Othello Reading #3

               In Act II Scene III the idea of one’s identity arises in the characters. Cassio loses his position as second in command, and he immediately he expresses concern over his status in society: “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” (II, iii, 281-284). After he loses his job, Cassio feels he has nothing else in his life and that everything that was great about him is gone. Cassio now only sees himself as something fowl. His position in the army was what defined him as a person. Iago uses the idea of identity in his plan to ruin Othello’s life is to destroy Desdemona’s reputation: “She shall undo her credit with the Moor. So will I turn her virtue into pitch, And out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all” (II, iii, 279-282). Iago plans to ruin Desdemona’s identity by making Othello doubt her loyalty to him. If Desdemona is known for cheating on her husband, then her status will be completely ruined, because being a loyal wife is all that she has left in her life, because Desdemona can no longer be the doting daughter that she once was. Iago is beginning to reveal his plan, and he illustrates his plan to use Desdemona against Othello, because Othello appears to be highly perceptible to jealously when the matter concerns Desdemona.