Self-Deception In Shakespeare's Othello

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Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian polymath, once said:'' The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinion.'' In Shakespeare's tragedy of Othello, deception as a recurring theme surround with two major characters, the Moor general, Othello, and the heinous villain, Iago, throughout the play and leads to the eventual downfall of them. Iago demonstrates the theme of deception with his immoral schemes, while Othello is the victim of self-deception.
In the play Othello, Iago may be literature's most impressive master of deception. Iago is motivated mostly by his pure evil nature to commit malicious deeds. He plots carefully manipulating Othello into believing that Desdemona has been unfaithful. The opening scene of the play immediately …show more content…
On the battle field Othello is skilled and gallant, however, when he faces with the prospect of managing love and marriage, Othello's insecurities weakens his confidence. Once Iago finds out Othello's gullible nature, he starts to drives him to fury and jealousy by saying that Desdemona has an affair with Cassio. The dramatic irony below emphasizes Othello's credulousness that makes him feel that Desdemona's love for him is too good to be true and she is probably unfaithful to him: ''If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself.'' (Shakespeare 3.1. 280). After overhears the conversation between Iago and Cassio, Othello is enrage by the fact that Cassio is in possession in Desdemona's handkerchief as the evidence of Cassio and Desdemona's affair. He loses his conscience completely and eventually strangle Desdemona in her bed. Othello is destroyed by self-deception and the influence that Iago has imposed on him; he firmly believes that Desdemona is unchaste at this point: ''She’s like a liar gone to burning hell./ 'Twas I that killed her.'' (Shakespeare 5.2. 159-160). At the end of the play, after Othello finds out that Iago has tricked and manipulated him the whole time, he delivers a speech, wherein he urges to be remembered as someone foolish and ignorant who has discarded life’s greatest treasure but for all that someone deserving of some pity and praise, before stabbing himself to death. Othello wants to be remembered as a victim of self-deception, not a simply malignant person. In Othello last soliloquy, he speaks the truth somewhat for there is no doubt that he was manipulated; however, he still must bear the consequences for his actions.: ''Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate,/ Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak/ Of one that loved not wisely, but too well.''
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