"Othello- is the most romantic figure among Shakespeare's heroes due to the strange life of war and adventure he has lived from childhood (Rosenburg, 189). "Othello- is a story of jealousy's potential to manipulate thoughts and eventually lead to ultimate demise. The key to extremely detrimental jealousy lies within one's ability to recognize it or deny it. It seems that the important theme of "Othello- is that if jealousy is not recognized and immediately dealt with, it receives a head start to commence the process of rotting away all normal human reason. The only way to appropriately illustrate this point is through an analysis of two characters: Othello and Iago.
is the green-ey'd monster, which doth.
mock.
That meat it feeds on.
[III.iii. 166-167].
Othello's speech in Act III beginning with line 178 is the first and most important indicator of the trouble ominously looming on Othello's horizon(McGill). Beginning with out right denial, Othello's speech ends up working its way through all possible outcomes until he is left with only confusion and doubt regarding Desdimona's fidelity. He goes from saying "Not from my weak merits will I draw the smallest fear or doubt of her revolt- to saying "Away at once with love or jealousy-. He goes from one end to the other and back again. One must ask themselves how Othello could possibly go between such extreme views. He does this as an overview of the entire act. He doubts himself in the beginning, Desdimona in the middle, and both himself and Desdimona in the end (http://web.signet.com.sg/~yisheng/notes/shakespeare/othello_b.htm). By depriving himself of that initial venting process, Othello gives his jealousy the perfect culture on which his jealousy can turn cancerous and grow out of control. Othello does not spit out the seed that Iago has planted within himself soon enough, and he lets Iago water it with smooth speech until its roots spread and cannot be uprooted (Bayley, 47).
