Othello

Recently I was thinking about Othello and all the lies, betrayal and death that came up in the story. I wondered if people can be so easily swayed. Othello doesn’t even try to ask Cassio about anything, and automatically believes what Iago tells him. Furthermore, his self esteem must be so low that he doesn’t even believe his wife that she isn’t betraying him. Why would he think like that? Do we automatically assume the worst in people and believe the worst in us so as to justify and then believe such lies that are spread? I think we like to think that we, as spirit daughters and sons, we look for the good in people first, and we give people the benefit of the doubt. But as earthly humans, we tend to second guess ourselves and believe the wrong. I wonder if Othello had as much regard for humans and God, as Desdemona did, that he would not have believe Iago so easily and that he would have investigated himself in the proper fashion. Is Shakespeare secretly trying to say that as humans who don’t believe in god or truly try to live by His teachings that we are easily subjected to such horrific and self damaging thoughts? I think Shakespeare can definitely be studied through religious eyes and although a lot of his tragedies have some good themes (religions, God, love, loyalty, etc…) but they are overshadowed by the more harsh ones (betrayal, lust, revenge, jealousy, etc…). Maybe the real tragedy of it, is not that people are wrongfully and unjustly killed, but that those who are too close minded miss the underlining meanings and morals of it all.