“Shakespeare’s Othello highlights the weakness of human judgement.” Discuss.
Shakespeare’s Othello is one of the most intriguing plays in English literature, highlighting how easily humans can be manipulated by those with ulterior motives. The weakness of human judgement is exposed through the characters of Roderigo, Othello and Cassio, as their gullibility and poor judgement inadvertently cause the deaths of many people within the world of Othello.
Roderigo is the first character who we see who displays poor judgement. He is paying Iago to secure Desdemona’s hand in marriage. When he finds out that Desdemona has secretly married Othello, he is furious with Iago, but Iago manages to convince him that he can use this to his advantage. Iago urges Roderigo to alert Brabantio to his daughter’s secret elopement. Roderigo is seen by Brabantio but Iago hides in the darkness shouting obscenities like, ‘a black ram is tupping your white ewe.’ Iago is not willing to be implicated in this but uses Roderigo to do his dirty work.
When Roderigo leaves at the end of the scene, Iago reveals his true feelings towards Roderigo when he says, “thus do I ever make my fool my purse.” He uses Roderigo’s obsession with Desdemona to make him part with his money. This is a serious misjudgement by Roderigo, who wastes his entire fortune on paying Iago to help him ‘win’ Desdemona, when it is clear to the audience that Desdemona has no interest in anyone but Othello. Roderigo highlights the poor judgement shown by humans where love is concerned. Iago uses this weakness against Roderigo for his own benefit, highlighting how vulnerable people can be when love clouds their judgement.
Michael Cassio is a Florentine, who at the beginning of the play has been promoted to lieutenant by Othello. He is well respected and is seen as an intelligent and courteous officer. However, Iago, who is outraged at Cassio’s promotion, knows he can use Cassio’s weaknesses against him in order to bring his evil plans to fruition. As part of his grand scheme, Iago needs to goad Cassio into a fight. He is able to do so by getting him drunk and having Roderigo confront him. Cassio tells Iago that he has ‘very poor and unhappy brains for drinking.’ Despite knowing that he should not drink, Cassio relents and takes one cup of wine. However, this one cup of wine results in him continuing to drink and falling for Iago’s ruse and he ends up in a public brawl, which ends with Othello sacking him. Cassio’s actions here highlight the poor judgement shown by humans, especially around alcohol. This weakness in human judgement is all too familiar with Shakespearean and modern audiences alike, illustrating the unique insight that Shakespeare had into the human psyche.
While Cassio and Roderigo both showed impaired judgement, it is our titular character, Othello, that truly is the best example of how poor humans can be when it comes to judging others. From the beginning of the play, we see just how easy it is for Iago to manipulate and control Othello, using his honesty and good nature against him. In the opening scene, Iago tells Roderigo, ‘I am not what I am,’ and ‘I follow him to serve my turn upon him.’ These lines highlight the machiavellian nature of Iago’s character, yet Othello foolishly refers to Iago as ‘honest Iago,’ throughout the play. In another soliloquy, Iago says, ‘the moor is of a free and open nature/ that thinks men honest.’ Here Shakespeare illustrates how it is easier to manipulate and lie to honest people as they assume that others are honest.
Iago is not only intent on bringing down Cassio, but he also wants to hurt Othello as he believes that he had an affair with his wife. ‘I hate the Moor, and it is thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets has done my office.’ Iago’s cunning plan involves driving Othello mad with jealousy by planting the seeds of doubt about Desdemona’s fidelity and using Cassio as the bait to catch both of them. He plans to ‘abuse Othello’s ear that he is too familiar with his wife.’ When we first hear of the plan, we, as an audience, assume that this could not work unless there was some type of deceit at play between Cassio and Desdemona, but Iago proves that the weakness of human judgement defies logical thinking.
In the temptation scene, Iago tells Cassio to ask Desdemona to urge Othello to reinstate him as his lieutenant. At the same time, he begins to sow the seeds of jealousy in Othello’s mind by subtly mentioning that he didn’t like how Cassio took off when he saw Othello coming towards them. This is brought up by Othello later in the scene when he asks what he meant and Iago is able to lure Othello into his plan by refusing to explain what he means. Othello pushes him to explain and he ironically warns Othello, saying ‘O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.’ Othello is oblivious to the notion that he is being manipulated and is blind to the fact that the person closest to him and the person that he trusts the most is the person that is plotting his downfall. This can still be seen in human behaviour today. People trust those around them and fear strangers, yet we are more vulnerable to those that we trust than those we do not know.
Othello begins to doubt Desdemona but he tells Iago that he will need proof if he is to believe that she is unfaithful. Iago tells Othello to ‘observe her well with Cassio.’ He also tells him that he knows the women of Venice better than him and that they are good at hiding things from their husbands. He also recalls the words of Brabantio in the first act when he said, ‘she has deceived her father and may thee.’ This puts doubt in Othello’s mind and when Iago mentions his skin colour, his age and his outsider status in Venetian society, Othello falls into Iago’s trap and says to himself when Iago leaves, ‘why did I marry?’ He also says, ‘I am abused and my relief must be to loathe her.’ He says that he must hate it from now on, despite the fact that she has done nothing wrong. It is interesting to note that Othello has fallen for Iago’s scheming plan without any hint of proof, highlighting his poor judgement and how easily jealousy can infiltrate the mind of a human. We should also note here how Othello was a military man and assumed instant subordination from his soldiers. It does not cross his mind that someone could be dishonest to a General like him. We should also consider why he did not make Iago his lieutenant. Was there something that Othello did not like about Iago? Were his initial instincts about him correct? It is not clear why he chose Cassio but it’s interesting how he then takes Iago’s word above all others, which again shows the lack of consistency in our judgements as humans.
The scene continues to see the plan unfold in Iago’s favour as Emilia gives Iago the handkerchief that Othello gave to Desdemona. He now has the ‘ocular proof,’ that Othello needs to be convinced of her infidelity. He also plants another seed in Othello’s mind by telling him that he has heard Cassio speaking in his dreams about his love for Desdemona. Othello responds by saying, ‘I’ll tear her all to pieces.’ It is at this moment that Iago brings up the handkerchief and tells him that he saw Cassio wipe his beard with it and this is the moment that Othello plans to kill Desdemona and Cassio.
The fact that Othello kills Desdemona is not a shock to the audience when it happens because we can clearly see how Iago has driven Othello to the point of insanity. As an audience member, it highlights the stupidity and naivety of human judgement when someone is driven to act so rashly with no proof. We do have sympathy for Othello but we cannot overlook his gullibility and naivety but it also acts as a warning to the audience not to be fooled by those with hidden agendas. Othello tells the audience that he ‘loved not wisely but too well,’ as he makes his final decision to take his own life. Othello acts as Shakeseare’s personification of poor judgement and is a lesson for all humans on how easily we can be manipulated.
In conclusion, the three characters I have chosen definitely highlight the weakness in human judgement through their poor decision making throughout the play. All three men make serious misjudgements that lead to their deaths and the deaths of other innocent characters.