Othello is the Principal Agent of his own downfall.

The last few weeks of Othello’s life are exceedingly unfortunate. His closeness to the
Machiavellian Iago played no small part in his end, yet it is imperative to recognise that the
calamitous downfall of the Moor can be largely attributed to his own failings. Although Iago
made use of masterful persuasion to manipulate and choreograph various individuals to paint
a picture of deceit and betrayal, many decisions that Othello made in reaction to what he was
being shown, were done so entirely of his own volition, such as declaring, without
provocation, that he would “tear (Desdemona) all to pieces!”. His general unfamiliarity with
the nuances of Venetian conversation and attitude, demonstrated by him announcing that he
was “little blessed with the soft phrase of peace”, left him vulnerable to Iago’s machinations.
His position as the tragic hero of this play was made clear early on and his personal
weaknesses and insecurities made him the perfect candidate for exploitation as he
impetuously acted upon largely unsubstantiated conjecture by accepting it at face value,
rather than taking the time he needed to process and analyse the emotions and turmoil he was
facing, such as when hearing half a conversation between Iago and Cassio, he almost
immediately asked “how should I kill him?”. In this case, it is difficult to deny that Othello
played a lead role is his own undoing.

Othello is respected by many to be a good and noble man, qualities not typically associated
with Moors in the Elizabethan era. Wherever he goes, he is greeted with the title of “Noble
Moor” and he prides himself on his honesty and courtesy. He won the favour of many with
these qualities. His respectful yet exciting past life is what attracted Desdemona to him, a
woman who was without a husband for so long. He told the Duke that “She loved me for the
dangers I had passed.” and she testified that she would travel with him wherever he went.
Although the more conservative elements of Venetian society ridiculed Othello for his
ethnicity, such as Brabantio accusing Othello of wooing her “with some dram conjured”. The
racism he faced was a sense of insecurity for Othello yet in some respects. He expected it.
He understood that not all those in Venice would respect him the same as his European
counterparts, but he accepted that they were honest in their scorn. As a proudly authentic
individual, Othello assumed that all those around him were equally as genuine. He regarded
all those close to him as “honest” and placed a great deal of trust in his confidant, the “Honest
Iago”. This, of course was one of his major downfalls. His innocence regarding Iago’s self
interest paved the way for his breakdown and Iago made sure to take advantage of this. He
used his position as Othello’s most trusted advisor to steer him in a certain direction and let
Othello run the course to its conclusion. He wore a face of complete devotion in Othello’s
presence, proclaiming to Othello “I am your own forever”, yet in his soliloquies he would
reveal his darkest intentions “Hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s
light.”

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Once Iago began to set his plan in motion, he quickly came across another fatal weakness of
Othello. Befitting the great deal of time the Moor spent on the battlefield, he tended to make
rash, reactionary decisions without taking time to process information. Iago could use this to
his advantage. When under stress, Othello’s judgement was clouded, and he made emotional,
uneducated decisions without consulting the facts. Starting with the castle brawl and the
hasty dismissal of Cassio, where he is told by Othello that he will “never more be an officer
of mine”, Iago begins to erode the trust Othello has in the members of his inner circle. His
tainted opinion of Cassio leaves Iago with an opportunity. He takes advantage of the Moor’s
consistently rash decision making to spin a tapestry of lies regarding Desdemona’s infidelity.
Othello’s blind trust in Iago, now the only member of the cast he is truly close with, leads to a
complete undermining of the trust he swore to his wife in their vows. The temptation scene
shows us how reactionary Othello really can be. From the first time Iago brings up the
possibility of an affair, Othello is completely despondent. All that Iago speaks Othello
assumes to be fact and when Bianca produces Othello’s mother’s handkerchief, a piece of
manufactured coincidence wrapped in deceitful comments from Iago is enough “optical
proof” for the Moor. From then on, his downward spiral hastens. Any gaps in the narrative
are quickly filled by more of Iago’s lies and Othello believes him without a second thought
due to his increasingly unstable emotional condition. Othello’s further thirst for a complete
tale leads to the ever present “green-eyed monster” completely taking over. By the end,
Desdemona is nothing more than an “impudent strumpet” to Othello. His wife is dead to him
long before he takes her life.

A defining trait of Othello’s character is the extremes to which his emotions run. At very few
points in the play is Othello depicted as a rational thinker. His choices and motivations are
always propelled by an underlying emotion. His unyielding love for Desdemona is what
empowers him in the early stages of the play yet by the end, his disgust for her actions proves
to be his motivator. His passions are intrinsically linked to his collapse and the source of
many of his wild reactions, many of them even more powerful than even Iago could have
imagined. He described Desdemona as “the fountain from which my current runs or all else
dries up”. In a key moment of foreshadowing, Othello admits “and when I love (Desdemona)
not, chaos will come again”. His self-awareness of his own passionate motivations does not
save him from his undoing, however. His inability to break a situation down and persistent
irrational behaviour are two of the main causes for him stooping so low. Iago had no part to
play in such actions. Othello took too much at face value and let his unyielding passion for
his wife take over. He acted with his heart, not his head and in the end, it culminated in the
murder of his closest love and his most hated enemy. In the brief moment of clarity, the
preceded his demise, he realises his own failings, saying “speak of me as I am; nothing
extenuate”. By his own admission, it was his emotions, not Iago’s tales, that drove him to the
end.

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Othello’s status as a Moor was always one of his deepest insecurities. He never fully
integrated into the Venetian society. The mannerisms and customs of Renaissance Europe
were very different of those in Tripolitania, Egypt, and the other Moorish Kingdoms. Othello
did have a civility that was not usually connected with the African Moors, however the
relatively liberal attitudes of many Venetians at the time proved to be a lot for the Moor to
take in. At the time the play was set, Italy was recognised to have a large number of
courtesans and a hotbed of unfaithfulness. This is displayed by Emilia in the play, who
describes adultery as “a small vice”. Iago makes clear to Othello that considering
Desdemona’s position as a well-bred Venetian noblewoman, it would not be unfathomable
that his wife would not cling so closely to the wedding vows she swore to on the altar. He
tells Othello that “In Venice they do not let God see the pranks”. He implies that Desdemona
is sexually corrupt and implies that Othello should have been aware of this before entering
into a marriage with an Italian woman. Othello is completely distraught by the news. He is
unable to disprove what Iago is saying because he is not familiar with the tendencies of the
Venetian people. He becomes incredibly insecure about his colour, saying that he is “black”
and “has not those soft parts of conversation” “That chamberers have”. These words make is
evident to all that he is beginning to think lower of himself due to him being an outsider and
we see him beginning to believe the words of Iago, assuming that Desdemona would rather
be with a courtly Italian gentleman, even though at the beginning of the play, we see both
Desdemona and her father say that she has refused to engage with that “pedigree” of man
thus far.

Although Othello’s insecurities are a large part of his character, at many points in the play he
acts in an incredibly self-absorbed manner. He is a very proud man and sometimes even
presents Desdemona as a trophy. He, a Moor, has conquered a soft-spoken Italian woman.
For every discourtesy he perceives Desdemona to have committed against him, he desired to
make her pay for it. Jealousy is a naturally self-centred emotion. He is jealous of the Italian
men and their command of the “soft tongue”, he is jealous of Cassio, who he thinks “lay
with” his bride and he is jealous of Desdemona herself, who could step out and find love with
another without guilt. His destructive actions against Desdemona seem to stem for a personal
sense that her actions have damaged him. In a strict patriarchal society, her actions could cast
shame on Othello’s head, and he desires to punish her for damaging his reputation. He
exclaims that “Othello’s occupation is gone!” when he first learns of the affair, even though
he swore to the Duke that he would not let his marriage interfere with the “serious and great
business” of managing the war effort. His feeling that it is a necessity to put up a perfect
front to keep his position in command seems to be embedded in his opinion that he may be
viewed as lesser. To counteract the ridicule he may receive, he prides himself on the factors
that he can control about his outward appearance. When it seems that Desdemona may
disrupt his front, Othello is driven to do something about it, he wishes to make her pay.

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The marriage of Othello and Desdemona is depicted to be quite a hasty affair. The brief
courtship they share transitions to eloping before many people can recognise what is going
on. Even Brabantio, Desdemona’s own father, seems overwhelmed when he hears the news,
making it clear that no time was wasted by the lovers. Brabantio goes so far as to claim that
Othello could not have worked his way so close to Desdemona so fast and he indicates that
the Moor must have used some form of “Forbidden Arts” to woo her. He warns Othello that
“she has deceived her father; and may thee”, to which Othello replies “My life upon her
faith!”, an oath that would be realised soon than anyone could have thought. When Othello
declares that “she loved for the dangers I had passed, and I loved her that she did pity them”,
it seems to be the only reason, aside from physical attraction, that they wed. We are
repeatedly shown that the two did not spend much time sharing stories before voyaging to
Cyprus as Othello only then has time to explain the backstory about the handkerchief, a story
that he regards as so important to him. These factors combined give the sense that Othello
and Desdemona actually know very little about each other, allowing Othello to believe the
stories Iago put forward much easier. They play takes place over a fairly short time frame.
For Othello to go so fast from calling Desdemona his “fair warrior” to a “whore”, who’s
place is at the “gates of hell” indicates that he must not have had a great deal of faith in her in
the beginning. The length of time the two spent together caught up in a brief romance was
not enough time to build a stable trusting relationship, a fact that could be exploited easily to
taint Othello’s rosy picture of his wife.

The tragic hero is an honest, truthful character who walks the unfortunate path of making a
series of fatal errors that result in tragedy. This description could not better fit Othello.
Although his downfall could not have occurred so rapidly and violently without the guiding
hand of Iago, Othello’s wedding to Desdemona was destined to end in disaster. His own
insecurities provided a means by which Iago could gain his ear, yet it did not take much
persuasion for the Moor to create his own calamity. His innocent belief that everyone was
“honest”, and his reckless emotional decisions were key forces that worked in Othello’s head.
He took everything to heart and acted without reason. His impulsive attitude set him on a
collision course with disaster. His love for Desdemona bordered on obsession even though
he never really knew her. Her kind attitude was mistaken for adultery and Othello’s desire to
keep a perfect front around himself to distract from his background could not tolerate a
“strumpet” as a wife. Iago may have struck the match, but the Moor’s combination of
fundamental flaws proved to be fuel for the fire that consumed him. By the end, even he
realised it. The principal agent of his own downfall was not “honest” Iago, not “gentle”
Desdemona, but himself, the “valiant” Othello.