Analysis Of Othello By William Shakespeare - 816 Words

Tristan Le Mrs. Bell Eng. 1 Pre-I.B. 05 April 2015 Self-Confidence In the book, Othello, by William Shakespeare, the author expresses that without self-confidence a person cannot truly grow emotionally. He shows this theme throughout the book by giving Othello, the main character, the trait of low self-confidence. After the main antagonist Iago pushes Othello to his limits this trait turns out to be fatal and leads to the downfall and death of Othello. A small contribution to his low self-confidence is race, because he is black he doesn’t fit into his society. As a high ranking general in the Venetian army, he is very well respected for his military prowess, Towards the beginning of the book, Othello is called racial slurs by Iago such†¦show more content†¦The most prominent cause of Othello’s low self-confidence is displayed in his uncertainty in his love for Desdemona. At the beginning of the book, Othello was quite self-confident about himself saying that, â€Å"I won his daughter† (1.3.111). He is obviously so conf ident that he is able to say it outright in front of Brabantio; he even goes as far as saying, â€Å"Send for the lady to the Sagittary and let her speak of me before her father† (1.3.135-36), as if he knows for certain that she will confess to him as well. He also exclaims later in the book that, â€Å"I had been happy if the general camp, pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body† (3.3.397-98), referring to the fact that his self-confidence was so high that it wouldn’t matter to him if everybody in the camp had sex with her; he would still know that she loves him. As the story moves on it comes to show that Othello gradually loses self-confidence. In Act 3 Scene 3, Iago first plants his seeds of doubt into Othello through lies that he tells him. He tries to paint the picture that Desdemona and Cassio are having affairs even though he has no proof to show for it. After Othello shows that he doesn’t buy into this, Iago adds in that, â€Å"She did decei ve her father, marrying you† (3.3.238), trying to hint that if she could trick her own father that she could fool him also. This leads to Othello stating, â€Å"Set on thy wife to observe† (3.3.281), meaning that he wants