Duplicity in Othello

What is duplicity?

Duplicity in itself has a relatively simple definition. It means "double". However when you pertain duplicity to the way people act, the definition becomes a lot more complicated. For example, if someone acts one way but feels another, he can be accused of duplicating his character with lies.

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Theme in Othello

Duplicity can easily be seen in Othello. The act of deception and lies is the theme of Othello. Lago is the main example of this, he consistently chooses routes that follow a shadow rather than direct exposure of the truth. Even from his first appearance in the book (Act 1, scene 1), he makes Roderigo believe he identifies as Brabantio but suddenly disappears before Desdemonas father comes out of his house. He almost instantly acts duplicitous.

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Theme in Othello PT. 2

Iago also acts very trustworthy and loyal towards Othello, but he is the opposite. Iago also brings deception into the book when he makes an ironic comment about integrity. Act 3 Scene 3, "Men should be what they seem, Or those that be not, would they might seem none." Iago is masterful at his manipulation, he gets each character to do as he pleases, including Othello, Roderigo, his wife, Desdemona, Cassio, and the list goes on.

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What the theme teaches us

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Othello teaches us about life in several ways. First of all, secrecy is something you should expect as you meet people. People have a tendency to keep their true feelings away from you through fear of the truth, or wanting to deceieve in order to obtain power. Also, remember that sometimes there are two sides to a story. Putting yourself in different perspectives teaches us to look at something in a variety of ways. This will help you figure out when someone could potentially be lying to you.

Conspiracy theories

Giving a modern perspective to the deception in Othello, you can directly relate the book to conspiracy theories. A conspiracy theory is a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot. Secrecy and deception is extremely prevalent in Othello.

Here is a quick video on conspiracy theories. The video explains why they are so popular and why deception is something that people jump to on a regular basis

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmyPssH549c

Othello's conspiracy

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Since the whole drive of the story is

about Iagos hatred for Othello, then each key point of his hatred is a drive to conspire.

As we go through the slides of what

drives his hatred. We use an object to represent a real world example of this hatred acting into conspiracy theories of today.

People hate people

Big business

Government cover-up

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Relation of Conspiracy Theories to Othello

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Conspiracy theories always have something in common, they are always created on the suspition of a lie said to a mass amount of people. Lago lies to everyone. One example of a popular conspiracy is that the government is lying to us, spying on us and manipulating us into power. Manipulation directly relates to Lago. In a sense Lago, in this case, is the government and all the rest of the characters are the people living by his lies.

the END.

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