Othello’s tragic flaw is that he is to trusting of the people around him, Iago to be exact. In act four, part two of the play Othello receives great news that he and his wife can go back to Venice and that Cassio is going to stay and run Cyprus. Othello has been convinced that this was all set up and that Cassio is taking his spot. His reasoning for this is shown in act three and the beginning of act four when Iago keeps whispering lies into Othello’s ears. Iago is trying to bring down Othello because he is jealous that Othello did not promote him to lieutenant over Cassio. Othello is very trusting of Iago because he has been his right hand man for so long. So when Iago keeps saying these lies to Othello, after a while he believes them. In act four, Iago plants Desdemona’s handkerchief that was a gift to he from Othello when they first started dating. Othello sees Bianca, Cassio’s prostitute with it, because Cassio found it and gave it to her as a gift. Othello them assumes that Desdemona gave it to him and he is giving it to her. This idea was first placed into Othello’s mind when Iago told Othello about Cassio’s and Desdemona’s “affair”. At the end of this passage, Othello says “goats and monkeys!” which was stated by Iago earlier in the play. This could also stand for a metaphor to the fact the Othellos, the monkey, is surrounded and being controlled by all these people, the goats. This can be drawn because Othello is a moor and monkeys’ hair is brown of black and then the people of Venice are the goats, which are most of the time white furred animals. At a time, Othello stays to Desdemona “Mistress!” which can be a derogatory word. A mistress is the other woman in the marriage, the one that the man is having an affair with. This ties in because Othello believes that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio and she has now become a mistress. All of these ideas were planted into Othello’s mind by Iago, who Othello trusts very dearly.
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