Jealousy in Othello

After reading Act III of William Shakespeare’s Othello, another major theme within the play became apparent. The majority of the problems and actions that take place within the story have the root cause of jealousy. Overall, the reason Iago is lying to everyone about everyone is because he is jealous of Cassio and Othello as well. In his mind, Cassio took his rightful position and Othello took his wife. Because of the jealousy he feels towards those two men, Iago makes it his goal to disgrace and ruin them. However, in Act III of the play, Othello states to Iago, “Within these three days let me hear thee say that Cassio’s not alive,” (Shakespeare 1419). Because Othello believes Cassio is sleeping with his wife, he gets jealous and in turn plots to kill Cassio. Othello’s anger and actions are ironic though because first of all, the reader still does not know whether he slept with Iago’s wife or not, which would make him a hypocrite, and second of all, because there is really nothing going on between Cassio and Othello’s wife Desdemona. Iago’s response to his jealous actually inspires jealousy in the others he interacted with, creating unnecessary drama and conflict. Because of the theme of jealousy within this story, Iago is able to successfully get his wish of slowly destroying Cassio and Othello.