Ministry of Higher Education And

Scientific Research
AL-Turath University College
Department of English

The Theme of Evil in William Shakespeare's Othello

Submitted by
Haider Riad

Supervised by
Dr.Ghassan Awad Ibrahim

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 Table of Contents

Acknowledgment-----------------------------------------------3
Dedication ----------------------------------------------4
Abstract ------------------------------------------------------5
Introduction -------------------------------------------------7
Chapter one-------------------------------------------------8-10
Chapter two--------------------------------------------11-15
Conclusion---------------------------------------------16
References--------------------------------------------17

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 Acknowledgment

A great praise to (Allah) for helping us in completing our study through this
work I want to thank everybody who helped me through the process of writing this
paper I really appreciate the efforts of my supervisor Dr.Ghassan Awad Ibrahim ,for
giving me valuable advice to complete this work

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 Dedication

I dedicate this work to those who helped me when I needed help. I dedicate it
for my parents and for all those who wished me best things

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 Abstract

The theme of evil is a global them because it is available

worldwide William Shakespeare takes the theme seriously by writing
this play which deals with evil it cores some people hearts the study is
about the theme of evil in William Shakespeare’s Othello. the study
included an introduction, a number of chapters, and a conclusion. the
study begins with an introduction that presents the full concept of the
topic, while the chapters are discussed in detail the conclusion
summarizes the results of the stud

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 Introduction

Many authors try to convey different lessons that we, as individuals or a society
can learn from their writings. William Shakespeare, in his play Othello, has
definitely accomplished this goal. With the many lessons included in this story,
society can learn from the mistakes of others previously made. It could be said that
the actions of society are learned by the actions of our predecessors. In this incredible
play, the major messages or social lessons include mob mentality, respect, and
wealth and power are the roots of all evil. Shakespeare realized that people behave
differently in mobs. One individual can sway the opinions of everyone present by
convincing just one person in the group. This is called mob mentality. In this
research paper, we will talk in detail about William Shakespeare and the Theme of
evil in the play as well as the play and the Character of Othello

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 Chapter one
1.1 William Shakespeare
Many people believe william shakespeare is the best british writer of all time his
many works are about life, love, death, revenge, grief, jealousy, murder, magic and
mystery he wrote the blockbuster plays of his day - some of his most famous are
macbeth, romeo and juliet, and hamlet it has been almost 400 years s ince he died,
but people still celebrate his work all around the world.In 1564, william shakespeare
was born in stratford-upon-avon, england nobody knows when he was born, but we
do know he was baptized on april 26, that year in 1582 he married anne hathaway
and the couple went on to have three children shakespeare lived in london for 25
years and wrote most of his p lays here he died at his home in stratford-upon-avon
on 23 april 1616, aged 52 Shakespeare wrote 37 plays (though some experts think
it may have been more). He wrote three different types of plays:
Histories - about the lives of kings and famous figures from history
Comedies - which end with a marriage

Tragedies - which end with the death of the main character

Shakespeare also wrote plenty of poetry and in 1609 published a book of 154 sonnets
We know his work was popular at the time because he earned enough money to live
in a smart area of London, where he wrote some of his most famous plays as well as
writing plays, shakespeare performed on stage with a group of actors called the lord
chamberlain's company when james i became king in 1603 the group was renamed
the king's company the group performed in two theatres near the banks of the river
thames in london - the globe and blackfriars shakespeare went own a share of these
theatres.

(Schoenbaum 1987, p. xv)

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1.2 Othello: work by Shakespeare

in full Othello, tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare written in 1603–04

and published in 1622 in a quarto edition from a transcript of an authorial
manuscript. The text published in the First Folio of 1623 seems to have been based
on a version revised by Shakespeare himself that sticks close to the original almost
line by line but introduces numerous substitutions of words and phrases, as though
Shakespeare copied it over himself and rewrote as he copied. The play derives its
plot from
Giambattista Giraldi’s De gli Hecatommithi (1565), which Shakespeare appears to
have known in the Italian original; it was available to him in French but had not been
translated into English.
The play begins when the heroic black general Othello, who serves Venice, appoints
Casio as lieutenant instead of Iago. Jealous of Othello's success and envious of
Casio, Iago plots Othello's downfall by accidentally embroidering Othello's wife
Desdemona and Casio in a romantic relationship. With the unconscious help of
Emilia and his wife, and the ambitious help of another dissatisfied Roderigo Iago
carries out his plan Making use of a handkerchief belonging to Desdemona and
found by Emilia when Othello has unwittingly dropped it, Iago persuades Othello
that Desdemona has given the handkerchief to Cassio as a love token. Iago also
induces Othello to eavesdrop on a conversation between himself and Cassio that is
in fact about Cassio’s mistress, Bianca, but which Othello is led to believe concerns
Cassio’s infatuation with Desdemona. These slender “proofs” confirm what Othello
has been all too inclined to believe—that, as an older black man, he is no longer
attractive to his young white Venetian wife. Overcome with jealousy, Othello kills
Desdemona. When he learns from Emilia, too late, that his wife is blameless, he asks
to be remembered as one who “loved not wisely but too well” and kills himself.

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1.3 Othello

Othello is the main character in William Shakespeare`s tragedy of the same name, a
well-respected Moorish general in the Venetian army. A Moor is a native of North
Africa.
The Venetian authorities trusts Othello as a soldier and places him accountable for
a crucial voyage to Cyprus, wherein the Venetians protect themselves towards the
Turkish army. In spite of Othello's superb reputation, racial variations make it hard
for him to stay in Venetian society and reason issues in his non-public lifestyles. For
example, whilst Othello's white wife, Desdemona, reveals her new husband's
adventurous lifestyles and conflict carrier attractive, her father, Brabantio, thinks of
him as an evil guy who tricked Desdemona into secretly marrying him. Iago,
Othello's antagonist, encourages those perceptions in Act 1, Scene 1, while he tells
Desdemona's distressed father

Even now, now, very now, an old black ram

Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise,
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell
Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you.
Arise, I say! (Othello: Act 1 Scene 1)

Here, Iago describes Othello as an animal and a devil taking advantage of an

innocent woman, as well as a dangerous and polluted individual to be feared by
society. As the target of covert racism, Othello feels insecure about himself, which
eventually leads to his tragic downfall.

( Shakespeare1603, The Moor of Venice, p38 )

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 Chapter two
The Theme of Evil in William Shakespeare's Othello

Othello was written by William Shakespeare to be a dramatic investigation of the

workings of evil on mortal beings. According to George Brandes, Othello is the only
one of Shakespeare's tragedies that does not deal with national events Instead, it is
a "family tragedy" Brandes establishes that Othello was probably first produced in
the autumn of 1605 he claims that Shakespeare discovered the material for Othello
in Cinthio's Italian collection of stories, where he also discovered the story for
Measure for Measure. Brandes also claims that although Shakespeare calls Othello
the Moor of Venice, believing that Shakespeare thought of Othello as black is
unreasonable. Rather, he believes that Iago's mention of Mauritania as the country
to which Othello intends to retire shows that Othello should be represented as an
Arab however, the darkness of his skin would still make it possible for men who
hate and envy him to apply to him the epithets usually reserved for blacks. In
Shakespeare's play, what exactly is "Evil"? Iagos intends to exact "vengeance" on
Cassio, who has been elevated to a higher military rank than his. Is Iago a bad
person? Essentially, Iago is the principal trouble-making, ill-willed character of the
play; he leads a large number of the characters astray, leading them to think
negatively and incorrectly of other characters in 'Othello' who are in fact innocent of
their alleged criminal deeds but does this make him an "wicked" person? let us begin
by specifying the word "evil".
An evil person might be considered as somebody who condones bad or ethically
wrong activities that trigger destroy, injury, misery or damage. From this meaning,
it becomes clear to us that Iago might extremely well be taken on as an evil character
in Shakespeare's play however where does this evil occur? It is critical to recognize
a significant symbolic distinction employed by the author to emphasize the good and

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evil in his play. Before Othello is dispatched to Cyprus on a mission, it appears that
the characters live in more or less peace with one other, i.e.
without any sexual jealousy, which is the basic style of the play.This indicates that
Venice is the excellent situation, where everybody resides in peace, and Cyprus
where the characters are continuously challenging each other led on naturally, by
Iago. Possibly it would be useful to highlight the timeline of Iago's wicked activities
throughout the play, in view of the general plot: At the start, in act I Scene 1 we see
Iago and Roderigo discussing Roderigos "unrequited" love for Brabantio's daughter,
Desdemona. Due to the fact that of this, Iago persuades Roderigo to inform
Brabantio that his child has actually wed the moor of the play Othello.In this manner,
we can observe how Iago utilizes Rodrigo to cause conflict between Brabantio and
Othello, an example that adheres to the previously stated definition of evil. There
are several examples of Iago's humiliating behavior: when he accompanies Othello
and Desdemona to Cyprus in order to secure Cyprus from the Turks sho uld war
break out, Iago swears revenge on Othello for revealing Cassio's promotion to
lieutenant rather than himself Cassio is plied with drink while on duty and is
challenged by Roderigo in his intoxicated state of mind, leading to a fight. Cassio is
thus disgraced and a dismissal from his post is inevitable. Iagos tomfoolery does not
end here; he goes on to persuade Othello that Desdemona is in love with Cassio, thus
having committed adultery on her husband. Iago receives a
handkerchief from Emilia that was dropped by Desdemona for false proof of
Desdemona's invented relationship with Cassio, maintaining it was found in Cassio's
chamber. This move by Iago leads Othello to think Desdemona a whore, escorting
him to jealousy, shattering the love and pride he showed for Desdemona.
Shakespeare uses this to create a foreseeable but delicately ironic situation: Othello
now seeks revenge on Desdemona and Cassio, who in fact are innocent and haven't
performed a single thing to harm the other characters; all arisen complications are
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the result of Iago's treachery and manipulation of the individual characters. Othello
requests Iago to kill Cassio, where Iago persuades Roderigo to assist him. As
Roderigo strikes an unsuccessful attempt on Cassio's life, yet more complications
arise; Iago stabs Roderigo as a consequence of his sloppy, incomplete work, and
while this is going on, Othello smothers Desdemona in bed. When Emilia informs
Othello of the attack on Cassio, she finds her mistress (Desdemona) dead and
screams for help. It is at this point of the play that Iago's plot is revealed by his wife,
who is, perhaps unmercifully and flabbergastingly Her spouse murdered her in
exchange for revealing the truth. Othello kills himself after seeing the error of his
ways in believing Iago's deceptive tales. In exchange, Iago is subjected to torture.
The function assigned to Iago by his creator is obvious from the above. But what is
Iago looking for when he engages in such vile and cruel behavior and tells such
merciless lies? True, he craves vengeance, but was it his initial goal to kill people in
order to get revenge on Othello and Cassio? It's dubious.
At any given point in the play, Iago does what he thinks best to climb out of the
current situation he stands in. Naturally in doing so, he digs his own grave deeper
and deeper, not achieving the desired task, but only causing more confusion from
the point of view of the other characters and thus leading to bleak suffering of all the
persons mentioned in the character list of the play.
From my point of view, Iago lacks any type of solid, convincing ground for his "evil"
activities on the characters; he simply never backs up his actions with proper
reasoning, clearly taking advantage of the vulnerable and uneasy atmosphere
following the threat of invasion Cyprus finds itself in. For example, in the first scene
he makes a claim to being angry at Othello for not having considered him worthy of
promotion to lieutenant (Act I Scene 1, lines 7-32) Additionally, at the end of Act I,
Scene 3, Iago is under suspicion Othello has slept with his wife, Emilia: "It is thought
abroad that 'twixt my sheets, he has done my office". (Act I Scene 3, lines 369 -370)
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This suspicion comes up again at the end of Act II, Scene 1 when we learn that he
lusts after Desdemona purely because of his desire to get even with Othello, "wife
after wife" (Act II Scene 1, line 286). These assertions do not appear to offer any
legitimate justification for his intense loathing of Othello; it is the fact that he is
hesitant to clarify why he exhibits such contempt for his general that chills the spine
and underlines his actions, making him appear even more terrible to the play's
audience. What makes Iago such a tremendously coercive personality, if not the most
evil creature ever created by Shakespeare, is his ability to manipulate while also
knowing the desires and wishes of the other characters in the play, causing them to
display complete confidence and trust in his proposals and ideas. He demonstrated
his skill to remove Emilia's symbolic handkerchief and divert her attention away
from her queries; thereafter Something more about Iago is exposed at this time in
the play; we witness his timidity gradually build up until it becomes evident and out
in the open towards the end of the performance, when he murders his wife out of
spite and fake, unknown hatred. a good example of Iago's abilities can be found in
the second part of the play, when Othello begins to speak and behave in the same
manner as his ensign, not putting up his own thoughts and instead imitating what
everyone else does with little inventiveness.
this forces the audience to accept that the "hero" of the play is in fact not wholly
noble, as he is capable of savagery and crudeness. Othello also develops a trust in
Iago that is superior to that of the faith in his wife; he even thinks poorly of his
trusted friend and colleague, Cassio. This is due mostly to his weak personality, as
becomes evident in Act IV Scene 1, lines 65-73, where Iago tells him he is an
outsider, addressing him as a "foolish cuckold".
The naïvety and stupidity of Othello is revealed, due to the fact he appears to believe
in everything Iago says. This is partly what gives Iago his nickname: "honest Iago";
he can convince other
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characters of his false honesty. Iago also shows bloodcurdling evilness to the other
figures in the play, for instance he sees Cassio as bluff, coarse and genial, who he
gives a lot of practical advice to during the presentation (in his own interest of
course). Desdemona is approached in a similar manner in Act IV, Scene 2.
Interestingly, Iago stresses to the soldiers Montano and Lodovico that he has Iago
has Othello's and the Venetian governments' best interests at heart; it is important to
notice that when Iago deals with individuals that are socially and professionally
superior to himself, there is a certain lack of ego in his way.
Without a question, this is one of his many tactics for twisting people around his
finger. Consider Iago's most heinous act: the death of his wife. What is the reason
for this heinous occurrence?
It would appear that his wife isn't the only woman he shows neglect towards in the
play; I ago has an unexplainable bias towards women. The only plausible option
would be to call Iago's sexuality into doubt. Perhaps he is a homosexual whose sole
motivation for torturing Othello is gay love and passion for the general. This very
extreme view is supported by the fact that Iago appears to take great delight in
depriving Othello of the joys of having a female partner, or, in the case of this play,
being married to one. While researching the play,
I discovered a particularly nasty component of Iago's sp eech: he is frequently
concerned with plants, many of which contain poison. Perhaps Iago uses this
metaphor to refer to his conceits with the various other characters of the play, seeing
his evil as a force of nature that plants
the seeds of the poisonous vegetation in their heads. Monsters are used in a similar
way; when Iago tells Othello to beware of jealousy, he expresses it in a somewhat
mysterious manner: the "green eyed monster which doth mock, the meat it feeds on"
(Act III Scene 3, lines 170-171). This metaphor is also employed after Iago's
depravity is exposed and Othello is aware of his methods; he refers to him as a
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"devil" and a "demon" multiple times. In the narrative, Iago wants to destroy
everything good, so promoting the growth of evil. This emblem might be seen as an
extremist right-wing leader's path to power (examples are Hitler and Gorbatschov)
Shakespeare, of course, was not present to witness him laying ill in his tomb. This
demonstrates that the intellectual, moral, and personal themes raised by Shakespeare
in his plays and sonnets are still, maybe miraculously, relevant today. This
demonstrates that the author of 'Othello' is one of the finest human psychology
analysts in all of literature.
The major reason I believe his writing is so popular is that, despite the fact that
today's English language is at a higher level than the writers', his work still grabs and
stimulates the imaginations of people all over the world being appreciated in
hundreds of different cultures and languages. Othello is an example of one of these
pieces of art; the battle of good and evil is a theme that will always exist in human
society, in all cultures and religions no matter how distant from one another.
Shakespeare is showing us the truly bizarre nature of the human species,
emphasizing our multidimensional nature of behaving towards each other in
everyday life. Perhaps this is the reason why no other 17th century playwrights have
become as widespread as Shakespeare; people simply cannot relate to any other 17th
century artist as well as Shakespeare himself.

(Vanita, 1999,p34)

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 Conclusion

the power of evil is very effectively shown in Othello in many different ways. Iago
is the representative of evil, and manages to almost possess Othello with his evil.
The play shows how someone you would not expect to be evil, may in fact be. There
is very much a moral implication within the play, and evil manages to do great
damage throughout the play to almost everyone who is acquainted with Iago. The
story takes place in only a matter of days really, and this shows how fast evil can
work. Othello truly is a ‘study in the potency of evil’.

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 References

Othello: The Moor of Venice book by William Shakespeare

Othello Victim or Villain. (2019, Dec 11). Retrieved from

https://studydriver.com/othello-victim-or-villain/

Shakespeare, William. "Othello, The Moor of Venice". Literature and Ourselves.

2nd ed. Ed. Gloria Henderson, Bill Day, and Sandra Waller. New York: Longman,

Vanita, Ruth. "’Proper’ men and ‘Fallen’ women: The unprotectedness of wives in
Othello". Studies in English Literature. 34 (1994): 341-58. Online. EBSCO
Publishing. 18 June 1999. Available WWW: http://www.epnet.com.

Zender, Karl F.. "The Humiliation Of Iago". Studies in English Literature. 34 (1994):
323-40. Online. EBSCO Publishing. 18 June 1999. Available WWW:
http://www.epnet.com.

Schoenbaum, S. (1987). William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life

(Revised ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Black, Crofton (2002). "Leo Africanus's Descrittione dell'Africa and its sixteenth-
century translations". Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 65: 262–272.
JSTOR 4135111.

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