brings out the bad in anybody when they start to 
think of suspicious opinions towards others. Now you might be asking, “Why would 
Iago tell him to be careful, if he wants to Othello to die?”. Well, it's really simple. 
Remember the key concept that I talked about before? Iago is acting to be his friend so 
that Othello could believe him more and trust him more. Also he can’t act to suspicious 
or else Othello would know what is going on. As a teenager with friends with different 
personalities. I can tell you that if one of my friends push a topic to much, then they are 
trying to deceive me into doing something. Those with the skills of deception, could 
easily get you to do something they want out of you. Now, since Iago tells him to be 
careful he later on keeps telling Othello some more lies that get him really angry at his 
wife and that of Cassio. A more modern example of the quote that Iago says was used 
welly made in the Prezi example. “Jealousy is a form of hatred built upon 
insecurity.”(Mik) In case you need me, the writer, to tell you what this means. It 
basically says that jealousy is made upon those who are lacking of confidence. Othello 
is lacking confidence that Desdemona loves him and so, Othello can get manipulated 
by Iago so easily. In our day and age jealousy is still a thing to everyone and almost 
everything. Dogs can get jealous of other dogs or even stuffed animals when we don’t 
give them the attention that they want. These domestic animals want love and 
attention from us. For humans loving one another, sometimes it is going to turn out 
great/good. Sometimes people go on a date and then find out they don’t like the other 
person that they thought they did, then of course, you get dumped. And so when 
people see that their love ones are hanging out with other people, you tend to get 
angry towards them for no reason or start to wonder ideas or thoughts that evolve 
them with your love one, causing you to start hating that person. This is what we call 
jealousy. Jealousy could lead you to do bad things to yourself or to others. “Why speak 
about love?” Well, love is one of the greatest examples of jealousy. In our day and age 
jealousy is very common around you. In most highschool most fists fights are because 
someone is jealous of the other person and they want to settle it on a one on one.This 
of course, doesn't solve anything. But I digress, jealousy is really common to us in this 
day and age as it was back when Shakespeare was still alive. This is why I believe that 
Shakespeare is still relevant in our time since people still get jealous towards others 
and start to settle it with violence since they believe that this is the great way of 
solving the issue. 
The last of the key concepts that I will be writing is about “​Reputation.​” As you all 
know, reputation is a way of knowing someone if you don’t know their name. 
Reputation already is a big thing in our day, but I will have to connect it to Othello and 
then explain to you, since I really want to get an “​A/Exceeds​” (Wink, Wink). Anyways in 
the book, Othello, reputation is shown a couple times with Cassio since Iago uses him 
to get in trouble by Othello. “​Cassio: ​Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost 
my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My 
reputation, Iago, my reputation!” (2.3.281-284). Although I can talk about how Cassio 
loses his reputation and why reputation is important when we lose it to someone in 
our to day life as an adult. Instead I want to talk about how Iago uses his reputation of 
being a nice guy and using it to deceive Cassio and Othello. In this website, Gerald 
Larry, created a Prezi presentation and shows off some of the key concepts that they 
have found while reading Othello. In that presentation they put it in a nice way of 
saying what reputation could be used to manipulate people. “Reputation is a factor in 
the story because Iago's reputation is that he is honest although no one knows that he 
is about to pull the biggest betray everybody. Reputation in the story is connected to 
modern day because people still use their reputation to fool everybody into believing 
they are honest, as what Iago did to everybody.” (Larry) Now of course I can use Larry’s 
ending sentence and be done, but I want to put my own thoughts in as well. Now in 
our day and age reputation is one of the biggest thing that, some to all, people care 
about. People want to get rich and popular, some want to go for a world record, and 
there are some who want to just be known for anything. Nowadays reputation is a big 
thing that us people think about when we out to society. In the times where 
Shakespeare was still alive most people were starting to care about reputation but 
overall nobody really cared except a few. Now, people can’t do anything without 
thinking about the consequences of their own actions. (Except teenagers) This key 
concept of reputation is still really relevant to this day. 
In the time that Shakespeare was alive, they didn’t have instant communication. 
They had to travel by horse or by foot to send a message and it would take days to 
weeks before they can get a response. They didn’t have cars, trains, or even planes. 
The fact that Shakespeare created these concepts and is still relevant for hundreds of 
years is amazing to think about. Shakespeare is very much relevant and should still be 
taught in schools for people to know that this one man thought of something that 
would be relevant to this day. We should care about this because it shows that we as 
humans are all the same. We all have these problems of thinking and choice making 
after Shakespeare was alive when he died and to this day. He might be dead, but the 
concepts that he created when he was alive is still with us and is still important to learn 
and understand in our day to day life making choices. This has been Bryan Alanis. 
Thanks for reading and don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks.  
 

Sources: 
Mik, Zoe Mik. “What Is the Relevance of Othello in Modern Day Society?” 
Prezi.com​, 18 Aug. 2015, 
prezi.com/lybdko9wmtws/what-is-the-relevance-of-othello-in-modern-day-society/. 
 
Gerald Larry. “Modern Day Connections in Othello.” P
​ rezi.com​, 2 Dec. 2014, 
prezi.com/zqftblxi28cv/modern-day-connections-in-othello/.