Character Assassination in Othello

In Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, one of the main themes is character assassination. Through out the play, we see many things leading up the character assassination of the main character, Othello. Even though Othello was Iago's main target, other people along the way get caught up in his actions and their good reputations are deceased as well.

What is Character Assassination?
Chances are if you ask someone what they think character assassination means, they would respond by saying it's a murder, specially to do with politics. On the contrary, the actual meaning of character assassination is when one person aims to ruin another's reputation. This process could include false rumors, manipulation, reversing the meaning of words etc. There is other words that can be used instead of character assassination which would be defamation, personal attacks, derogation or in simple words, bullying.

This picture above demonstrates what character assassination is. It looks like the person is stabbing them but the weapon of choice is words. 

The story of Othello is about a general in the army of Venice named Othello. He is very respected by others and is considered an all rounded person. The story begins when Iago, the villain, gets upset that Othello gave Cassio the job of the left lieutenant. And the process of ruining Othello's reputation begins right here as the first thing Iago decides to do is involve Desdemona, Othello's future wife, into it. He tells Desdemona's father that he saw Othello and Desdemona together in the park, which leads into Desdemona's father reacting and thinking negatively about Othello. After this, Iago makes various plans to go after Othello using the people around him including Desdemona, and Cassio. Along the way, Iago does a skilled job of ruining other character's reputation along the way. 

Character Assassination of Othello

Plenty of the personal attacks are directed towards Othello and all of them are committed by Iago. Iago uses manipulation to play with Othello's emotions and his thoughts. The audience sees Othello going down this path of destruction which eventually ends in him committing suicide. One of Iago's main plan to demolish Othello was convincing him about Desdemona's infidelity. "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on"(Shakespeare, A3, S3, 15). This legendary quote from Iago is an ideal example of the use of manipulation in Iago's plans. Here, we see Iago pretending to warn Othello about jealousy and the affect it can have on humanity. This quote foreshadows exactly what will happen to Othello and how jealousy will come to destroy him. Iago uses this method to make himself seem like a "good person" in Othello's eyes so he starts trusting him, and partly trying to convince himself that his plan will work. 

This leads Othello into making rough decisions. He starts treating Desdemona with a harsh attitude. He loses his trust and faith in her, completely contrary how he felt towards her in the beginning of the play.  

Character Assassination of Cassio

Since Cassio was granted the position to be Othello's left lieutenant, it was inevitable that sooner or later, Iago would attack him as well. Cassio's sincere and genuine nature is what lead to Othello honoring him with such a high position at a young and inexperienced age. Knowing this, Iago uses this to somewhat "erase" Cassio from the picture. The first thing he goes after is Cassio's innonence by peer pressuring him into drinking even though Cassio's light headed. Cassio gets into a fight because of his drunken state, which causes Othello to become obligated to fire him. 

"Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!" (Shakespeare, A2, S3, 24) 

At this point, Cassio begins to believe that he's nothing without his job and the reputation he earned because of it. It's ironic how Cassio complains to Iago about losing his reputation when Iago initially put him into this hindrance.

Character Assassination of Desdemona

Desdemona's reputation seemed to go down the drain right from the beginning of the story when her father states "Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see: She has deceived her father, and may thee." (Shakespeare, A1, S3, 10) This quote is Desdemona's own father saying that if Desdemona lies to him, she will probably lie to Othello. After this, Iago continuously tries to convince Othello believe that Desdemona is having an affair. Through this, Desdemona starts to lose her innocent reputation which eventually drives Othello into murdering her.



Connections to Character Assassination

Text to world

There are many text to world connections that could be made when it comes to character assassination. The major one would be the portrayal of celebrities in the media. Anyone who is famous is bound to get something negative written about them in the magazines or newspaper. The media seems to aim to completely demolish a person's character through the use of rumors and double speaking. Because the media is so massive and everyone falls under it's trap, the person loses a lot of respect from the audience. 

Another example of character assassination connection to the real word is politics. Politics could be a major form of character assassination considering one thing every person aims to do is bring the downfall of every other. Their purpose is to make themselves seem as a better candidate and a way of doing this could include making the others seem bad. 

Text to Self

Personally, I wouldn't say that I've ever had to fight any deeply intense form of character assassination. However, being a teenager, we all deal with some form of assault directed at our personalities, appearance and character. It can be from the media, our friends, our families or even strangers. There are thousands of teenagers who deal with bullying every single day of their life. Since there is all sorts of new social media, this means there is various opportunities handed to people to bring someone down. Facebook, twitter, instragram, vine etc. The list is endless but through these social networking sites, people end up dealing with rude and unnecessary comments thrown at them and since these are open to public, everyone can see them. Therefore, destroying the reputation of the person. This relates to me because I'm a teenager, and I'm on every single one of those networking sites. I've personally seen it happened more than I could want to. In conclusion, our experience with social networking sites teaches us to be careful of our actions and words. At various points of our life, we will be forced to deal with minor forms of character assassination.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
Warren Buffett